My book launch for When the Trees All Burned at my local art gallery turned out to be everything I’d hoped for—and quite the opposite of my 5 a.m. anxiety spiral where I imagined speaking to an empty room. Instead, we had a standing-room-only crowd gathered in a space where apocalyptic fiction beautifully intersected with the gallery’s “Margins & Peripheries” exhibition.

When The Trees All Burned launched into the world on April 1, not as a joke I was playing on all the fools out there, but as a cautionary tale—reminding people that we are called to be stewards of our planet and that there might be some wisdom in heeding the warnings of those who are experts in such areas.

Unpacking the series theme song by Pocket Rochelle, “The Path That Takes Us Home.”

Guess who just landed the coolest sponsorship for my book launch? STAY SOCIAL WATER! And honestly, the connection between my apocalyptic novel and this sparkly can of hydration makes more sense than I initially thought.

The truth is, domes have been a staple in pop culture since... well, forever. They’re these perfect little metaphors for isolation, protection, control, and salvation all wrapped up in one convenient transparent package. Like a literary snow globe, except we writers get to decide the weather inside, the inhabitants, and whether anyone gets to leave alive.

I remember being 13, perched beside my parent’s boombox with a blank cassette in the deck, finger hovering over the record button, waiting for the opening notes of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” to play on the radio. The moment I heard those distinctive opening drums, I’d press down, sometimes catching the DJ’s voice trailing off, sometimes missing the first few seconds—an imperfect capture of a perfect song. No matter how many times I tried, I never got it quite right—but that never stopped me from enjoying each attempt.

It's strange how sometimes, art connects in ways we never anticipated. While writing When the Trees All Burned, I had a soundtrack that helped shape the atmosphere—songs that carried the weight of ending and beginning, of destruction and possibility. But then, I found myself drawn to an unexpected addition: “Corner of the Universe” by Creed Bratton.

Yes, that Creed Bratton from The Office. Before he was quality assurance at Dunder Mifflin, he was a legitimate musician with The Grass Roots in the '60s. His solo work has this playful quality that, surprisingly, resonates with the themes I explore in my novel.

Discover how Marc Scibilia's “Life In My Bones” perfectly captures Jude and Brett's last-minute connection in When The Trees All Burned. This haunting song mirrors the novel's exploration of finding love at the apocalypse's edge, showing how authentic connection transcends time constraints. Perfect for readers who love apocalyptic fiction, emotional character arcs, and the intersection of music and literature.

I'm thrilled to announce that my apocalyptic novel When The Trees All Burned is now available for pre-order on Kindle at a special launch price of just $2.99!

In my upcoming novel When The Trees All Burned, the women aren’t just surviving the apocalypse—they’re defining it through their strength, resilience, and humanity. On this International Women’s Day, I want to celebrate these characters who embody different facets of feminine power and reflect on why writing multidimensional women matters now more than ever.

When I first heard Anna Ternheim and Dave Ferguson’s duet of “The Longer The Waiting,” I couldn’t help but draw connections to the themes I explore in my novel, When The Trees All Burned. Their intertwining voices—hers with a delicate strength, his with a weathered wisdom—create the perfect tension that mirrors the relationships caught in my apocalyptic narrative.

There’s something remarkably intimate about the way Gregory Alan Isakov crafts his music—a delicate balance of vulnerability and strength that feels like a conversation with an old friend in a dimly lit room. His song “If I Go, I’m Goin” carries this quality in spades, and, like all the songs I’ve shared before, carries thematic resonance with When The Trees All Burned.

Marketing a book series demands creativity, but what happens when your fictional musician demands to be heard? You know how sometimes characters take on a life of their own? Well, mine literally demanded a recording contract (sort of). What began as words on a page has evolved into a huge musical project that bridges the gap between fiction and reality.

Patrick Watson’s “The Great Escape” demanded a spot on the soundtrack to my novel When The Trees All Burned. The song’s gentle piano and ethereal vocals create a cocoon of melancholy acceptance around difficult truths—something my characters grapple with throughout their journeys.

Rajiv Montgomery Noah, the visionary (or madman, depending on who you ask) from my upcoming novel When The Trees All Burned, predicted earth’s destruction through what he called a “trinity of destruction: sky, earth, and man.” Well, some news from NASA just brought reality unnervingly close to fiction.

Reflections on humanity’s final season… As I wrote When The Trees All Burned, “Hot Scary Summer” by Villagers (written by Conor O’Brien) became more than just a song on my writing playlist — it evolved into a prophecy. The book unfolds through humanity’s final summer, ending dramatically on Labour Day, and O'Brien’s lyrics feel like they could have been written for my characters as they navigate their last precious months.

Themes of anti-capitalism and the rejection of materialism echo powerfully throughout the narrative of When The Trees All Burned. These same ideas are beautifully captured in The Avett Brothers’ thoughtful track “Untitled #4,” making it a perfect addition to the book's official soundtrack.

An early reader recently drew fascinating parallels between Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and my upcoming novel When The Trees All Burned. While separated by nearly three decades, both stories tap into a profound human yearning to break free from society’s artificial constraints.

There's something hauntingly beautiful about Nick Mulvery's "Cucurucu" that perfectly captures the emotional landscape of The Path That Takes Us Home. Both works explore the profound human desire to find our place in the world, to understand where we truly belong.

I don’t remember the first time I heard José González's haunting cover of "Heartbeats." I’m sure it was a result of the Spotify algorithm sending it my way because it seemed similar to other songs I’d been drawn to. And, because the universe delivers us what we need, I was served González's stripped-down acoustic arrangement which perfectly captured the raw emotional atmosphere I was trying to create in my novel — that delicate balance between devastation and intimacy.