“For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams.”
-Audre Lorde, “Poetry is not a luxury”
Game design
Twice, I created original escape rooms for my child’s birthday parties, and one of those times I even wrote it all down: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1am2qE08QblHOb5yIwYup0GQ4r_ff9U-yh8yvaA_V39I/edit?usp=sharing
I created a Lord of the Rings-themed expansion to the 80’s board game Personal Preference. To play, just print and cut out the cards. You can mix them in with the original Personal Preference cards or play them on their own using Personal Preference rules. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A7C2OPdiYadqEJMbyh2kzJ7toIvrkgDB3xkrJhjsqX8/edit?usp=sharing
Writing that’s not about libraries
One of my friends is a very talented musician; I was honored to write some lyrics for the EP: Distant Mirror. (2025). S-T. (Music by J. da Costa; lyrics by A. McLay Paterson).
I grew up very religious, and I have some complicated feelings about that and all the associated violence: https://audacity.substack.com/p/the-whacking-game
One year I only worked part-time and read a lot of books, so Vox paid me to write about that: https://www.vox.com/2015/12/29/10634416/reading-list-books
Also in 2015, I got so mad about Halifax jaywalking fines that I wrote a pedestrian manifesto for The Coast: https://www.thecoast.ca/news-opinion/i-am-a-pedestrian-and-i-am-an-idiot-5091155
“Things I Shouldn’t Say” in Understory Magazine (2015) https://understoreymagazine.ca/author/amy-m-p/
My favourite cakes
