Right after the one-year anniversary of my dad and my nephew’s passing in late June, we lost my father-in-law. The memories and flashes of going back to the same funeral home... again... were heavy. Our last few summers for my family have been heavy.

I’ve stared at a blank Substack article more times than I want to admit, cursor blinking at me, until I finally just closed my laptop, not knowing what to write. But I’m making myself show up today, because I know I’ll feel better once I do.

So here’s the value I can add right now… let’s talk about creating systems in your life, and why I think they matter more than almost anything else you can build as a creative.

Systems give us anchors when life feels like we’ve been tossed straight into the middle of The Odyssey — waves everywhere, no idea which way is up, Matt Damon somehow next to you in the chaos. They keep us focused on what actually matters. And they create a sense of calm. At least, they do for me.

I don’t think we need to over-systematize every single part of our lives. That’s its own trap. But having a general sense of what needs to be done — a rhythm you can lean on when you don’t have the energy to decide anything else — is genuinely one of the most helpful things you can build for yourself.

Think back to when you were younger. You showed up for school. Your teacher told you what you’d be studying that day, and you did it. You didn’t have to invent the plan every morning — the structure was already there, holding you up.

Essentially, when you build a system, you’re schooling yourself. Show up. Do the thing in front of you. Get one step closer to what you’re building. That’s it. That’s the whole engine.

Some weeks, the system is what carries you when nothing else can.

I’ll return in a bit.

Wishing you all a great rest of your summer.

Melissa

Subscribe now

But happy and productive aren’t always the same thing. Happiness is me at the lake with a stack of books, snacks, and no where to be for the day.

But, I believe we can also be happy and be productive when we set ourselves up for a focused day of work. I know a lot of you are also wondering… I have so much to do! How do I actually get my work done? How do I stop staring at my to-do list feeling like it’s staring back at me?

You don’t need a $200 productivity system or a color-coded planner with seventeen tabs (even though some of them do look really cool). Some of the most effective things you can do to set yourself up for a genuinely successful day are free, take just a few minutes, and don’t require a single app.

Here are the three things I actually do to set my days up for success.

1. Brain dump the night before

Before bed, I grab a legal pad and just… empty my head onto the page. Everything. The work thing I’m worried about, the email I forgot to send, the fact that we’re out of veggies. It doesn’t need to be organized. It just needs to be out.

Here’s why this works… your brain doesn’t actually distinguish between “important open loop” and “reminder to buy milk.” It holds onto both with the same low-grade urgency, which is part of why so many of us lie awake running through lists at 11pm. Once something is written down somewhere you trust you’ll see again, your brain gets permission to let it go. That’s the trick. Dump it.

I don’t do this to plan my next day. I do it so I can actually fall asleep instead of mentally cycling through my to-do list all night

2. Write a physical to-do list in the morning… in order of importance

You need to do this, not the night before., but the morning of, with actual pen and actual paper.

The order matters more than the list itself. I write my tasks ranked by importance, not by what’s easiest or what’s already at the top of my inbox. The hard, important thing goes first, even when everything in me wants to knock out the easy stuff first for that quick hit of “look, I did something.”

Note - You also might need to prioritize by time sensitivity as well.

There’s something about physically crossing an item off a paper list that a digital checkbox just doesn’t replicate. It’s a small signal to your brain… that’s done, move on.

3. Find a distraction-free place to do your deep work

This one isn’t about where.. it’s about being distracction free. Some days that’s my kitchen table. Some days it’s my home office with the door shut. Some days I need to leave the house entirely and hide in a coffee shop or the library. Honestly, wherever the mood and the quiet take me that day.

What matters is that it’s a space where I’m not going to get pulled into laundry, dishes, or “just checking” my phone for two minutes that turns into twenty, or joining the family for fun. Deep work needs dedicated time. Give it what it deserves, wherever that ends up being for you that day.

Bonus - Get rid of the noise (or replace it with the right kind)

A good pair of noise-canceling headphones is a game changer for me! You can block out the world out completely, or put on focus music and give your brain something steady to lock into instead. Either way, you’re removing the thing that keeps pulling your attention sideways.

My husband and son swear by this pair of airpods. I personally live in my Bose because they are going to 10 year strong and still hold an amazing charge. When I put on my headphones on is basically my signal to myself that it’s go time.

Just a little reminder, that none of this requires a perfect morning or hours you don’t have. A legal pad, five minutes, and a place to sit that isn’t fighting you for your attention. That’s the whole system.

Which of these do you already do? Which one do you need to start? Leave me a comment! I want to know what your version of “set up for a successful day” looks like.

Subscribe now

Read. Move. Build the habit. Change your life.

📖📖📖

This is a Reader-Supported publication. Every comment, like, share, and upgraded subscription helps keep this space thriving!

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

Want to book a call to learn how you can connect with an audience online?

Send me an email at theliteraryassistant@gmail.com

Maybe you’ve been thinking about her for months. Maybe years. She’s more disciplined, more consistent, more confident. She shows up. She follows through. She’s built the thing you keep saying you’re going to build.

Here’s what no one tells you about her: she doesn’t arrive when you’re ready. She arrives when you decide. (I wrote this in a she/her voice, but please insert your own pronouns as you see fit.)

I’ve done this twice in ways that still surprise me when I think about them.

The first time was when I launched The Literary Assistant. I didn’t have it all figured out. I didn’t have a full roster of clients or a proven system or the certainty that it would work. I had a name, a mission, and a decision to show up as that person — the literary assistant, the one who helps authors find their voice and readers find their books — and grow into it.

The second time was when I started teaching Barre and Pilates classes.

I stood in front of a room full of people and taught. Not because I felt like an instructor yet. Because I decided to be one. I’m still working on the feeling. The identity came first.

Something I think we need to highlight more is that you can’t wait until you feel ready. You act like the person you’re becoming and eventually, you look up and realize you’ve become your new identity.

Here’s where most of us get stuck.

We live in one of two places… I wish I was or I’m going to be. It feels productive and like you are making progress, but you aren’t

I wish I was more consistent. Your brain hears… I am not consistent. I’m going to be someone who shows up every day. Your brain hears… I don’t show up every day yet.

Your body and your brain respond to the identity you’re currently living, not the one you’re aspiring toward. Every time you frame yourself as someone who isn’t… not yet disciplined enough, not yet ready, not yet the real thing… you reinforce exactly the identity you’re trying to leave behind.

The shift happens when you stop wishing and start living the destination.

James Clear puts it plainly in Atomic Habits… “every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become.” Not a guarantee. A vote. You don’t get a total transformation on day one. You need to start casting votes in the right direction.

As a reader you don’t wait until you have a beautiful reading nook and two hours of uninterrupted silence. You reads for ten minutes at the kitchen table while the coffee brews. Every morning you vote for the identity… I am someone who reads every day.

A writer doesn’t wait until she feels inspired. She opens the document. She writes something imperfect. She votes.

As someone who wants a healthy lifestyle, you don’t wait until you can get in the perfect workout when you don’t have time. You do leg lifts in the kitchen while you cook. You park father out in the parking lot to get your steps in. You skip the late night junk food binge. You vote.

The habits aren’t the path to the identity. The habits are the identity, one small repeated action at a time telling your brain you who are.

Something shifts when you stop waiting and start acting like her.

Opportunities appear that weren’t visible before,,, not because the world changed, but because you did. When you carry yourself as someone who has something to offer, people start to see it. When you show up consistently as the version of yourself you’re building toward, doors open that you couldn’t even see when you were standing in the I wish I was space.

Do this, and you will be happier.

Not because everything is figured out. Not because the work is done or the goal is reached. But because there is a particular kind of peace that comes from living in alignment with who you actually want to be. The friction of pretending to be comfortable with a smaller version of yourself is exhausting in ways you don’t fully notice until it’s gone.

I’ll be honest with you, because that’s the only way I know how to do this.

I am in the middle of my own identity shift right now. Several of them, actually.

I’m stepping out from behind The Literary Assistant brand here on Substack and into my own name so I can share more. That’s not a small thing. A business name was my safe space. My own name is just... me. Unscripted. Out there. Sharing my thought with you.

And this past year, grief has quietly dismantled and rebuilt parts of me I didn’t even know needed rebuilding. You don’t get to choose which parts of you survive it unchanged. You just get to decide what you do with who you are on the other side.

So I’m figuring out what’s out there for me. Still. I don’t have the full picture yet. But I’m not waiting for it before I start living it.

You don’t need a dramatic moment. You need a small, repeated decision. Ask yourself: Who is the person I am trying to become?

Not the goal. The person. What does she do every day? How does she carry herself? What habits does she have that you don’t have yet?

Now pick one. Just one. And start doing it… not as practice, not as a trial run, not as “seeing if it sticks.” Do it as her. Do it because that’s who you are now.

Cast the vote. Then cast it again tomorrow. The identity you’re building is already in there. Your habits are just how you prove it to yourself, first. To the world, eventually.

You don’t have to feel like her yet. You just have to start acting like her.

Subscribe now

Are you in the middle of an identity shift right now? Building a new version of yourself, stepping into something that doesn’t quite feel real yet? I’d love to hear where you are in it…share in the comments below.

My dad had been on vacation and came back to the hotel for a rest. One minute here. The next minute gone.

I sat in that chair… the one that exists in funeral homes all over the world, the one no one ever thinks they’ll sit in until they do… completely stunned. Planning a funeral for my father on Father’s Day. The surreal cruelty of the timing hadn’t even landed yet. I was just... moving through it. Helping my mom sign things. Nodding. Making decisions about who was going to pick up flower arrangements and greeting people I hadn’t seen in 20 years while my brain kept trying to catch up to what was actually happening.

I thought that was the hardest thing I would ever do.

Then, just over a week later, I walked into a different location of the same funeral home… owned by the same family… with my husband and my son.

The funeral director looked up and saw us walking through the door. Confusion crossed his face for just a moment. He had just seen us. He knew us.

“Hello. What are you doing here?” he said, surprised.

“We’re here for my nephew,” we told him.

He hugged us. He was stunned. We were stunned. And then we somehow made it through that day the way humans make it through the unsurvivable.. on autopilot. Processing what the mind simply cannot hold all at once.

It has been a year.

And I wanted to take a moment in this space that so many of you have shown up for me to say thank you.

Thank you for continuing to open my posts. For sending words of love and encouragement in the comments, in my inbox, in little notes I have read more than once on hard days. For staying. For reading. For being here even when I went quiet, even when I wasn’t sure I had anything left to say.

You held space for me without knowing you were doing it. That matters more than I can articulate.

Just wanted to share with you a few lessons I’ve learned in the last year.

1. No one prepares you for the paperwork.

The sheer, staggering, relentless amount of paperwork you have to complete when someone dies is something no one warns you about. The number of places you have to contact is soooooo overwhelming. You are grieving and simultaneously drowning in admin work. It is one of the cruelest parts of loss, and no one talks about it enough.

2. There is a you before, and a you after.

I will never be the person I was before these losses. That version of me didn’t know what she didn’t know. The person behind the screen sitting here writing this carries is different. I am not the same. I have stopped expecting to get back to who I was, and I have started learning to know who I am now.

3. Only you can decide what you do with the pain.

Grief will seek you out when you least expect it. It will sit with you at the kitchen table. It will show up unexpectedly in the middle of the grocery store or on a random Tuesday afternoon. And at some point, you will have to make a decision about what you do with it. You can let it swallow you whole. Or you can find a way to carry it alongside you and channel it into something. Neither is easy. Only you can decide which way you take each and every day you wake up.

Final thoughts…

Being born is a gift. Being given the chance to live a life, for however long, is a gift. And I want to make the most of the days I have left on this planet. I want to read books that change how I see the world. I want to move my body. I want to build something that matters. I want to connect people to stories that transform them.

In doing that I want to honor the way my dad and nephew shaped me into the person I am today.

I don’t have a tidy ending for this post. Grief doesn’t really do tidy endings. But I am here. I am grateful you are here. And I believe… with everything I have… that community, and stories, and showing up for each other matters in ways we can’t always measure.

If you’ve lost someone. If you’re in the middle of something unsurvivable. If you’re on the other side and still figuring out who you are now — I see you.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments or just click reply to send me a private message. Grief is one of the most isolating experiences there is, and yet it is also one of the most universal. You don’t have to share. But if you want to, this space is yours.

We’re in this together. With love.

— Melissa

Subscribe now

I realized that I wanted to expand my connections with authors (I had been helping multiple authors with the online marketing… this was the early days of Instagram) and start my own business. The Literary Assistant was born.

I found who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. Fast forward to now, I regularly check in with myself to see if I’m living the life I want, right now in this moment.

You might have noticed I’ve recently become certified to teach Barre and Pilates classes. This wouldn’t have happened, if I didn’t take the time to check in with myself and see what do I want to do my life and act on that.

Life goes by in the blink of an eye, and if we don’t live with intentionality, it just becomes a blur of business that might not be taking us in the direction we want to go.

Are you living the life you actually want or just the life that happened to you?

The one you want. Right now in this season.

Most people can’t answer that question because they’ve never stopped to ask it. I think it happens to most of us at multiple times throughout our life. We get busy doing, working, parenting, creating, hustling without ever checking if we’re still heading in the right direction.

Today, we’re going to stop and check.

This post is going to walk you through a couple of things…

1. A honest life audit… so you can see clearly where you actually are

2. A way to bring it all together… starting with who you are as a creative

Before you can change anything, you have to be honest about everything.

A life audit isn’t about judging yourself. It’s about finding clarity. Think of it like looking at a map before a road trip. You can’t plot a route until you know where you are at and where you are going.

Your Life Check-In

Grab a piece of paper and rate each area of your life right now on a scale of 1–10. Be honest. Not “where I want to be”, but where you actually are.

• Health & Energy

• Relationships & Connection

• Creative Work & Career

• Financial Wellbeing

• Personal Growth & Learning

• Fun, Joy & Play

• Home & Environment

• Spirituality & Purpose

Now look at your scores. Where are you thriving? Where are you coasting? Where have you been avoiding looking? Now is the time to be honest with yourself.

Circle your lowest score. That’s a sign of where you can make the biggest impact.

The Next Step…

For each area, ask yourself:

1. What’s working? What’s going well that you don’t want to disturb? Name it. Honor it. Too often we skip straight to what’s broken.

2. What’s not working? Where are you feeling friction, resentment, exhaustion, or that quiet dread you don’t talk about? Write it down. You can’t fix what you won’t name.

3. What am I tolerating? This one is the game-changer. Tolerations are the things you’ve decided to live with… the pile on the desk, the conversation you keep putting off, the habit you keep saying you’ll change. List one thing you’ve been tolerating in your life right now.

4. What do I actually want? Not what you should want. Not what would impress someone. What do you want? Finish this sentence in writing: “When I change (fill in the blank), I want to feel...”

Based on your audit, write one paragraph that starts with: “Right now, I am...”

Describe where you are without apology, without spin the justifies what you might not have accomplished yet that you promised yourself you would, without the version you’d post on Instagram. This is for you. The clearer you are about where you are, the more powerful your next steps become.

Something I’ve learned from working with authors and creatives for year is that the clearest sign that someone is living out of alignment is when they can’t answer the question: “Who are you, and what do you stand for?”

Not your job title. Not your bio. Not the thing you do. Who you are.

Subscribe now

You did something today that most people never do.

You stopped and honestly at where you are. You started imagining where you want to go.

That’s not a small thing. I’m proud of you

— Melissa

Join Me: Define Your Author Brand Identity

Your brand… as an author, a creative, a person building something… is an extension of your identity. When your brand reflects who you actually are, it doesn’t feel like marketing. It feels like showing up. It attracts the right readers, the right clients, the right community.

But when your brand is disconnected from your values, your voice, and your story? Everything feels harder than it should.

That gap… between who you are and how you’re showing up… is exactly what we’re going to close together in my upcoming workshop.

✅ Define your author mission — the why behind everything you create

✅ Craft your brand statement — a clear, confident articulation of who you are and who you serve

✅ Create a cohesive brand story that resonates with readers and stands out online

This isn’t about logo colors or fonts. This is about identity. This is about stepping into your story with confidence and building a brand that’s memorable because it’s authentically yours.

I’ve helped New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors build their brands, and I can tell you… the ones who thrive are the ones who know who they are.

This session is for you whether you’re just stepping into your author identity or you’re ready to strengthen the one you’ve already built.

👉 Register here: Define Your Author Brand Identity

Already a paid subscriber to Colin Mustful’s History Through Fiction Substack? You already have access — no need to register separately. Check your subscriber benefits!

Well, if that is what you are looking for, I’m sorry to disappoint, but I don’t think you need a complicated routine. You don’t need a stack of expensive supplements or a 90-minute cold plunge, sweat-filled morning ritual… although feel free to do so if it brings you joy. If we look to science, some of the most powerful things you can do for your mood, your health, and happiness are free, simple, and available right outside your front door.

And, I will even make the argument that these simple and free things will also make you more creative in the long run.

Here are three habits I come back to every single morning and the science that explains why they actually work.

1. Get outside and get some sunlight

This one sounds almost too simple, but research proves it time and time again. According to Cleveland Clinic, sunlight activates a specific part of the brain called the pineal gland, which is connected to the production of serotonin… this sometimes gets called the “feel-good hormone” because of its effect on mood. Getting more of it in the morning helps your brain understand it’s time to be alert, which also sets you up for better sleep that night.

Even 10 to 30 minutes of sun exposure can start to make a difference. I’ve found that, for myself I’ve found working from home running my own business, keeping a consistent wake up time helps me function at my best. I feel good, sleep better, and can be more productive with my time.

For me, getting morning sunshine is mostly a walk around the neighborhood or on days I want to mix things up, I take my rebounder outside. Either way, I’m getting light, breathing fresh air, and starting the day before the day comes rushing at me.

2. Move your body

Here’s something that surprised me when I first read it… the movement you do today directly affects how refreshed and alert you’ll feel when you wake up tomorrow.

A University of California, Berkeley study covered by MSU Health Care, found that physical activity the day prior was one of the key independent factors predicting how alert and refreshed people felt in the morning. When an individual’s physical activity was comparatively greater the day before, people reported feeling more alert the next day. The reason? Exercise increases hormones such as adrenaline that make us alert and moving, and stress is well managed with exercise. What a great reason to make movement a regular habit!

And you really don’t need a lot. Ten minutes counts. A walk counts. Dancing in your kitchen absolutely counts.

If you want a beautiful framework for making this into a daily ritual, pick up The Art of Flaneuring. It’s a gentle invitation to slow down, wander with intention, and let movement become something you actually look forward to. I really enjoy this book!

3. Write down what you’re grateful for.

I use The 5-Minute Gratitude Journal: Give Thanks, Practice Positivity, Find Joy every morning. I really love my gratitude practice each morning.

Harvard Health reports that in positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. It helps people feel more positive emotions, appreciate good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build stronger relationships.

One study asked participants to spend ten weeks writing about things they were thankful for. Those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic, felt better about their lives, exercised more, and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation. Another researcher found that when participants were assigned to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked, they immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores. And note that, it had an impact greater than any other positive psychology intervention tested, with benefits lasting for a month.

That’s a powerful five minutes!

I love the 5-Minute Gratitude Journal because the prompts give your brain a direction instead of leaving it to wander back to the to-do list. That said, a plain notebook works beautifully. Your phone notes work. Whatever lowers the friction enough that you’ll actually do it.

Sunlight, movement, gratitude. None of these require a perfect morning or a big block of time. They just require showing up… stepping outside, moving your body a little, writing one true and specific thing you’re thankful for. Small daily habits compound into a life you actually want to be living.

Personally, I am my most creative self when I’m happy, moving my body, and practicing gratitude regularly. What about you?

I hope this inspires you to add one or three of these into your day.

Which of these three do you already have? Which one feels hardest to start? Tell me in the comments. I’d love to hear about it.

Subscribe now

Read. Move. Build the habit. Change your life.

📖📖📖

This is a Reader-Supported.

Every comment, like, share, and upgrades subscription helps keep this space thriving!

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

Want to book a call to help learn how you can connect with an audience online?

Send me an email at theliteraryassistant@gmail.com

and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” — Marie Curie

Marie Curie didn’t discover radium because she had a perfect plan and a clear path forward. She discovered it because she kept showing up, day after day, in a cold, damp, leaky shed, doing the little bits of the consistent work that eventually changed the world.

She believed she was gifted for something. And she refused to stop until she found it.

That’s the vibe I invite you to join me in bringing into June. This is one of my favorite moments of the entire year. There’s something about the start of a new month, halfway through the year, that feels both grounding and reflective. You still have six full months of the year ahead of you. And you have everything you’ve already learned behind you.

We’re Choosing One Thing. Not three things. Not a complete overhaul. Not a new morning routine with seventeen steps.

One tiny habit.

Something small enough that you could do it even on your worst day. Something specific enough that you know exactly when you’ve done it. Something you can anchor …attach to something you already do… so it has somewhere to live in your life.

That’s the whole challenge! Pick one tiny habit. Anchor it. Show up for it every day in June.

I’m doing it right alongside you. Consider it an experiment we’re running together.

If you’re not sure how to choose your habit or set up your anchor, I’ve got you.

Check out my post below on how to get started.

It walks you through exactly how to pick something that will actually stick and how to build the anchor that makes it automatic over time. Read that first, then come back here.

June is the perfect time to pause and recalibrate, because something went wrong but because checking in is how you make sure you stay headed in the right direction.

Halfway through the year, I like to ask myself three honest questions…

What have I actually done so far this year that I’m proud of?

Don’t skip this one. Give yourself credit before you give yourself notes.

What have I been telling myself I’ll “get to”… and why haven’t I?

This is where things get read. Not judgment. Just honesty.

What do I want the second half of this year to feel like?

Not just look like. Feel like.

Your answers to those questions will point you right to the tiny habit worth building this month.

Be reminded that Marie Curie didn’t doubt that she had something to offer the world. She just kept doing the work until the world caught up with her.

You have something too.

Maybe it’s the book you haven’t let yourself read yet… or write. Maybe it’s the version of yourself who moves through the day with a little more intention and a little less scrolling. Maybe it’s something personal than that, something only you know you’ve been meaning to do.

June is the perfect time to get one step closer to that person.

One tiny habit. One anchor. One month.

Pick your one tiny habit. Decide what you’ll anchor it to. Then come tell me in the chat… because saying it out loud is the a great way to show commitment.

What’s your one tiny habit for June and what are you anchoring it to?

Drop it below. I want to cheer you on.

Read. Move. Build the habit. Change your life.

Subscribe now

Looking for something new to read? Check out The Night the Bells Burned (The 500 Year Journey Book 1)

Before America was a dream, one Dutch father made a vow: his children would live free.

1544. Utrecht. The Spanish Empire is watching.

Cornelis Schutt keeps a forbidden book hidden beneath the floorboards of his shop. Its words are written in Dutch. To own it is dangerous. To read from it is defiance. To teach it to a child can mean death.

When a baker's family is burned alive in the square for reading in his own language, Cornelis sees what obedience has become: a fire at the stake, a warning, and a silence forced on every family in the city. He wants only to protect his wife, Maria, and their children. But protection is no longer simple. Soldiers patrol the streets. Informers listen behind shutters. Neighbors vanish by night. Faith becomes a crime. A father’s love becomes an act of rebellion.

As plague, persecution, betrayal, and Spanish violence close in, the Schutt family is driven from the life they know. They carry what they can: tools, grief, memory, and a vow that will shape every generation that follows.

The Night the Bells Burned is a sweeping historical thriller of faith, family, love, loss, and survival set during the opening fires of the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years’ War.

From candlelit shops and hidden books to burning squares, storm-lashed roads, forge fires, forbidden worship, and the first acts of rebellion, this is the story of ordinary people forced into extraordinary choices when empire comes for conscience, family, and faith.

This is not only a story of war. It is a story of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, and the terrible cost of keeping a family alive when power demands silence.

Across the Low Countries, the first sparks of revolt are beginning to catch. What starts in one shop, one family, and one hidden book will become a legacy tested by fire, exile, faith, trade, war, and the dangerous hope of freedom. The Schutts are not kings or generals. They are merchants, smiths, mothers, fathers, children, and survivors. History will remember the battles. This novel remembers the family who had to live through them. Rich with danger, atmosphere, and emotional stakes, this opening volume is written for readers who want more than dates and battles. It is for readers who want to feel the cost of history at the table, in the street, beside the cradle, and at the door when soldiers knock.

Check it out!

For readers of Ken Follett’s historical sweep, Kristin Hannah’s emotional power, James Michener’s generational scope, and Edward Rutherfurd’s richly layered past, this is a family saga with the urgency of a thriller and the heart of a legacy novel.

“The Night the Bells Burned is an ambitious and gripping historical thriller that brings Reformation-era Europe vividly to life. William H. Brothers writes with a strong command of tension, creating a story rich with urgency, atmosphere, and emotional stakes. A compelling and immersive novel that will resonate with readers of historical suspense.” – Colin Mustful, Founder of History Through Fiction

“A compelling and emotional story that will live in readers’ minds long after they’ve turned the final page.”
— Jennifer Kay Davies, The History Quill

This is a Reader-Supported.

Every comment, like, share, and upgrades subscription helps keep this space thriving!

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

Want to book a call to help learn how you can connect with an audience online?

Send me an email at theliteraryassistant@gmail.com

And I want to make sure you head into this challenge with one thing already in place… because it’s the thing that will determine whether your new habits actually stick.

It’s not motivation, will power, or a perfectly color-coded tracker.

It’s an anchor.

Here’s what I mean.

The secret BJ Fogg taught me in his book Tiny Habits is all about habits that actually stick.

I’ve been practicing Tiny Habits for a while now, and the single biggest shift came when I stopped trying to remember to do something new and started attaching it to something I already do automatically.

Fogg calls this an anchor. It’s a habit you already have… something you do on autopilot every single day… and you use it as the trigger for your new one.

The formula is simple.

After I ____ [anchor], I will ____ [new tiny habit].

Here’s what a few of mine actually look like….

As I drive my son to school, I drink my bottle of water.

After I walk back through the door from the school drop-off, I start my morning workout. No sitting down first. No checking my phone. I walk in and I get right to moving.

I don’t have to decide. I don’t have to remember or negotiate with myself what I’m going to do for the morning. The anchor does the work.

Your challenge before June

Before June 1st arrives, I want you to pick one habit… just one… that would genuinely change your life if you did it every single day for 30 days.

It doesn’t have to be big. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Small is the whole point. And a small habit can still have a profound impact on your life.

Maybe it’s 10 minutes of reading before you go on your phone in the morning. Maybe it’s a walk after lunch. Maybe it’s writing three lines in a gratitude journal before bed. Maybe it’s something else entirely… something only you know you’ve been putting off.

Pick one. Then ask yourself… what do I already do every single day that could anchor it?

Write it out.

After I ____ , I will ____ .

That’s your habit for June.

Then find your tracker

I’m leaving this part to you because the best tracker is one you’ll actually use.

Personally I have an app that I use for tracking my habits. I love the motivation of seeing the streak of days add up. Or, you might prefer a printed sheet of paper. Pick one that feels like you, write your habit at the top, and put it somewhere you’ll see it every day.

June is when we begin.

One tiny habit.

30 days.

Together we motivate each other to keep going.

Leave a comment or hit reply and tell me and what’s your one habit for June. Looking for a little extra motivation to keep you going. Why not share this post and get you friends to join in!

Super excited to see you build a new habit!

— Melissa

Read. Move. Build the habit. Change your life.

Subscribe now

This is a Reader-Supported.

Every comment, like, share, and upgrades subscription helps keep this space thriving!

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

Want to book a call to help learn how you can connect with an audience online?

Send me an email at theliteraryassistant@gmail.com

I had a thought the other day… reading doesn’t just make me more understanding of other people. It makes me more conscious of my own life.

There’s something that happens when you follow a character through an arc, their failures, their pivots, their moments of breakthrough and loss, that creates space for you to hold a mirror up to how you’re living. You watch them make choices. You feel the weight of those choices. And then you put the book down and go back to your own life a little more aware of your own choices than you were before.

I’ve been really thinking about this more lately. And, because we are practically internet best friends, I wanted to share a few books with you that made me more conscious of my life.

Soft Launch: A Coming-of-Adulthood Novel by and A Dress of Violet Taffeta by Tessa Arlen both did something to me that I didn’t expect. Watching the difficulties those characters moved through didn’t make me anxious or sad… it made me grateful. Grateful for the quiet, full life I’ve been building. Grateful for things I might have taken for granted if I hadn’t been living inside those stories for a while. (p.s. as I’m writing this, the e-book version of Soft Launch is on sale.)

And then there’s Alice Scott.

If you’ve read Great Big Beautiful Life by , you know what I mean. Alice is driven. Ambitious. She wants success and she goes after it with everything she has. But by the end, she’s reckoning with something harder… that success isn’t always worth what you trade for it. That you can achieve exactly what you set out to and still look around and feel like you’ve lost something essential.

Alice’s arc hit me hard personally. Because I’ve had my own version of that moment.

A few years ago, I worked on a project I truly believed in. I poured myself into it. And eventually I had to face the hardest kind of truth… that it wasn’t going to become what I’d imagined it could be at the start. Letting it go felt like failure. It felt like giving up on something that mattered.

\I learned that letting go of something that’s no longer serving you isn’t failure. It’s wisdom. And the clarity and energy that came from releasing that grip, that’s when I was able to build the things I’m most proud of now.

I think Alice knew that too, eventually.

The research backs up what many of us feel intuitively. Studies show that reading regularly (even if you can squeeze in just 15 minutes a day) strengthens cognitive function, improves memory, and builds the kind of critical thinking that shapes how we make decisions. Reading for pleasure has even been shown to be one of the strongest predictors of long-term success… academically, professionally, and personally.

But I think the benefit that gets talked about least is this one: reading makes us more intentional architects of our own lives.

When you watch a character live, like really live, with all the mess and grace that entails, you start asking yourself questions you might not have previously asked, and figuring out what your best life might look like… for you. Questions come up like…

What am I holding onto that I should let go of?

What does success actually mean to me?

Am I building a life I’ll be proud of, or just a life that looks good from the outside?

For me, a fulfilled life looks like doing work I love, having my family close, and being fully present for the small moments that matter most. That’s it. The books I read didn’t outright tell me these things… but they helped me see it more clearly.

Has a book ever made you more conscious of your own life? Not just more empathetic toward someone else’s but more awake to your own choices, your own life story arc, your own definition of a life well lived?

I’d love to know. Drop it in the comments… the book, the character, the moment you put the book down and thought… I needed to read that.

Subscribe now

Read. Move. Build the habit. Change your life.

This is a Reader-Supported.

Every comment, like, share, and upgraded subscription helps keep this space thriving!

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

Want to book a call to help learn how you can connect with an audience online?

Send me an email at theliteraryassistant@gmail.com

We are often waiting for the perfect moment to start them.

New year. New month. Monday. The first of the month. After the busy season. After the holidays. After things calm down a little. We are always waiting for that perfect moment as if that will be be what makes us succeed this time around.

And then we blink and it’s June and we’re still waiting, and the habit never happened.

So I’m just going to pull of the metaphorical Band-Aid and say it… there is no better time than right now. Not next Monday. Not July 1st. Today. This week. The moment you finish reading this.

That’s what the 5-minute habit of this challenge is really about. WE aren’t chasing perfection. Not the ideal conditions. Just starting right now.

I want to be honest with you here about a habit I tried to start… because that’s kinda the the whole point of me putting these Substack posts out there.

I have started gratitude journaling before. More than once. I’ve bought the journals, set the intentions, written a few entries that felt genuinely good… and then stopped. Life got busy. I skipped a day. Then two. Then I’d find the journal weeks later shoved under something on my desk and feel vaguely guilty about it.

The habit never stuck because it wasn’t anchored to anything. It was just floating out there in my day, waiting for a free moment that never reliably came. Was I going to be grateful in the evening after a long day? In the morning before the rush happened? Maybe at lunch? I didn’t even know the answer myself.

This time, I’m doing something different.

After reading Tiny Habits (which I highly recommend), I realize I was missing that anchor. B.J. Fogg calls it a recipe. You need to have the plan that leads to a success habit.

So here’s was the new plan…

Every morning, there is a small window of time between pressing the button on the coffee maker and that first glorious cup being ready.

You know the window I mean? You are not quite awake enough to do anything useful. You are definitely not ready to look at your phone. You are simply... existing. Waiting for the caffeinated nectar from the gods to do its work.

(If you don’t drink coffee… first, I’m sorry. Second, think about what you do without fail every single morning. That thing. That’s your anchor.)

That little window? That’s my gratitude journaling space now.

I have a journal with prompts and I cannot recommend this enough if a blank page has ever made you freeze. (Why does it give me same anxiety as taking a test?) Prompts make you think rather than just list the same three things on autopilot. They pull something real out of you forcing you to answer with honesty.

Yesterday’s prompt was: What’s one thing that happened yesterday that you’re grateful for?

And I sat there with my coffee brewing and I thought about my team call with History Through Fiction the day before. About working with , and the community of authors we get to support, about the HTF team as a whole, and the people putting their stories out into the world, trusting us to help them do it. And I wrote that down.

It took maybe four minutes. But I started my day having genuinely reflected on something that matters to me. That’s not fluff. That compounds. The grateful slowly shifts your outlook on life.

But it could be something totally different for you.

Now it’s your turn.

The 5-minute habit work portion of this challenge is yours to shape as you see fit.

Maybe it’s gratitude journaling alongside me. Maybe it’s something completely different that you’ve been meaning to build into your life. The only rule is that it has to be something intentional. Something you’re choosing on purpose.

And here’s the question I want you to sit with before you decide…

What habit have you been starting over and over again and what would it mean to finally make it stick?

Find your anchor. Attach the habit to something you already do without thinking. Keep it to 5 minutes. Show up tomorrow. And the next day. And the next…

That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

Subscribe now

Let me know in the comments, what’s your habit you want to start, and what are you anchoring it to? I want to know what we’re all building together.

Read. Move. Build the habit. Change your life.

And before you dismiss romance… this is exactly why I will forever climb onto my soapbox and shout that romance books are not fluff. Not even a little.

The heroine in this story had her world cracked open. Dumped by her fiancé a few months before her wedding, she does the only brave thing she can think of… she books a flight, lands somewhere beautiful and unfamiliar, and sets off on an Eat, Pray, Love-style journey to figure out who she actually is and what she actually wants.

There’s a scene where she’s talking with someone in a local village. And they get onto the subject of courage.

She says something like… I wish I were braver. I wish I weren’t so afraid.

And the response stopped me cold.

The wise older woman in the village says something back like…

Being courageous doesn’t mean the absence of fear. It means doing the thing with fear with as your companion.

I underlined the quote and I put the book down and just sat with that for a minute.

Fear isn’t leaving. It was never going to leave. We’ve been waiting for it to disappear before we give ourselves permission to move and it was never planning to go anywhere..

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about ever since I read that… What if the goal was never to get rid of the fear? What if the goal was just to get so familiar with it that you stop being surprised when it shows up?

I think that’s what happens when you keep doing the hard things anyway. Fear doesn’t shrink exactly… but your relationship with it changes. It goes from being a stop sign to just... a familiar passenger. You start to recognize it. Oh. You again. And then you keep going.

I have a little personal antidote to share… My mom went to her doctor recently. It’s been eleven months since we lost my dad.

Her doctor looked at her and said, You have been so courageous this past year. My mom’s first reaction was to say she didn’t feel courageous. She felt like she’d just been surviving… grieving.

But then we started talking about everything she had pushed herself to do alone in those eleven months.

She traveled out of state to see friends. She redid the backyard. She went back to events she and my dad had always attended together. She showed up to places that held memories and she walked through the door anyway.

The list got longer the more we talked.

She hadn’t been waiting to feel brave. She had just been doing the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing… with fear and grief and loss riding along every single time.

That is courage. That’s exactly what it is.

And sometimes we need someone else to hold up a mirror so we can finally see it in ourselves.

I’ve been thinking about this in my own life too… specifically the last five months.

At the start of this year, I built a 12-week plan following the principles of the book The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months. The point of it was to move forward on the things I actually wanted… not the easy things, but the things fear had kept me from. Some of them for years. Some nearly a decade.

One of those things was teaching fitness.

I have wanted to teach for nearly a decade. I’d circle back to the idea, feel that little flutter of excitement, and then let fear talk me out of it. You’re not ready. Who would take a class from you? What if you fail? What if you mix up your right from your left?

I put it in the plan anyway.

Five months later, I passed my Pilates and Barre teaching certifications. And now, starting in June, every week I’ll be teach classes at my local yoga and Pilates studio.

Four months. That’s how long it took from decision to doing, once I stopped waiting for the fear to leave and just brought it with me.

Every time you show up to move… even when you don’t feel like it, even when you’re tired, even when the voice in your head is listing ten reasons to stay on the couch… you are practicing courage. You are training the part of you that says yes anyway.

That’s not a small thing. It compounds. It grows. The 10 minutes you show up for today are building something bigger than today.

So I want to ask you something, and I want you to actually sit with it for a moment before you move on with your day.

What have you wanted to do with your life that you’ve let fear hold you back from?

Not the general, abstract things. The specific ones. The ones you’ve thought about more than once. The ones that light you up for a second and then get quickly buried.

What if you didn’t have to wait until you weren’t afraid?

What if you just brought fear along for the ride, or let it freak you out… and did the thing anyway?

What would we get to see you do?

I’d love to know. Drop it in the comments and inspire others to be courageous.

Subscribe now

Read. Move. Build the habit. Change your life.

I am — though I won’t pretend I spring out of bed full of energy and optimism. It’s more like a quiet appreciation. The stillness before the house wakes up. The smell of coffee brewing. The way the morning feels like it belongs entirely to me before it belongs to anyone else.

Somewhere in my 40s, something shifted. I started noticing how fast life was moving…how a whole week could blur past in a rush of tasks, errands, and obligations, and I’d arrive at Friday feeling busy but not really present. Not really intentional. I was doing a lot, but was I doing what mattered most to me?

That question has stayed with me. And it’s led me to make small, deliberate changes in how I start each day.

This is what that looks like right now.

This is probably the single most useful thing I’ve done for my mornings and honestly, for my whole sense of structure. I wake up at 6am, before the rest of the family starts their day.

It sounds simple, but consistency here is everything. When you wake up at the same time each day, your body finds its rhythm. You stop fighting the alarm. You stop negotiating with yourself. It just becomes the thing you do. This has made waking up so much more pleasant.

If you work from home or for yourself (as I do), this matters even more. There’s no office, no commute, no external structure forcing the day to start. That structure has to come from you and anchoring it to a consistent wake time is the foundation everything else builds on.

Before anything else, there are three cats who have VERY strong opinions about breakfast timing. So first things first, always feed the cats.

Some routines are non-negotiables. 😻😻😻

Once the cats are taken care of and the coffee is brewing, I sit down with a book. Right now I’m reading The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction. It’s a neuroscience-backed look at what reading does for the brain and for family connection. I find everything about the science of reading genuinely fascinating, and this one has not disappointed.

I choose intentionally choose non-fiction in the mornings. I want something to think about… an idea to carry with me through the day, something to muse on while I’m doing the school run or doing work for clients. Non-fiction in the morning gives my brain something to ponder in the quiet moments.

Reading first thing, before screens and email and the noise of the day, has become one of my favorite parts of the morning. It’s quiet. It’s me time. And it sets a tone of intentionality that carries through into everything that follows for the rest of the day.

During the school year, the morning includes a school run. I’ve turned it into a small win.

My habit stack… drink a full glass of water on the drive to school and back… have it finished by the time I pull back into the driveway. That’s it. No extra thought put into the process. I’m already in the car. The water is already there. It’s just part of what happens.

I start the day hydrated without having to think about it. That’s the magic of habit stacking! You attach a new behavior to something you’re already doing, and it stops feeling like a task.

As soon as I’m home from the school run, I don’t check email. I don’t open Instagram. I don’t start tidying. I grab my headphones and head outside for a 30-minute walk. It’s a nonnegotiable.

(If the weather is miserable… and sometimes it is… I jump on my rebounder - a mini trampoline - and watch a YouTube video. Movement is the goal. I love to get outside if possible, but as long as I’m moving, I’m happy.)

I cannot overstate what this does for my brain. By the time I sit down to work, I feel calm. Present. Ready. Starting the day with movement shifts something mentally — it clears whatever noise showed up overnight and gives me a clean slate to think from.

Movement before work is not negotiable for me anymore. It has changed the quality of my thinking more than almost anything else.

By the time I sit down at my desk, I’ve read something that interests me, moved my body, hydrated, and had some quiet. I haven’t doom scrolled. I haven’t started reacting to other people’s priorities before I’ve addressed my own.

I feel like myself. And that’s when I can be my most creative self.

I’m not sharing this as the perfect routine you should copy. I’m sharing it because I spent years rushing past my mornings without ever really designing them and the difference has been profound for me.

You don’t need an elaborate system. You need a few small, consistent anchors that help you feel grounded before the day asks things of you.

Take a look at your own morning. What’s already there that you could build on? What one thing could you add that would help you feel more like yourself before the day begins?

Start small. Stay consistent. Let it compound.

Subscribe now

Read. Move. Build the habit. Change your life.

Speaking of small daily habits that compound… in June, I’m running a challenge built on exactly this idea. Three habits, ten minutes each, thirty days. Reading. Movement. Intentional habit work. If that sounds like something you need, stay tuned…

What if Substack could be a place where we actively spread joy?

Not just by sharing our own thoughts, but by becoming an encouragement to others. By showing up generously. By making someone’s day a little brighter simply because we took a moment to say I see you, and what you’re doing matters.

“You shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.” — Maya Angelou

That quote lives in my head rent-free. Because it’s so easy easy to visualize. We open an app to read, scroll, like, and move on, but without ever giving anything back. The really cool thing that can happen with a community like Substack? It’s in the giving.

Here’s something I’ve noticed on my own hard days. When I’m feeling low or stuck or just a little in the doldrums, one of the fastest ways to shift my mood is to do something kind for someone else. Leave a genuine compliment on a post. Tell a writer that their words helped me. Cheer on someone who’s just starting out. It sounds almost too simple… but it works. Every time.

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” — Booker T. Washington

There’s real science behind this, but honestly, you don’t need the research. You just need to try it once and feel the difference.

So maybe you read my last post where we talked about ditching the worry about whether we’re qualified enough, letting go of self-doubt, and just putting ourselves out there. Maybe you nodded along. Maybe you even felt that little flutter of okay, maybe I could do this.

And then you opened Substack… and thought, now what?

Here are three simple, low-pressure ways to start spreading joy on Substack.

1. Comment on Someone Else’s Notes and Restack It Too

This is the one people skip… and it’s such a missed opportunity.

Here’s a real example of what showing up looks like in practice. Alex & Books posted a Note asking: “Who still sits down and reads actual physical books?” Two words. I do! That was my entire comment. I restacked it and added my voice to the conversation.

That Note now has 50+ likes, a handful of comments, and is still gaining traction… all from simply adding to and sharing someone else’s thought.

When you leave a thoughtful comment on someone’s Note, their entire audience can see it and yours too. You’re not just supporting that writer (though that matters enormously), you’re introducing yourself to a whole new community of readers who might think, oh, I like how they think. And from personal experience, engaging with other people’s Notes is one of the things that brings me my highest engagement.

Don’t overthink it. Agree, add a thought, ask a question, share a reaction. Just be genuine. Two words can start a whole ripple effect.

2. Send Someone a Heartfelt DM

This one is quiet, but between two people. No one else sees it. There are no likes, no reshares, no public accolades. And that’s exactly what makes it so powerful.

Think about a writer on Substack whose work has genuinely moved you. Maybe they’ve been showing up consistently and you don’t think they know how much it means. Maybe one of their posts arrived on exactly the right day and said exactly the thing you needed to hear. Maybe they’re brand new and clearly pouring their whole heart into something still finding its legs.

Send them a message. Just tell them.

It doesn’t have to be long or perfectly worded. Something as simple as I just want you to know that your writing makes a difference to me can completely change someone’s day or even their week. Writers, especially those of us still building, can spend a lot of time wondering if any of this is worth it. A single genuine message has the power to answer that question with a resounding yes.

On the days when you’re feeling a little empty or discouraged yourself, this is one of the kindest things you can do for your own heart too. There is something quietly wonderful about making someone feel seen, with no audience watching and nothing to gain. It fills you back up in a way that’s hard to explain until you try it.

So pick someone this week. Hit that message button. Say the thing you’ve been thinking. You might never know just how much it meant… but they will.

3. Share a Note and Make It About Someone Else

You’ve probably heard that Notes are Substack’s version of a social media post… short, conversational, no pressure to write a full -length post. And yes, sharing your own thoughts is a wonderful place to start.

But here’s a joyful twist you can make… use a Note to celebrate someone else.

Share a book you loved and tag the author. Shout out a creative whose post stopped you in your tracks this week. Share a list of people you love reading with your readers and ask them who they’re currently loving on Substack. Not only does this spread genuine encouragement to the people you mention, it starts conversations, builds community, and introduces your readers to voices they’ll be glad they found.

It doesn’t have to be long. It doesn’t have to be polished. It just has to be you, showing up and throwing something good into the world.

Show up as yourself. Be generous. Be genuine. Repeat.

You don’t need to do all three today. Pick one. Do it this week. See what happens… not just for the person on the other end, but do it for you too.

Which of these feels most doable for you right now? Drop it in the comments. I’d love to cheer you on.

Subscribe now

If you’re not already subscribed to this little corner of Substack… come join us. I share my life, bookish thoughts, habits, and health, and I’d love to have you join in the conversation.

“Plant flowers in others’ gardens and your life becomes a bouquet.” — Author Unknown

Book Recommendation

BJ FOGG is here to change your life―and revolutionize how we think about human behavior. Based on twenty years of research and Fogg’s experience coaching more than 40,000 people, Tiny Habits cracks the code of habit formation. With breakthrough discoveries in every chapter, you’ll learn the simplest proven ways to transform your life. Fogg shows you how to feel good about your successes instead of bad about your failures.

This proven guide for personal transformation will help you design habits and make them stick through positive emotion and celebrating small successes. Whether you want to lose weight, de-stress, sleep better, or be more productive each day, Tiny Habits makes it easy to achieve―by starting small.

Inside this practical self-help guide, you’ll discover the keys to lasting behavior change:

• The B=MAP Framework: Learn the simple but powerful model from Stanford behavior scientist BJ Fogg that cracks the code of all human behavior.

• Actionable Strategies: Go beyond theory with proven, step-by-step techniques to build good habits and untangle bad ones.

• Start Tiny: Discover why starting small is the secret to achieving your biggest goals, whether you want to lose weight, increase productivity, or reduce stress.

• Celebrate Success: Master the art of self-reinforcement to wire in new habits fast by feeling good about your progress, not bad about your failures.

Read Tiny Habits

This is a Reader-Supported.

Every comment, like, share, and upgrades subscription helps keep this space thriving!

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

Can we just pause and think about that for a moment… because I think a lot of us have had that exact thought. Maybe not about age. Maybe about where we live, what we look like, how polished our photos are, or whether our life is “interesting enough.”

Here’s what what we talked about, and what I want you to think about today…

Your life experience IS the value you bring.

I’ve work with a lot of people over the years, who believe they have nothing interesting to share. That building a community requires some special story, some extraordinary credentials, some highlight-worthy life. And every single time, I want to gently shake them. (I promise I don’t actually shake them.)

Give me ten minutes in a conversation with you, and I will hand you a list of topics that people would genuinely want to hear you talk about. Every single time. Without fail.

Because there is one thing I’ve learned helping people build online… people don’t connect to content. They connect to humans. And everyone has something interesting to share.

We celebrate together. We grieve together. We learn, stumble, laugh, and feel… all of it together. And whoever you are, whatever season of life you’re in, there are people out there who are looking for someone exactly like you to connect with.

Permit me a little antidote of my own.

Back in the very, very early Instagram years… ancient history in social media terms… I was a young mom living in a state where I had no family nearby. My husband traveled frequently for work. I knew maybe a couple of neighbors. I was craving connection in that deep, way where you just want to have a conversation with someone who likes the same things you do.

So I started posting. About Jane Austen. About the romance novels I loved. Nothing fancy. Just me, sharing what I loved. Books and Jane. (Ok, and maybe and slightly unhealthy amount of Darcy memes.)

And through those little posts, I found two other moms… from completely different parts of the country… who also loved to read, each had one son (same as me and also of similar ages), and were also just looking for a fellow mom who loved to read to connect with.

Fast forward a decade. We have a group chat. We Facetime. We are, in every real sense of the word, friends.

That happened because I showed up. Online. As myself. Talking about books.

Now, I can’t be best friends with nearly 5,000 subscribers. But I do feel the connection here… you leave comments, you’ve supported me through grief, you’ve sent book recommendations that ended up on my bookshelves. We are a community. A real one.

So if you’ve been holding back… thinking you’re too old, too ordinary, too niche, too late… I need you to take one things away from this post.

Someone out there needs to find you.

Not a polished version of you. Not a younger version of you. Not a more-put-together, better-lit, more-credentials version of you.

You. Showing up. Sharing what you know and love and have lived through.

I get it, it’s scary. You are holding back because it feels vulnerable to put yourself out there. In the words of Anna from Frozen… and I say this with complete sincerity and zero irony — LET IT GO.

Be brave. Share yourself. Your people are out there, and they are scrolling right now, waiting to find someone they can actually connect with.

That someone is you.

I’d love to hear what’s been holding you back, or what happened when you finally showed up.

Happy reading,

Melissa

I love the book The Other Bennet Sister and am excited to watch the series. Would you be interested in me sharing a review once I watch it?

Mary, the bookish ugly duckling of Pride and Prejudice’s five Bennet sisters, emerges from the shadows and transforms into a desired woman with choices of her own.

What if Mary Bennet’s life took a different path from that laid out for her in Pride and Prejudice? What if the frustrated intellectual of the Bennet family, the marginalized middle daughter, the plain girl who takes refuge in her books, eventually found the fulfillment enjoyed by her prettier, more confident sisters? This is the plot of Janice Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister, a debut novel with exactly the affection and authority to satisfy Jane Austen fans.

Ultimately, Mary’s journey is like that taken by every Austen heroine. She learns that she can only expect joy when she has accepted who she really is. She must throw off the false expectations and wrong ideas that have combined to obscure her true nature and prevented her from what makes her happy. Only when she undergoes this evolution does she have a chance at finding fulfillment; only then does she have the clarity to recognize her partner when he presents himself—and only at that moment is she genuinely worthy of love.

Mary’s destiny diverges from that of her sisters. It does not involve broad acres or landed gentry. But it does include a man; and, as in all Austen novels, Mary must decide whether he is the truly the one for her. In The Other Bennet Sister, Mary is a fully rounded character—complex, conflicted, and often uncertain; but also vulnerable, supremely sympathetic, and ultimately the protagonist of an uncommonly satisfying debut novel.

Subscribe now

This is a Reader-Supported.

Every comment, like, share, and upgrades subscription helps keep this space thriving!

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

Want to book a call to help learn how you can connect with an audience online?

Send me an email at theliteraryassistant@gmail.com

Ok, now let’s chat.

I’ll be 44 in a week, and I’ve been wondering lately… have I reached the age of a “take me or leave me” attitude?

Maybe.

But if I’m being honest, this hasn’t been some overnight shift. It’s been building quietly for almost a year now… little changes in how I show up for myself, my family, and my business. The kind of changes that don’t always look dramatic to those of you on the outside, but feel you can’t stop thinking about them when you’re living them.

We all have those moments in life where something shakes us to our core, and suddenly, things that once felt important begin to fall away. I’ve been thinking of it like the trees in the fall… how the leaves let go, one by one, making space without protest. And then, eventually, spring comes. New growth. New energy. A different version of what was there before.

That’s what this season has felt like for me. (Although there are days when I want to grab the leaves and try to hold on. But, I know the season change for a reason.)

Over the last few months, I stepped away from my role as community manager at Jane Austen Literacy Foundation. It was something I poured my heart into for the past two years… building that community space from the ground up, watching it grow, connecting readers from all over the world. I’m incredibly proud of what I created there. But I also knew, deep inside, that it was time to move on.

At the same time, something else was growing behind the scenes.

Health and wellness found its way back into my life… this wasn’t just a passing interest for me, but as something I couldn’t ignore anymore. Years ago, I had started down the path of becoming a yoga teacher, but life got in the way and I let it drift. This time felt different. There was no more “someday.” It was time to go all in.

So I did.

I signed up for training. I showed up. I kept going. (Even though I had plenty of WTF am I doing this at 43 moments!)

And now, I’m officially certified to teach Barre, and just about finished with my Pilates certification. The wildest part? I’ll be teaching starting in June… at the same studio I first walked into back in October.

Am I terrified? Absolutely.

But I’ve been leaning hard into the idea of doing things scared. Of not waiting until I feel ready. Of trusting that I can figure it out as I go.

And honestly… it’s been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.

So what does all of this mean for this space? It means things are shifting here, too.

The Literary Assistant isn’t going away. I’ll still be working with my clients and doing the business side of things I love… but that will live in its own space, a tab for those who are looking for it.

This will now be a space for me to talk about life.

This is where I show up as me. Melissa Makarewicz. No more hiding behind a business name. No more only sharing a part of myself to fit into a box.

I think I’ve always felt that a part of me has to stay tucked away, afraid if I just “be myself” I won’t be someone cup of tea. Well, I guess I’ve reached a point where I’m ok with that. Maybe I love myself too much to not show up as me.

So here I am, sharing what I’m learning, what I’m reading, the life I’m building, and what I’m becoming.

Health. Habits. Books. Life in all its messy, evolving stages. Because I’ve definitely learned in almost 44 years of life on this planet, that life is messy, good, bad, crazy, and lots of things in-between.

I hope you’ll come along for the journey. :)

To start this next chapter, I wanted to share three books that have truly shaped me over the years… books that found me exactly when I needed them.

One is Do It Scared by Ruth Soukup. This was a book that came into my life during a time when I was holding back more than I realized. It’s all about facing fear, stepping forward anyway, and building a life that actually feels like yours.

Another is Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg. If you’ve ever tried to change something in your life and felt like you kept slipping back into old patterns, this book is a game-changer. It completely shifts how you think about building habits and more importantly, how to make them stick.

And finally, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I love this one for its simplicity. Instead of trying to overhaul your entire life at once, it invites you to focus on one small area at a time. It’s approachable, inspiring, and a beautiful reminder that change doesn’t have to be overwhelming to be meaningful.

So here we are. A new season. A new chapter of life. Me sharing myself.

I’m really glad you’re here.

Subscribe now

You will notice a few little changes happening here. I’m changing my domain to melissamakarewicz.com and I’m also making some branding changes as well. ☺️

The Literary Assistant is Reader-Supported.

Every comment, like, share, and upgrades subscription helps keep this space thriving!

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

He had just finished Pride and Prejudice.

And he informed me, very confidently, that it had landed on his list of the top 10 worst books he’s ever read.

I paused. Took a deep breath. And then we talked.

I truly believe it is always okay to not like a book. We all come to stories with different experiences, different expectations, different moods. What feels slow and tedious to one reader might feel comforting and immersive to another. And sometimes a book that doesn’t work for us now might become a favorite later, simply because we’ve lived a little more life by the time we return to it.

That part of the conversation was our normal bookish chatter.

But then he said something that made my jaw drop.

He told me that a friend’s parents had told their son not to read Jane Austen at all because she was “completely boring.”

And I could feel my mom lecture loading.😬

Not because I think everyone should love Jane Austen. (Clearly, my own son does not.) But because of what their comment to their son represents.

Reading is about exploration.

It’s about discovering what you like. What you don’t like. What surprises you. What challenges you. What comforts you. What stays with you.

We read for so many different reasons. Sometimes for escape. Sometimes to understand something new. Sometimes just to see what all the fuss is about.

But the one thing I feel very strongly about is this…

We should never tell someone what they will or won’t like.

I can tell you what I enjoyed.
I can tell you what didn’t work for me.
I can share my experience.

But I cannot… and will not… decide for you.

Because I don’t bring the same perspective to a book that you do.

And that’s the whole point.

This conversation also had me thinking about something else… something I’ve been noticing more and more in our reading culture.

*Pauses to step onto a soapbox.

Starred reviews don’t really tell us much. And I say that as someone who has absolutely relied on them, and encourages readers to leave them as part of my job, they’ve become shorthand. An easy way out. A way to decide quickly whether something is “worth it.” But in many ways, I think they’ve made us lazier as readers.

(I’d like to pause here and 100% admit I am guilty of doing this when I read on my kindle. Unless its a book I’m reviewing and need to write something thoughtful, I just tap those starts and start the next book.)

We rush to the next book. We check the rating. We grab another.

Without asking ourselves…

Why did I like this?
Why didn’t I?
What stayed with me?
What didn’t?

What if we slowed down?

What if, after finishing a book, we took even 15 minutes to write down our thoughts? Not for anyone else (although since part of my job is helping authors get reviews it would be amazing if you did :). But we can write a version just for ourselves.

To absorb what we just experienced.

To actually think about it.

As we kept talking, I reminded my son about what he loved when he first started reading on his own.

Urban legends. Scary stories. Comics.

Not my taste at all. But they were his. And they mattered, because those books were part of how he became a reader. What if I had told him back then, “Those are horrible books. You shouldn’t read those. Comics aren’t even REAL books.”?

I wouldn’t have just been dismissing a genre. I would have been dismissing a part of who he was becoming. A 16-year-old who loves horror, anime, and stories that pull him into worlds I wouldn’t naturally choose myself.

And that matters more to me than whether he likes Jane Austen. (I’m still holding out hope he will come to love her books later in life.)

So I’m writing this as a reminder to myself as much as anything…

To explore, not dismiss.
To stay curious, not dogmatic in my likes and dislikes.
To form my own thoughts instead of leaning entirely on the crowd.
And to take a little more time to reflect on what I read.

Reading is about discovering. And I love new adventures!

I’d love to hear from you.

Have you ever been told not to read something and read it anyway?
Or found a genre you love that someone else would never pick up?

I would love to hear your stories.

Melissa
The Literary Assistant

Subscribe now

The Literary Assistant is Reader-Supported.

Your support helps keep this space thriving! 😊

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

I haven’t been merely think about how to build habits, but how they shape who we are over time… and it’s had me thinking about something I’ve never really questioned before… why are some people readers… and some aren’t? Is it personality? Preference? Time? Or is it something simpler?

I keep coming back to the idea that for many of us, reading started as a habit that was introduced early, encouraged, and… at some point… clicked. We found a book we loved, we felt something, we got curious, and without really realizing it, a pattern took root. You pick up another book, and then another, and eventually it becomes something you just… do. Something you return to. Something that feels like part of you.

I also think there’s a strong connection between reading and curiosity. Readers tend to be people who want to know more. You see a book cover and wonder what’s inside. You hear your friends talking about a story they loved, and you want to experience it too. There’s a pull toward discovery, adventure, toward stepping into someone else’s world, toward understanding something new. That doesn’t mean non-readers aren’t curious. Curiosity shows up in so many ways. But reading offers a very specific kind of curiosity. A slower one. A more immersive one. The kind that asks you to stay a little longer, to sit with something, to imagine, to question. Explore.

There’s also something powerful about identifying as a reader, because identity shapes behavior in ways we don’t always notice. There have been plenty of times in my life where reading wasn’t easy… seasons where I was too stressed to focus, or where I just couldn’t seem to find the right book, or where life simply felt too full. But I always came back. Not because I forced myself to, but because something felt off without it, like there was a small, quiet space in my day that had been left empty. So I’d adjust. I’d DNF(did not finish) and pick up a different kind of book. Maybe nonfiction instead of fiction, or something lighter, or I’d just read a few pages at a time instead of diving all the way in. And eventually, the habit would return. Because it wasn’t just something I did… it was something I was.

What’s interesting is that not everyone experiences reading that way. According to LitHub, the median American read two books in 2025, while the average reader read eight. To put it more harshly, 19% of American adults did 82% of the country’s reading. That’s a huge gap, and it makes you wonder what separates those groups. Is it time? Access? Interest? Or is it simply that some people, at some point in their lives, built a habit that stayed with them?

I don’t think being a reader is something you either are or aren’t. I think it’s something that grows. It grows from exposure, from encouragement, from finding the right story at the right time, from those small, repeated moments of choosing a book over something else. And over time, those moments stack until one day you realize you don’t have to think about it anymore… you just reach for the book.

So I’m curious what you think. Do you see reading as a habit that’s cultivated over time, or is it simply a form of entertainment that some people naturally gravitate toward more than others? And if you are a reader, was there a moment where it clicked for you? I’d love to hear.

Subscribe now

Looking for something new to read? Check out this new series by Andrea Rose.

Two worlds. One prophecy. A love that could doom them both.

Harper

Elves don’t exist.

They definitely don’t crash through portals in the middle of the DMV, looking like a gorgeous God of Thunder, and announce that I’m the chosen one destined to save their world.

Aaran is definitely real, dangerous, magic-wielding, impossible to ignore, and terrifyingly persuasive. After he saves my mother from a brutal, early death, how am I supposed to say no to helping him?

I can barely keep my own life together—my driver’s license is about to expire, for god's sake. How am I meant to fight a witch queen, survive her monsters, and save an entire world I didn’t even know existed?

Aaran

My mission was simple: find the human woman and bring her to Domhan to fulfill the prophecy.
Caring for her was never part of the bargain.

I shouldn’t have healed her mother of the cancer. The effort nearly killed me. But my world is dying, and I couldn’t stand the thought of Harper losing the last person she loves, even if it costs me everything.

The oracle claims her magic is powerful and untapped. If they’re wrong, we won’t survive long enough to reach the witch queen. If they’re right, maybe Harper will save us all, if dark magic and constant danger don’t tear us apart first.
Every step we take binds her closer to me. Desire may be the one magic neither of us can control.

Start reading!

Because on the very same day, I hit a streak of 100 workouts.

And I couldn’t help but sit there and think… Oh. This is exactly what he’s talking about.

I think most of us want to be successful.

Whether that’s in writing, business, fitness, or just feeling more in control of our lives.

But we tend to think success is something that happens when…

• we finally feel motivated

• we find the right time

• or we somehow push through with willpower

But the truth is, success is much more like writing… or sports…

It’s a skill.

And like any skill, it’s built slowly. Repeatedly. Imperfectly.

Those first 60 days? They were a grind.

I was rebuilding strength. My stamina wasn’t there yet. Some days felt harder than they should have. There were moments where it would have been very easy to say, “I’ll just skip today.”

But I didn’t.

And somewhere around Day 70, something shifted. I hit my stride. My routines started to naturally help me have the time for my workouts instead of compete with them. I wasn’t forcing it anymore. I actually started looking forward to it. And… I could push harder. I felt stronger. I found my rhythm.

And now? I’m already looking ahead to 150.

Not because anyone says I have to. Because it’s just part of who I am now.

There’s a quote from the book Atomic Habits that hit me hard…

“Time magnifies the margin between success and failure.”

And I’ve felt that firsthand.

Those early days? They didn’t feel like progress. My body was sore. It was hard to convince myself to start the workout.

But they were progress.

Each small workout was stacking. Quietly. Consistently. Building something I couldn’t fully see yet. Working my way to that 1% better.

Another quote that I think smacked me in the face when I read it…

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

This is where most of us get stuck.

We set goals. Big ones. Exciting ones. But we don’t build the systems that make those goals inevitable.

We think willpower will carry us through.

But willpower fades. Systems stay.

And, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from both this book, my own experience, and my work with clients, it’s this…

You have to get clear on three things.

What habit are you trying to build?
Why does it matter to you?
And how are you going to make it happen consistently?

That “how” is where most of the magic lives.

And it doesn’t need to be complicated.

James Clear talks about creating a “gateway habit”

“What you want is a ‘gateway habit’ that naturally leads you down a more productive path.”

Something small. Simple. Easy to start.

Because once you start, it’s easier to keep going.

Think micro habits. Something that take less than 2 minutes to do.

The core principles of the book that helps you get this “gateway habit” started and stay successful at it are this…

“The first three laws of behavior change—make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy.”

Not overwhelming. Not perfect.

Easy. That’s it. No need to overcomplicate it.

That’s how habits stick.

And then there’s this one…

“The average person spends over two hours per day on social media. What could you do with an extra 600 hours per year?”

That one made me pause.

Because if small habits build success…

Then small distractions build something too.

The truth is, success doesn’t come from one big moment.

It comes from the small things you do when no one is watching.

The workouts you don’t skip.
The pages you write.
The emails you send.
The time you protect for you creative endeavors.

Stacked together.

Day after day.

Once the habit is built, it stops feeling like work. It just becomes who you are.

If this idea of small shifts and consistent habits is resonating with you, I’d love to invite you into something we’re doing this month.

Inside The Alignment Edit, we’re running a low screen-time creative reset for April.

Because if habits shape our lives…
then creating space away from constant input might be one of the most powerful habits we can build.

✨ When you upgrade your subscription for $7/month, you’ll receive:

• daily prompts for one week each month

• gentle guidance to build sustainable habits

• and a space to reconnect with your creativity

Delivered right to your inbox.

If you’ve been wanting to create more, think more, or simply feel a little more in control of your time…

I’d love to have you join us. 💛

Subscribe now

I did.

This weekend, we headed up north to my in-laws’ cabin in northern Michigan. Ah… home sweet home. There’s something about being back in my home state that instantly makes me a little happier. Better Made chips, coney dogs, trees… so many trees… and water everywhere you look. It just feels different in the best way.

I didn’t plan on taking an email break. That wasn’t the goal. But between the change of scenery, being with family, and stepping away from my usual routine, it just… happened.

No emails opened. No replies sent. For four full days.

And I have to tell you… it was interesting to watch my own response.

On Day 1, I definitely felt the pull. That little voice chirping in your ear saying, “Just check… what if something urgent came in?” My out-of-office was on, everything was covered, and still—there was that urge. What if someone really needed me on a Friday afternoon?

But then the weekend arrived, and I started to unwind. By Sunday, I wasn’t thinking about my inbox at all. And by Monday? I was actually… happy to stay away from that little envelope app.

Which got me thinking.

I refresh my inbox way too much.

And I don’t think I’m alone in that.

Just like I talked about in my last post… focusing on a few things and doing them well… instead of constantly checking and reacting, maybe there’s something to be said for putting intentional time blocks around our inbox.

Because let’s be honest…

What is a “timely response” anymore?

It feels like we’ve all been conditioned to believe that the second an email hits our inbox, we need to respond. Immediately. No delay. No pause.

But do we?

I recently completed a fitness certification (yes, my version of personal development tends to involve sweat), and the instructor mentioned something that stuck with me. She said, “They’re based in Germany, so don’t expect the kind of immediate response you’re used to.”

I thought, okay… maybe 48 hours.

Four days later, I got a thoughtful, perfectly lovely response.

And you know what?

Nothing bad happened.

I didn’t need the answer sooner.
My life didn’t change based on how quickly they replied.

It just made me realize something:

Maybe we’ve been trained to believe that everything is urgent.
Everything is breaking news.
Everything needs our attention right now.

But… does it?

So I’ll leave you with this question this week…

Can it wait?

Can the email wait until morning?
Can the message wait until after dinner?
Can you take a walk, notice the first signs of spring, and come back with a clearer mind?

Can you take a breath before jumping from one thing to the next?

Maybe.

Just maybe.

It can.

Happy reading,
Melissa
The Literary Assistant

Subscribe now

The Literary Assistant is Reader-Supported.

Your support helps keep this space thriving! 😊

The occasional affiliate links are used at no extra cost to you the reader.

But what if you don’t actually know what the smart way is?

That’s where I found myself not too long ago.

I’ve always been interested in being more efficient. Getting more done. Finding the best way to do things without feeling like I’m constantly spinning my wheels. But knowing you want to be efficient and knowing how to be efficient are two very different things.

And honestly? That gap can feel really frustrating.

At some point, I stumbled across a YouTube video talking about The 12 Week Year. The premise immediately caught my attention…

With focused effort, you can accomplish in 12 weeks what most people accomplish in a year.

I remember thinking… okay, that feels too crazy simple to work.

But also… intriguing.

I played around with the idea a bit last year, but if I’m being honest, life was full. I was in one of those seasons where you’re just trying to keep your head above water. (If you’ve been here a while you know.) And when you’re in that space, even the best systems feel completely overwhelming and don’t quite stick.

At the beginning of this year, I decided to try again.. but this time, seriously.

The concept itself is pretty straightforward.

You take the time to really think about what you want to focus on. Not everything. Just a few key things that actually matter.

Then you break those goals down into what needs to happen over the next 12 weeks and more importantly, what needs to happen each week to get there.

There’s also a strong emphasis on weekly check-ins. Not in a punishing way, but in a “am I actually doing what I said I would do?” kind of way.

I’ll be honest… some parts of the method felt a little more intense than what I naturally gravitate toward. So I adapted it.

I created a simple Google Sheet.
I wrote down three business goals and three personal goals.
And then I mapped out the milestones I needed to hit each week to consider the 12 weeks a success.

Nothing fancy. Just clarity.

Well… this was my first full 12-week cycle.

And here’s what happened…

I don’t know if I accomplished what I would normally accomplish in a full year…

But I can confidently say I accomplished WAY more than I ever do in a typical 12-week period.

And not just small things.

Some of the things I achieved felt big to me. The kind of progress that usually takes longer because it gets pushed aside, delayed, or lost in the shuffle of everyday life. I finished a certification that I would have put off for ages. I attended a fitness workshop that was way outside of comfort zone, but I did it. And most of all, I stay consistent in working on my goals.

There’s something incredibly powerful about narrowing your focus and returning to it week after week. It removes so much of the mental clutter.

You stop asking, “What should I be doing today?”
And start asking, “Am I doing the thing I said mattered?”

You wake up knowing exactly what you are setting out to do and it’s so much easier to say “no” to things that don’t align with your goals.

I’m absolutely going to keep using this method. In fact, I already have my next 12 weeks mapped out, and I’m genuinely excited to see what this next quarter holds.

Because now I’ve seen what’s possible when I focus on fewer things, track my progress, and stay consistent over time.

Not perfectly.
But done with intention.

If you’ve been struggling to make progress… whether it’s in your writing, your business, or even your personal life… I really encourage you to explore this approach.

Not as another thing to “do perfectly.” But as a way to create clarity and momentum. Because sometimes the problem isn’t that you’re not working hard enough…

It’s that your energy is spread too thin.

I’m also pairing this next 12-week cycle with something that felt very aligned after my recent “no power” day…

A low screen-time (outside of work) month for April.

Less scrolling.
More creating.
More thinking.
More space.

If that sounds like something you’ve been craving too, I’d love to invite you inside The Alignment Edit.

It’s a gentle space where we take these ideas, focus, creativity, sustainability, and actually put them into practice together.

✨ You can upgrade for $7/month to join us.

No pressure. Just an open invitation if you’re ready for a different rhythm.

Subscribe now

The Literary Assistant is Reader-Supported.

Your support helps keep this space thriving! 😊

Affiliate links are occasional used at no extra cost to you the reader.