How PSYCHE inspired the novel

The PSYCHE mixtape was a culmination of three years of creativity and dreaming. Each girl in PSYCHE represents a different aspect of my own psyche. Cassie represents my head, Yummy represents my intuition, and Isabela represents my heart. I was compelled to create these characters not only as a means of self-discovery but also to make a point that one-sided brand identities are insufficient for reflecting the complexity of artists and young women at large.

I began with Isabela, who was a sort of armor I could put on. She knew how to handle being the object of others’ fantasies when I didn’t. She was unafraid of her emotions when I was. She took up space and owned her vulnerabilities confidently, and taught me to do the same. I went on to define Cassie, a character whom I’d spent much of my life as, but had begun to feel quite stifled by. Still, I was unwilling to throw her away so that I could take on a more palatable and vacuous pop girl identity. The last character, Yummy, was really the first character. Yummy is a childhood nickname, and she felt like the perfect third piece of the trio. She was meant to reflect my feistier, unfiltered, but also playful side. Something that felt the most instinctive and connected to my inner child.

I worked on this project from 2018 until its ultimate release in 2021. While I feel successful in realizing my vision for the project, at the time, it felt very unsuccessful due to the large gap between my dreams and the reality of who the PSYCHE mixtape could reach in terms of listeners. I hadn’t prepared for a music landscape impacted by COVID, for the reality of releasing art into the hyper-congested internet vortex as an indie artist, nor for the inevitable lull that follows the release of a large project. I went into 2022 having written no new music that I was pleased with in over a year, and feeling completely lost about my direction as an artist.

Feeling so adrift, I returned to my favorite childhood hobby– reading. It was something I’d given less energy to since my final years of college, feeling like it was a distraction from the “grind” of making music. In the dead of Chicago winter, I burrowed into my blankets and read some of my favorite fantasy novels from my youth. I had no idea what I was doing with my life, but I felt better visiting the faraway lands of these stories. While I was reading, I had the thought: Wouldn’t it be amazing to write something like this? My initial reaction to the passing thought was that it was ridiculous. I’d never written anything besides songs and English essays. I didn’t know the first thing about writing a novel. But then I looked at the poster of the PSYCHE girls on my wall, and realized I had three well-developed characters. I was quite familiar with the fantasy genre. I even had a plot structure to use, as I had developed a fascination with Joseph Campbell’s theories about the Hero’s Journey. And so, on that frigid January evening with no direction and nothing to lose, I decided, why not try? Why not write a few chapters and see?

I gave the PSYCHE girls new names so I could have a fresh start, opened my laptop, and set out to write. And then I couldn’t stop. Another three years later, I ended up with The Diviner Sisters. But I also ended up with greater confidence in myself. The Diviner Sisters became my candle when I was in my darkest place. I didn’t know where it would take me, if anywhere, but I trusted it, followed its light, and over the past three years have built a life for myself which no creeping doubts can diminish. I hope that the Diviner Sisters can inspire the same sort of hope and joy in you as you read it. I hope that PSYCHE can remind you to own every part of yourself. And most of all, I hope these two projects can remind you to trust your head, your heart, and your gut.

Magic Musings

Speech from Witches Brew (Oct 18 2025)

Thank you to everyone for coming to celebrate magic, my birthday, Halloween, and this witchy novel that I’ve written. My birthday really falls at the perfect time of year for me. My whole life I’ve loved magic and I’m no stranger to Halloween birthday parties, but with the release of my new fantasy novel it just felt perfect to do a witch themed party. I’ve been very excited about this event all month and I’m glad you all could be here.

For those who don’t know, The Diviner Sisters is my debut novel. It is a young adult fantasy novel about three witch sisters who must come together to save their world from an evil empress after the Chosen One dies. As an avid fantasy reader I was familiar with these kinds of tropes, but there were a few which did not sit quite right with me. The chief of which being the idea that there the world of magic and then there were the normal, boring world.

I am quite convinced that our “mortal" world is full of magic. But because we’re so used to it, we don’t see it. And I didn’t want to write a novel that perpetuates the idea that our world is not magic. Hundreds of years ago humans used to acknowledge it as fact that the world was full of magic. But science has taken center stage, and we have created a culture which believes that nothing was ever magical, it could all be explained. But I think it is a mistake to believe the world is either rational and able to explained by the science or it is magical.

I believe wholeheartedly that our world is both. That the science we have benefited from is nothing more than the study of some of our world’s magic. The most obvious example is flying. For millennia humans dreamed of flying. There are stories of Helios who drove a chariot across the sky to raise up the sun. What is an airplane but a modern chariot?

Much of the modern world is powered by million year old dragon bones that have been compressed by the earth until it becomes the magical substance known as oil. Does it become less magical if we call those dragons dinosaurs?

Even our own bodies are magical. I recently learned I have a magnesium deficiency. And after taking my magnesium supplements, I’ve found my body functions much better. As a perpetually curious person, I wondered where does magnesium come from? When I looked it up I found the following explanation:

In the cosmos, magnesium is produced in large, aging stars… When such stars explode as supernovas, much of the magnesium is expelled…where it may recycle into new star systems.

So effectively this element which is essential to the functioning of the human body is star dust. We are creatures that run on stardust. If that is not magic, I’m not sure what is.

It really is the human element of magic that I’m most interested in. It’s the magic of our minds which dreams up the chariot to fly across the sky. It’s the magic of our bodies that turns stardust into a powerful remedy. It’s the magic of a song that can compel a person so deeply that they confess their love to someone, start a new career, or jump on a flying chariot and move across the world. I think that the ingenuity and creativity that exists in everybody is actually the truest form of spell work that exists in our world.

And I do believe it exists in everyone. Creativity is not something only the few can access, it is part of what it means to be human. We are all helplessly, perpetually, wonderfully and sometimes insufferably creative. Whether or not you identify as an artist, every single person creates their own way of speaking, their own way of moving, their own way of dressing, their own reality. There is no escaping creativity if you are human, and so there is no escaping magic.

As I’ve thought more and more about the fact that our world is truly bursting with magic, I’ve started to wonder why are we so determined to convince ourselves that it isn’t? Even before the scientific revolution, when most people readily believed in magic, most were also convinced that it was not for them to wield. And I’ve come to the conclusion that humans have a bad habit of diminishing our power and of believing the worst about ourselves. And I actually think that’s the worst thing that we can do for the rest of humanity. When we believe we are powerless, we’re reluctant to enact change. When we believe the worst of humanity, we lose drive to make the world a better place or worse, we bring about more suffering in the world because we believe it was already a lost cause. And I think this feeling of powerlessness can be valid. Even if we can believe that we’re magic it doesn’t make us all powerful. There are inevitably going to be things outside of our control. But I think there are those who benefit from us denying our inherent creativity and magic. And I think believing wholeheartedly in our own magic is an important act of resistance.

And I think this is why I think fantasy novels are a great reflection of life. Monsters and demons and evil empresses can be great metaphors for challenges, and the threats to our creativity and our souls, which are sure to come. In the novel, my main characters sometimes still fail even though they’re witches with all of these shiny new powers. But despite their limitations, it becomes undeniable to them that they are magical. They have no choice but to believe in their own capacity. They understand that there is much more to lose than a cute hobby when you relinquish your creativity, and they choose to not to give up. There’s not much difference to me between a witch who can summon fire to their fingertips and a person with a lighter. The how of the flame is not important. The more powerful one will always be the one who believes they could set the world ablaze.

Thank you all for coming. Thank you for celebrating my birthday and this book with me. There are signed copies of the book for sale if you’re interested. Thank you for celebrating this wonderful spooky season with me. And I hope you have lots of fun tonight.