🌿 It's called a book release for a reason
Five years in the making, and now Even After Everything is yours
It’s called a book release for a reason: something that begins within you, something that you work to the bone and back again, takes up a life of its own and then your one and only job is to let it. Today, Even After Everything is out in the wild, and I’m celebrating how far we’ve come.
This book will always be “From me,” but it’s no longer mine. It has always been “To you,” and now it’s yours. I release it to you today, with joy, as a gift five years in the making.
And now, the magic happens in the exchange.
It’s release day and I’m getting philosophical—indulge me!
I’m a big believer that every reading experience is a uniquely original one-to-one experience, because no one meets the same page quite like you do. No one has the precise collection of lived narrative or inner life reflections that you bring to a book. Put another way, there are as many different readings of any given book as there are readers of it.
A reading experience is intensely personal. Story calls to story, deep calls to deep, creating a wholly unrepeatable human exchange. If it’s not too bold, I want to invite you into a deeper conversation, and I hope you’ll join me there.
And so, an offering to:
Anyone who’s afraid to try again, love again, because they’re been hurt before.
Anyone who struggles to trust their joy, because surely the other shoe is about to drop.
Anyone who is searching for steadiness amid the dissonance of joy and sorrow.
Anyone who is hungry for a rhythm, a tempo, they can trust.
Anyone who is hopeful, though sometimes fears their hope.
🌿 What People Are Saying About Even After Everything 🌿
"A soaring memoir . . . a special work.”
— J.S. Park, hospital chaplain and author of As Long As You Need
“Masterfully written, both a balm and a bolstering.”
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, New York Times bestselling author"I never wanted the book to end."
— Hillary L McBride, PhD, psychologist, researcher, podcaster, author, and mother
"I highlighted the whole book."
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, author of Every Season Sacred and To Light Their Way; creator of Liturgies for Parents“The thing everyone says about Stephanie as an editor? ‘The best in the business.’ The same sentiment applies to Stephanie as a writer.”
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, author of Orphaned Believers“One of the best books I’ve read all year . . . the best (and I’ve read a few) book on the liturgical year I have ever read.”
— Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Books
Slant Letter is where I “tell” you about writing craft. Even After Everything is where I show you.
Stay tuned for close readings + AMAs coming up this fall! For now, thank you for being here. I’m honored to have you as a reader, and I can’t wait to hear just what kind of unrepeatable one-to-one exchange our stories will have as they greet each other.
P.S. Support this book and publication by liking this post, restacking, and forwarding to a friend. I’ve always known this book is going to be carried by writers. So thankful for you!
Take heart and stay feisty,
Available now!
I wrote “what’s the boldest thing you have to say?” at the top of my book proposal a few months ago after reading one of your posts. This has been such a helpful guiding question.
Two things help me find the thread in my writing: 1) pressing in to the thing I most resist or feel afraid to express, and 2) sharing my work with others and listening to their impressions. A dear friend recently read my query letter and positioning statements and could immediately tell which of my themes was the strongest. 🧡
I loved your prompts, and the one about differentiating between the work's aboutness and its illustrative elements was particularly helpful to me! I do all of my writing longhand (it slows me down enough to think) and when I'm stuck, I just start a new paragraph with "What I'm really trying to say is..." or "What I really want to know is..." and see where that leads me.
I also want to say that it was very encouraging to read that it took you three years of writing and revising to get to the center of its aboutness! I tend to think I should know everything right away and forget that writing well is a long process.