It can be a tender thing to launch a creative project into the world. That’s true whether you’re an actor, a baker, a musician, a quilter, or almost any other artisan. As a writer, releasing a book often feels like that scene in early Gray’s Anatomy where Meredith stands before Derek and says, “Pick me, choose me, love me.”

In short, it’s a little bit vulnerable.

When I launched my first book back in 2019, Daryl took me to see Sweeney Todd at our local theater, to distract me from all of the big feelings. (A murdering, singing barber will do that!) These days, I’ve learned to notice and honor the feelings as they come and pass. There are a lot of them, in the week leading up to a book launch.

And these feelings aren’t just about whether people will like the book. That’s part of it, for sure—no author wants to be panned or ignored. But they go beyond just wanting the book to hit well. They run the full gamut from excitement to terror. To paraphrase my writer-friend Ruth, the only thing scarier than no one is reading your book is people actually, you know, reading your book.

But here’s the thing: being part of the literary world is one of the great joys of my life. And that joy is a wonderful balm for all of the BIG FEELINGS™ that show up on launch week.

I love my writing communities. That’s you, beloved SubStack friends. It’s the writers who read early drafts of my work (thank you, Steve! thank you, Aarik!) and gave me honest feedback. It’s the writers whose books I love who have helped me grow in the craft. It’s fellow writers in the trenches being honest about what it takes to turn a beautiful phrase and keep pursuing what is beautiful and true in a world filled with AI slop and lazy shortcuts. It’s writers who are also bookstore owners (I love you, Nooks!) who foster community spaces where people can be together, heartened, seen, and read.

Each time I publish a book and begin to feel all the feelings (hooray! oh no! how are my numbers doing? what have I forgotten?), I remember that you and each fellow reader and writer out there are the biggest gifts of all.

I’d be honored if you’d give Weathering Change a look. Preorders matter, and this is the last week you can sneak one of those in, at Amazon or Nooks or anywhere you love buying your books. (You can also request it at your local library, which is free to you!)

But above all, please know that I am so grateful that you’re with me on this journey of words, seeking to make meaning out of life.

Today’s podcast is short and sweet—just 25 minutes. In it I read chapter one from Weathering Change. Many thanks to my publisher, InterVarsity Press, for giving me permission to share it with you today.

If you’d prefer to read it rather than listen to it, you can find it here.

Thank you for your love and support. I am so excited to share this book with you!

When I attend birding festivals, I love to go out on tours. There’s nothing like loading into a van with five or ten other bird enthusiasts and a couple of guides and see what we discover together. Plus: the guides carry the big, heavy spotting scopes, which is a nice perk on a long, hot day.

I don’t usually look into who my guides are before I sign up for one tour over another—I figure that if they’ve been hired, they’re qualified and know the area, and that I’ll have plenty of time to get to know them over the course of our day.

Last November I went to the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival. Highly recommend—it was so well-organized that there were volunteers standing outside of the tour vans at 5:30am just to hand out free lens wipes and make sure we had enough water! A great festival with astounding birds, many of which are found only outside the US and in the Rio Grande Valley.

One day I signed up for a “Big Day” trip—a full day of friendly competition. Ten or so vans filled with birders trying spot as many birds as we could within a specific window of time. One of my guides on that day turned out to be Derek Sallmann.

Derek is the co-founder of Badgerland Birding, an organization that does everything from education to conservation to tours. He has a delightful, educational YouTube channel that’s well worth perusing, and a podcast as well.

I didn’t learn any of this until I Googled him. In typical Midwestern fashion, Derek would never toot his own horn. In fact, I didn’t even think to look him up until our group stopped to try and find a Common Parauque and a nine-year-old birder from another van came up to us, looked at Derek, and said, “It’s YOU! I watch you ALL THE TIME!”

To be on a tour with a fellow Wisconsinite warmed my heart, and Derek was a wonderful guide through the Rio Grande Valley. I am delighted to know that Badgerland Birding exists, and I know that you will be, too. Join us as we learn from Derek about the birds of Wisconsin, what makes a good birding guide, and what he hopes to accomplish in 2026.

Today we’re joined on the show by Jennifer Grant, a Chicago author of books for children and adults. I’ve loved Jennifer’s work for years and was delighted to pick her brain about her newest work, Consider the Birds, a lovely picture book filled with wonder.

Jennifer talks all things children’s books, birds, and faith, including how her faith compelled her to take a stand against certain governmental practices in Chicago this autumn. Jennifer is a gentle soul and a wise guide, and I know you’ll be just as enriched by our conversation as I was.

Check out more of Jennifer’s work on her website, including fabulous books for adults like my favorite, Dimming the Day.

Gina and I became friends over social media a few years back. Then we became good friends when she started regularly texting me photos of Northern Cardinals. I live in California, you see, and those red beauties rarely make it out past the Rocky Mountains. What a gift!

It was only then that I picked up Gina’s book: Dorothy & Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C.S. Lewis. and discovered that she is not only a generous cardinal photo-sender, but she’s a phenomenal writer as well. I learned so much from this book about two authors I’d admired for years but hadn’t known very deeply.

Join Gina and me for a conversation about these two saints of the evangelical church, the power of friendship, and why cardinals just might be the world’s best birds. Plus, check out her fantastic SubStack, Dear, Strange Things and her fun blog about Charles Dickens.

Birding is for everyone, or so the popular saying goes. And it really is! You can bird if you’re young or old, bored or busy, a city-dweller or a rural homesteader. There are blind birder’s groups and those for the hearing-impaired. You can bird if you have mobility issues or disability of any kind. It’s always possible.

Bu sometimes it’s more difficult than others. If you have any sort of physical limitations, you may need to know how flat the trail is. Is it wheelchair accessible? If you can’t hear well, you’ll need a birding guide to turn around when she speaks to the group so that you can see her lips move. There are a thousand ways to make birding more accessible. That’s where Freya MacGregor comes in.

Freya is a consultant at Access Birding, a researcher at Virginia Tech whose work centers on improving access and inclusion for disabled birders. She’s also the author of the forthcoming book by Princeton University Press, A Field Guide to Accessible Birding in the United States. Originally from Australia, Freya comes to us from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Whether you’re currently disabled, love someone who is currently disabled, or are looking toward your older years when disability is even more likely, this interview will be a gift to you. Freya’s joy is infectious, and her simple solutions for helping include everyone in the joy of birding are things I’ve already started to put into practice wherever I can.

Do you have a disability or love someone who does? What strategies have you found for making birding more accessible?

Becca Rowland, aka The Girl in White Glasses, aka one of the funniest and most whimsical bird book writers I’ve had the pleasure to encounter, is a delight. She sees beauty everywhere, finds humor in unlikely places, and is making the world a better place one gentle bird joke at a time.

Her new book, Bird Talk: Hilariously Accurate Ways to Identify Birds by the Sounds They Make cracked me up on nearly every page. It links bird sounds to common noises we hear every day - i.e., if it sounds like you’ve bent over and ripped your pants, what you’re hearing is a Turkey Vulture. These brilliant pairings are so helpful when it comes to identifying bird songs and the birds themselves. Whether you’re a new or experienced birder, the book is a gem—and a helpful one at that!

I was asked to review Bird Talk for the Englewood Review of Books, and soon thereafter Becca was kind enough to join me for an interview here on The Thing with Feathers.

Also: can I just say, if you’re struggling to buy a Christmas gift for that person who’s really hard to shop for, this book is a perfect choice. Whether they’re a birder or not, it’s a book to make them laugh, and one to put on the coffee table to make guests laugh, too.

Poet, essayist, critic, editor, and general literary jack-of-all trades Paul J. Pastor is one of those authors whose SubStack, The Rose Fire, I adore and whose publication dates I track. When is his next book coming out?

Good news! The Locust Years, his newest book of poetry, just released from Wise Blood Books. This one is such a treat, my friends.

Paul joins us on the show today to talk about all things hope, grief, poetry, birds, and why suffering can be very fertile ground for good art.

Plus: he reads a few of his gorgeous poems for us. We also talk about the beaches of the Pacific Northwest, the unpredictability and gift of inspiration, and why you can’t fight Babylon with the weapons of Babylon—but you can fight it with poetry, with goodness, with beauty, and with life.

As a parent, helping my kids connect with the love and care of God through experiences in nature is one of my great joys. Whether it’s taking them to the park or going on a hike or just pointing out the cool bug that’s hanging out on our gutter, there are few things like the power and beauty of the natural world to inspire wonder.

Valerie Ellis is a children’s book author who knows a thing or two about wonder. From giraffes to acorn woodpeckers, flamingos to sea otters, her beautiful new book, Wild Faith Devotional for Kids: 52 Amazing Animals that Point to One Great God is a delight.

Whether you’re a parent, a grandparent, a Sunday School teacher, a babysitter, or just someone who loves animals and kids, this book is a gem.

Come along with us as we unpack what makes a good children’s book, how children are natural conduits for wonder, and the connection between faith and God’s good creation.