From hospital stays to manic chapters, from a strange workshop to long pauses, Built for Belonging was forged in chaos. This is the story behind the story and the people who helped it become more than just a book.

When I’m manic, writing isn’t a hobby. It’s survival ink. The words don’t wait; they flood, they demand, they save me. Storytelling has been both my lifeline and my compass, helping me not only survive the storm but thrive because of it.

My gender is not a compromise. It is not confusion. Non-binary, for me, isn’t the absence of gender but the freedom to move beyond borders—following my own compass, shifting expression, and reclaiming identity as fluid, expansive, and whole.