One month since we lost you.
Time has warped and stretched and curled into itself in a tangled mess of confusion and contradictions. I move too slowly some days. Too fast others. People keep reminding us there’s no right way to move through this, that we just will.
I cling onto the things I can count — Mondays since: 4, full belly laughs: 3, days back on set: 6, sunrises: 2 — and let go of the things I’ve lost count of, like the innumerable gestures of love and support from friends far and wide, or surprise tears that have sprung up at the most unexpected times, or all the tiny, everyday miracles of nature I try to catch a glimpse of you in.
I wanted everyone in my life to meet you because I hoped that knowing you would mean knowing me. I will carry you with me in everything and hope they meet you there.
💙
In other writing news: I WILL MARRY YOU! 💍
•••••
In the first month of my MFA, I was lucky to attend a panel at a literary conference where @_rwinstonsworld dropped a nugget of wisdom that has stayed with me ever since:
“Everything is writing.”
Which I took to mean: “Live, and the writing will follow.”
That has never proven more true than this past year when I had the profound honor of officiating two of my favorite couples’ weddings.
Once the nerves about the magnitude of the task had settled (and once the happy tears slowed down), I got to work and found that it was all already there. That a life overflowing with friendship, cozy nights in, adventures around the world, honest, vulnerable chats, curiosity, good books, good food, dancefloors, big laughs, big cries, and profound affection for these four individuals was all I needed to tell a story of love and hope.
Writing feels harder than ever these days but it’s important to remember that all of it is writing. All of it.
Cheers to all the stories told in 2025! May 2026 be boundless fuel for many more stories to come ✨
May 2025
Freelance production feels like a high-speed chase a lot of the time. Jobs come and go at breakneck speed it can be hard to keep track of the end goal—writing! always writing!—and take a breath to celebrate the small wins when you do get one step closer to that goal.
Shoutout to @jihye.co for taking a chance on my writing and throwing me into the Joint NY mania. Getting to watch our silly little spot come to life was surreal and an absolute blast 🧛🏻
•••••
“Conundrum” for @jointnyc
Directed by: @lanre.mov
DP: @by.jackinzer
Gaffer: @mevishoots
Producer: @mcbacchant
Producer: @lizzygannon
Writer / Producer / AD: @zoepaddon ✌️
Production Assistant: @emma_herrington01
Production Assistant: @darknisx
Production Support: Alex Kenny
Sound Op: @amp_ameliapalmer
SFX HMU: @libbyrosemakeup
Post / VFX: @elijahrben
Conundrum: Robert Tunstall
EP: Dana Aber
A brief moment of appreciation for @austinfilmfest 🤠
So much of the writing process is invisible. We find pockets of time to create and live in our own worlds—chipping away at plot and structure and character and theme and dialogue and message and prose and voice again and again and again—all while living in the Real World, keeping up jobs, trying to be good friends and family members, facing the onslaught of profoundly distressing news, doing all the mundane tasks adulthood demands of us, and squirming through conversations with smirking finance bros in bars: “Oh you’re a writer? Anything I’ve read?”
And then we get to do the thing we dream of daily: we press pause on the Real World. We flock to Downtown Austin, donning our gigantic lanyards and wolfing down our Cava lunches, and for eight jam-packed days, we are all Writers. Plain and simple.
We take each other at face value, exchange ideas with generosity and openness, exist in the same space as masters of the craft, share doubts and fears and concerns about just how much delusion it takes to actually succeed, laugh and commiserate until wee hours of the morning, and marvel as our community morphs and grows across the country.
It is such a gift to feel this inspired. All there is to do now is to keep on writing!
