“I hope with this book, people can sigh and say, ‘I can make peace with myself. I can be all these things and nothing excludes the other. I’m not a static, one-dimensional being,’” she says.

As my next book is going into press, I'm reflecting on the elephantine, at times painful, yet perfect path to the final book: A book has it's own internal intelligens. And birthing it, is a community effort. 

What the painted lady knew, and I had yet to learn.