The Society of Shame Review (Jane Roper)

Cover for “The Society of Shame” by Jane Roper. Image taken from the Penguin Random House website.

The fourth book I’ll be reviewing is The Society of Shame by Jane Roper. I found this at my local bookstore as opposed to Amazon, both for ethical reasons and because I don’t want to be constrained by an algorithm. The premise jumped out at me, even though I imagine I, as a childless twenty-something man, am not part of the target audience.

The Society of Shame is a political drama that starts just like so many others. Bill Held is running for the United States Senate as a Democrat to represent the State of New York. Given that New York is a blue state, he is expected to win the election easily. That is, until he’s found to be having an affair with a staffer more than twenty years his junior.

In a sane world, the affair should be the scandal that breaks the Internet. However, this novel is set in modern-day America, where nothing makes sense whatsoever. A photo of Bill’s wife Kathleen, with a giant period stain on her pants, goes viral instead, leading to immense mockery online. I felt that this plot point really demonstrates the double standard present in today’s politics - people castigate Kathleen for her bodily functions rather than Bill for betraying his wife’s trust.

Overall, I found the novel to be an effective political satire. Much like Bluebird Day by Megan Tady, The Society of Shame says something substantive while still making you laugh. You’ll be laughing not just at the fictional events described in the novel, but also the real-world politics of the United States. As someone who follows politics too closely for my own good, the line that jumped out at me and induced me to purchase the book was about the perils of being extremely online. As Kathleen becomes the face of a social movement (#YesWeBleed) to destigmatize menstruation, she and her 12-year-old daughter Aggie are forced to navigate what it means to “go viral” in this day and age. 

Gone are the days when most people would subscribe to a newspaper and have it delivered to their door in physical form. In those days, the barrier to posting information that might be considered “newsworthy” was far higher than it is today - you had to go to journalism school or whatnot and be hired by a paper. And if it was truly newsworthy, Walter Cronkite would tell you about it on the evening news.

However, newspapers have massively declined in influence due to the Internet. In fact, more than a quarter of American news outlets that existed in 2005 had shut down by 2022. Why would you pay for a subscription when there’s free news at your fingertips that costs you nothing but your mental health?

These days, all you need to do is get on your preferred social media app and repost a picture of a politician’s wife’s embarrassing moment. Within hours, minutes even, people all over the country, and even the world, know about Kathleen’s menstrual mishap. It’s just like the world-famous photo of Trump raising his fist in front of the American flag after almost getting assassinated. Even now, photos have power, and the Internet allows them to circulate more widely, more quickly.

A viral photo of Donald Trump, once and future President of the United States, holding his fist in the air after a bullet grazed his ear. Love him or hate him, he looked tough here. Image taken from the New Yorker.

While right-wing trolls mock her online, Kathleen is determined to turn her humiliation into a greater good. This isn’t easy, however, when social media makes her life a living hell. Kathleen may be able to cope with the harassment herself, but she doesn’t want to subject Aggie to the consequences of her Internet presence. The novel frequently contains excerpts from social media posts both supporting the #YesWeBleed movement and attacking it with slogans like #AllBloodMatters.

In addition to the #YesWeBleed movement, Kathleen finds herself in a secret society of famous people who were “canceled” due to their actions - it’s the “Society of Shame” from which the novel gets its title. Although it’s invoked farcically by the right-wing at times, cancel culture is a real issue that’s been exacerbated by the rise of social media.

Let me give an example: I am a longtime viewer of the CBS reality show Survivor. You know, it’s the one where people vote each other off the island. And don’t call it a live-action version of Total Drama Island; someone did that once, and I cannot tell you how much that hurt.

In any case, past seasons of Survivor were chock-full of drama, such as ontestants stealing each other’s shoes or dumping rice on the fire. However, more recent seasons, particularly those in the “New Era”, have tended to contain very little conflict between the contestants. It’s not just that nobody wants to be a villain, or that nobody is voted out anymore on the basis of “I don’t like you” or “You’re annoying”. Nobody seems to care when they lose, and the few players who are outwardly salty upon their blindside end up iconic.

Now, why am I telling you this? 

Simply put, the lack of drama on modern Survivor seasons is a direct result of social media. Nobody wants to get death threats on Xitter just because they did something mildly mean. Last year, Maria Shrime Gonzalez, a jury member on Survivor 46, was harassed and stalked in real life because she didn’t vote for longtime ally Charlie Davis to win the game. It’s one thing to disagree with her decision to award Kenzie Petty the title instead, but some people took it way too far. And social media makes it a hell of a lot easier for rabid viewers to take it way too far.

A statement CBS felt the need to post on social media after the finale of Survivor 46. Image taken from r/Survivor.

No matter how much she might like to be anonymous at first, that’s no longer an option for Kathleen. By virtue of her husband’s status as a politician, she’s kind of forced to be a public figure. In the weeks following the infamous photo, she feels the need to constantly check her phone, an illustration of just how addicted we’ve become to the stimulation of getting news right this second. 

Furthermore, every little thing Kathleen says while being interviewed is scrutinized. The leader of the titular Society of Shame is a writer who made derogatory comments about her readers, whereas Kathleen’s answer of “Um, yeah, no” is turned into a viral catchphrase. Whenever you’re a public figure, by chance or by choice, every word you speak matters. The Society members cannot escape that reality.

There’s one other theme of the novel that I want to discuss, which is the conflict between a politician’s personal life and their political views. 

When Bill Held runs for Senate, his positions on issues like reproductive rights make him a better ally for women, politically speaking, than his opponent. However, when the affair is brought to light, Bill’s poll numbers drop, jeopardizing what should be a solidly Democratic Senate seat. Some voters have trouble reconciling Bill’s political stances with the disrespect he’s shown toward his wife, even if his opponent is a hard-right, Blue Lives Matter Republican. 

Kathleen and the #YesWeBleed movement also face criticism. For instance, several times in the novel, characters remark that #YesWeBleed isn’t intersectional enough. There’s another scene where this is emphasized in which…well, I won’t spoil it. But you won’t be disappointed.

Of course, we see plenty of political hypocrisy in real life. There’s the term “champagne socialist”, used to describe highly wealthy people who advocate for progressive economic policies. And don’t forget Herschel Walker, the “100% pro-life™” 2022 Senate candidate who paid for his mistress’ abortion.

The Society of Shame felt very “on the nose.” As stated above, it’s a political satire, but it didn’t feel very exaggerated, even if it was a lot funnier than most movements are in the real world. Of the four books I’ve reviewed so far, this was the most hilarious and entertaining. Yes, even more so than Bluebird Day. The only minor gripe I have is that the ending felt a bit rushed.

This book’s target audience was probably middle-aged women, of which I am not one. That being said, I would recommend the read for anyone who can enjoy a good political satire without weeping too much for the state of the U.S.A. or the world at large. I will give The Society of Shame a rating of 9.5/10. 

The Islanders Review (Lewis Robinson)

Cover of “The Islanders” by Lewis Robinson. Image taken from the Island Port Press website.

In the last few days of having a remotely functioning adult in the White House, I decided it was time for a new book to read. It would serve as a distraction from the TikTok shenanigans that I talked about in yesterday’s post. So I went to my local bookstore as usual and purchased The Islanders. It was a new release, they said, that was quite popular and very thought-provoking.

The Islanders centers around Walt McNamara, a high school hockey star-turned high school dropout who joins a leadership program on Maine’s fictional Whaleback Island. This island contains a golf club and mansions for the ultra-wealthy, along with some pristine wilderness. Right away, I knew that class conflict was going to be a key theme of the story (which was also evidenced by the summary on the back cover).

I’ve visited a couple of islands in Maine - I’m from Massachusetts, after all. On many of these islands, there are “summer colonies” where people from other states own property. This can lead to gentrification, which isn’t just an important aspect of that show Yellowstone, but is also present in Lewis Robinson’s novel. Very often, locals are priced out of island life, and this leads to tension between those who live there year-round and those who enjoy the pleasant summers but avoid the cold, isolating winters.

In many ways, The Islanders is a coming-of-age novel. That’s right, all fifty participants of the leadership program on Whaleback Island (one from every state) are roughly 19 years old. They’re navigating what it means to grow up, and part of the leadership program is to develop self-reliance because “the people who settled this island knew how to fend for themselves.” There’s also commentary about class and how heirs of “old money” families didn’t really earn their wealth, but that’s a subject for later in this review.

Poetry is invoked frequently, as are the writings of Henry David Thoreau. Walt frequently mentions that he feels in tune with nature, like he belongs on this island, by virtue of partaking in the grueling physical activity mandated by the program’s leaders. 

The characters fight sometimes, but they also fall in love, and I was startled by just how willing these 19-year-olds were to strip down in front of each other. Maybe I’ve lived a sheltered life, admittedly, but these were the horniest young men and women I’ve read about in a while. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable being naked around so many strangers, but often these characters don’t wear bathing suits during their morning swims in the very cold Maine ocean. Isn’t it FREEZING? Of course, it could always be worse.

Calvin (from Bill Watterson’s “Calvin & Hobbes”) showing us a way swimming could be worse.

And speaking of being horny, you could just tell by the writing style that the narrator is in his late teens. I don’t know how old Lewis Robinson is, but he was clearly able to put himself in the mindset of a 19-year-old boy with raging hormones and the mouth of a sailor. There were plenty of brief passages where the profanity made me chuckle.

As stated above, a key element of this story is class conflict. Throughout the story, the wealthy Club members are portrayed as the antagonists, and the young men and women taking part in the WILD program speak of these members with disdain. I will say, though, that the class conflict took a while to get started; I was halfway through the book and it had barely even been discussed up to that point. There were other hints at it, though, like the use of the word “thoroughbred” to describe rich white “authentic” Maine residents. Fortunately, this display of nativism is condemned by most of the novel’s characters.

Although it’s hinted that this book is set in the early 2000s (as the presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore is implied to have recently occurred), it felt incredibly timely. The overlords of the Whaleback Island club frequently admire a group of wealthy ranchers in Montana who fatally shot intruders. This event is never shown in the story, only mentioned, but it made me think about how vigilante justice has been embraced with increasing frequency in the United States.

Look at Kyle Rittenhouse. He drove across state lines to a protest he had no business being in, created a situation where he could claim he feared for his life, and literally got away with murder. Even before he was acquitted on all charges, the right-wing made him a celebratory hero of self-defense. His life now is incredibly sad, though perhaps not as sad as it should be - he should be in prison! And this continued celebration of Rittenhouse means that people are going to be rightfully afraid of protesting Trump’s second presidency.

The left isn’t immune to embracing vigilantes; look at the recent fawning over Luigi Mangione after he assassinated a health insurance executive. I’m not trying to draw a moral equivalence between these two cases, but I am trying to illustrate that people are frustrated with the status quo, and this novel touches upon that quite effectively.

One of many Luigi Mangione memes circulating around the Internet. This one is from Oladino’s website.

Now, a content warning is in order. At one point in the novel, there’s an incident of gun violence (with multiple AR-15s) that catches readers completely off-guard. Like, it comes almost out of nowhere, like all too many of the high-profile shootings in recent American history. But there’s something else I found notable about this scene.

Despite how horrific and traumatic such an event is, I feel like the shooting is barely mentioned again after a few pages. It’s memory-holed, just like all too many mass shootings have been within days or weeks of the tragedy. So if mentions of gun violence are triggering to you, I would recommend against reading the novel. (For the record, the author has stated the novel was inspired by the youth activists who survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018).

There are two main things I didn’t like about the novel. One is that the scenes kept yo-yoing back and forth between Whaleback Island and Walt’s previous life in New Hampshire. At the time, I didn’t really enjoy the shift in perspectives, because I wanted to read about the WILD program, not what happened before it when it didn’t appear relevant to the story. I will promise you, though - it does pay off later. So maybe I shouldn’t hate it too much, but at the time it did feel like I was repeatedly being torn out of the present. 

The other criticism I hold against The Islanders is that the ending felt somewhat rushed. For obvious reasons, I’m not going to just tell you how the ending is rushed; it just is. The book was 304 pages long, and I think it could have done with maybe 40 more pages. Given that most novels these days are in the 300s in terms of pages, I don’t think it would have been an unreasonable ask to pad it out a little. We needed more time for everything to be resolved.

Overall, The Islanders was a pretty good book with which to occupy the last three days. It made me quite conscious of my privilege as a white man with a very comfortable upbringing, and the social commentary surrounding America’s youth resonated with me. However, the book’s pacing and rushed ending prevents it from being one of my favorites. Again, though, it’s okay at the end of the day. Better than okay. I’ll give The Islanders a score of 8/10.

The Writing Retreat Review (Julia Bartz)

Cover of “The Writing Retreat” by Julia Bartz. Image taken from the Simon & Schuster website.

After I finished reading Bluebird Day by Megan Tady and reviewed it here, I went to the local bookstore in search of new reading material. Whenever possible, I believe it’s important to support your local libraries and physical bookstores as opposed to Amazon. Regardless, after searching the store for several minutes, I found one called The Writing Retreat.

This title resonated with me. You see, I’m a former fanfiction author in “real life”, or as close as the Internet can realistically come to real life. Perhaps I’d be able to relate to the characters, including protagonist Alex, who is invited to a month-long writing retreat with a world-famous novelist.

Cover of “The Puzzler’s Mansion” by Eric Berlin, a book I initially compared to “The Writing Retreat.” Image taken from Penguin Random House’s website.

The premise reminded me of a book I read about half my life ago (man, I feel old) called The Puzzler’s Mansion, written by Eric Berlin. That novel was also set on an estate in (presumably) upstate New York, and it also featured an intellectual competition. Unlike The Puzzler’s Mansion, however, The Writing Retreat is not suitable for children. 

I’ll get into why it’s not suitable for children later. To make one thing perfectly clear, I’m not the sort of person to get excessively moralistic about adult content in children’s books and TV series. Every kid’s favorite YouTube and TikTok (RIP) stars already cuss like drunken sailors. That being said, I don’t think ten-year-olds should be watching Squid Game, and I also don’t think ten-year-olds should be reading The Writing Retreat.

As stated above, the main character, Alex (who, as far as I remember, was not given a last name), is an aspiring author who has long looked up to the world-famous feminist novelist Roza Vallo. She’s absolutely over the moon at the prospect of attending Roza’s retreat, even after she learns that her former friend Wren is also going to be there. However, once the women arrive at the retreat, they’re told that each of them will have to complete a novel in one month, writing at least three thousand words a day.

Now, during the height of my fanfiction career, there were days when I wrote more than that. But to think that I’d do it every day for a month is pushing it, and that’s not even considering that I barely edited my work before posting it online. Every day by midnight, the retreat’s attendees must print out their work and send it to Roza, to be critiqued by the other authors. 

One key theme in the novel is that of forgiveness. You see, the reason Alex and Wren are no longer friends is because of an incident that occurred before the events of The Writing Retreat. Alex must learn to forgive herself for what happened, but instead she’s tricked herself into hating Wren with a burning passion. As someone who struggles with self-forgiveness in real life, this is one part of the book I greatly appreciated.

Additionally, the book can be considered a “meta-novel.” Within the text, Alex draws inspiration from the storied tale of Roza’s Blackbriar estate in order to write her own novel. Excerpts from said novel are peppered throughout the text, which I honestly didn’t love; I felt like it took me out of the real story to focus on a tale that’s less relevant to the novel’s plot. That being understood, I understand why Bartz wrote parts of Alex’s fictional novel The Great Commission into the real novel The Writing Retreat. So if you’re an aspiring author looking for tips, I suppose this might be the book for you.

Another aspect of the book I liked was the foreshadowing. There were many plot twists present, and in hindsight there were signs, if you knew where to find them, that these twists would occur. I would imagine this is the sort of book you need to read twice in order to fully understand; if I ever pick this one up again, this time knowing how the story ends, I’ll know what to look for. This is a horror novel, after all, and if you’re a horror character, you make poor decisions. It’s what you do.

In addition to being a horror novel, it’s rather erotic. There is of course nothing inherently wrong with that; if anything, I liked how The Writing Retreat brings up themes of sexuality (and Alex’s struggles to accept her own) and race (as Alex expresses surprise that only one of her fellow authors at the retreat is a person of color). In fact, I’m sure this book is going to be banned in some red state before long if that hasn’t happened already.

That being said, if you’re the sort of person who gets squeamish at sex scenes, or even the discussion of sex, this is not the sort of book you should be reading. Reader discretion is advised, as they say.

Now, there are also elements of the book I really didn’t care for. I mentioned above that this is probably the sort of book you should read twice in order to truly understand. However, even if you read it five times, there are things you still probably don’t understand. If you can read The Writing Retreat and honestly tell me that you didn’t see any plot holes, you’ve probably got either slightly worse or far better reading-comprehension abilities than me. 

There were many moments in The Writing Retreat when my jaw was on the floor and I looked up at the ceiling, wondering what the hell just happened. However, at times, it really felt like Bartz prioritized “shock value” over having an internally consistent story. This drags the story lower on my personal scale, because some of the foreshadowing simply doesn’t pay off. 

One or two “mini-storylines” don’t have a conclusion, and I see this as a problem if The Writing Retreat is to be labeled as a “Great American Novel.” It’s not a terrible book by any means, but it’s certainly one of the most bizarre tales I’ve ever subjected myself to. So if you don’t want your mind to be messed with, I suggest not reading this novel.

Overall, I can’t say The Writing Retreat was as amazing a novel as Bluebird Day. Perhaps that’s due to my bias toward the latter as an avid skier. Or perhaps it’s because I can recognize when a book isn’t written with as much care as it perhaps could be. Given that Bartz’s novel is a New York Times bestseller, it can’t be all bad.

Here’s my verdict: The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz is very much a popcorn read. It’s intellectually stimulating sometimes, but other times it’s an erotic fantasy. Again, some erotic fantasy is enjoyable in moderation, and I’m not even saying this book had too much of it. And I’ll give Bartz this: The pages kept on turning! I read this book in less than three days. Unfortunately, the sheer number of plot holes will probably taint any reread I pursue.

If I were purely rating this book based on how exciting it was, I’d give it at least an eight out of ten. However, because I can’t overlook the plot holes, I’ll give it a 6.5/10.  I’ll end with this meme about plot holes I found on Pinterest.

Megan Tady’s “Bluebird Day” - A Review

The other day, I had to fly from Denver back home to Boston. My flight (DL499) was delayed by a whopping twenty minutes, so it occurred to me to head into the airport’s bookstore and find a new novel to read. And wouldn’t you know it, the airport in Colorado had a novel about skiing.

Megan Tady wasn’t really on my radar until I set my eyes on the paperback and knew I had to read it. Knowing that this novel was published in December 2024 (in other words, quite recently) gives me hope. Maybe AI isn’t going to make us lose our humanity and desire to produce art. As an avid skier in real life, this title jumped out to me, as the term “bluebird day” is part of skiing lingo. It basically refers to a day when the sky is deep blue and there are zero clouds, preferably with copious snow having recently fallen.

Cover of Bluebird Day by Megan Tady as I held it on my lap.

The novel centers around Claudine Potts and her daughter Wylie. Claudine is a former alpine skiing legend who won several gold medals before her career ended due to an untimely injury in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Wylie dreamed of following in her mother’s footsteps, but her severe anxiety put an end to that dream before her career really began. Without skiing to bond them together, Claudine and Wylie have drifted apart, and don’t speak to one another for two years prior to the time period in which the main story takes place.

The “inciting incident” of the novel is when Wylie’s boyfriend Dan, who’s planned to pair up with Wylie in a fitness competition in Berlin, suffers a debilitating injury that prevents him from doing so. As such, Wylie asks her mother to be her partner instead, and they travel to Switzerland because…well, I’m not going to spoil it. I will, however, say that family drama is a focal point of Bluebird Day, which explores the timeless theme of an estranged parent-child relationship. 

Bluebird Day is set in Zermatt, a luxurious Swiss town at the base of the world-famous Matterhorn. I’ve personally never been to Zermatt, though I’ve been to another town close to it - Verbier. In any case, the Matterhorn is often referred to as a “living” mountain within the book, like it’s a major character in the novel. To some extent, it is such a character, even if it never has any dialogue.

The Matterhorn overlooking the resort town of Zermatt, Switzerland. Image taken from Tom Archer’s website.

Of course, the elephant in the room for any work of fiction involving skiing, or any other snow sport really, is climate change. As sobering a reminder as it is that climate change threatens the sport many of us love, I appreciated that the author talked about real life. This is not a purely escapist novel - it should make readers think.

 Given that the climate crisis has been in the public consciousness with events like the fires in Los Angeles, Bluebird Day felt quite timely and not just what some call a “popcorn read.” Several characters in the novel mention how the warming planet is causing glaciers to recede, and it plays more of a role in the story than I anticipated. When fictional characters take climate change more seriously than the President-elect of the United States, you know the world’s in trouble.

Putting aside climate denial, there’s a more subtle aspect of American culture that I feel the book criticizes. As stated above, Claudine is a former Olympic medalist. She’s extremely competitive - some might use the word hardcore, given how she endlessly travels the world in search of snow. She kept competing even as a 24-year-old mother to a toddler Wylie. As a 24-year-old myself, such a life seems unthinkable.

We see such themes in real life too. American society, at least from a worker’s point of view, is highly competitive. If you invent something ground-breaking, you might become a billionaire; fail to prove your worth, and you may well end up destitute on the streets. Admission to the “best” universities, like Yale or Harvard, is often reserved for either those who get the highest SAT scores or whose parents also attended those universities. 

You and I can debate all day about unearned advantages and whatnot, but competition is a constant in both real-life America and Bluebird Day. The common refrain is “If you ain’t first, you’re last”, and it’s that mindset which motivates many of the decisions Claudine and Wylie make in the novel.

When unforeseen circumstances jeopardize Wylie’s ability to partake in the aforementioned fitness competition, she is devastated. She and her mother go to extraordinary lengths to be able to reach Berlin in time. Additionally, there are several points in the story where Wylie feels guilty about eating anything that doesn’t conform to a perfect keto diet, leading to a tension between her moral “obligation” to compete and her desire to take things less seriously at least temporarily.

Although the book tackles some serious and important topics, both those that existed since time immemorial (like healthy family relationships and how to maintain them) and those that are more associated with the last few decades (like climate change and the effects of social media on mental health), it’s also very funny. On more than a few occasions, I literally laughed out loud reading Bluebird Day.

 Some books about climate change lack any comic relief whatsoever. This is understandable, given that it’s a serious, complex topic. But this was not one of them. Just because it wasn’t a totally escapist novel doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good way to distract oneself from doomscrolling. (And by the way, the word “doomscrolling” does make an appearance in the book.)

Overall, I greatly enjoyed Bluebird Day and would recommend it to anyone with a passing interest in skiing, or even if you just want a fairly quick read that’s still thought-provoking. It certainly kept me from doomscrolling as much as I might otherwise have the last few days. 

A cursory Google search tells me that Bluebird Day currently has about 3.9 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. While it’s not the most amazing Great American Novel that’s ever been written, and there have been books with more suspense, I still think it deserves better. I’d probably give it a 9 out of 10; if I do future book reviews, I’ll probably come up with a more precise scale.

Thank you, Megan Tady. You gave me several hours of enjoyment that I might otherwise have spent in front of my computer reading about Trump threatening to invade Canada.

Blog Post Title One

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Two

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.