Filling the Metaphorical Well

Woah. March has come and gone. I’m really enjoying the bit of “down time” I’ve had this month in a way that I’ve never enjoyed it before, and I’m just going to keep hanging out in this beautiful place of filling my metaphorical well.

2022 was an intense year for me, and last month I wrote about “Rediscovering My Non-Digital Self”. Truly, I’m still in that frame of mind. After literally two decades of constant creative output and extraverted-ness, I’m enjoying just BEING lately. Like, really being. Maybe it’s just getting older, maybe it’s living away from LA, maybe it’s all of the trees and wildlife I’m surrounded by. I don’t know but I dig it.

What I do know is that I’m feeling the kind of joy that I did when I was in high school writing poetry for no one else other than myself, listening to music because it filled my soul, hanging in a random robe creating art and dancing around our living room.

* Helenna Santos Photography - from a self portrait series titled “Home/Slice of Online Life”

My favorite thing is just experiencing and creating art for art’s sake, not for commerce, but for connection. And while the film & tv industry is a bit slower these months, I’m just going to keep opening myself to inspiration from everywhere and anywhere, and filling that well of creative joy.

Speaking of creative joy, here are MY MARCH FINDS. Enjoy!

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My Favorite Finds for March

BOOK: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

The Cartographers is dark academia meets National Treasure meets The Magicians. It’s all “woman on a journey vibes” as she searches for the truth of her past while wrestling with the present in a gorgeously written piece of literary fiction with a very healthy dose of sci-fi. Peng Shepherd is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

Also, her short story The Future Library (approx. 35 pages) is available on kindle for $1.99 and it is stunning. I honestly don’t want to say too much about it. It’s a story that just needs to be experienced, but here is the blurb:

“More than a hundred years from now, an arborist fighting to save the last remaining forest on Earth discovers a secret about the trees—one that changes not only her life, but also the fate of our world.

Inspired by the real-life “Future Library,” a long-term environmental and literary public art project currently underway in the Norwegian wilderness”

ALBUM: Aurora - Daisy Jones and the Six

Okay, I know this isn’t an album by a “real band” but hear me out. While it is indeed a band that was created for the Amazon Prime show based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel “Daisy Jones and the Six” with the actors playing the characters, this “fictional” band and this album are PHENOMENAL.

Written by industry heavyweights like Blake Mills, Marcus Mumford, and Phoebe Bridgers, every single song is truly golden. Not only do they reflect the era perfectly, they also bring the audience and listener even more deeply into the world of the story. I mean, talk about world-building. This is an album that has a gorgeous storytelling arc that stands on its own, but it is also the perfect companion to the show. I’m obsessed.

DOCUMENTARY: The Great Hack on Netflix (2019)

Did this come out in 2019? Yes. Is it just as relevant today and totally terrifying? YUP.

I watched this doc for the first time the other day and lets just say I almost closed my facebook account immediately. It’s like, we all know how intensely social media rules our lives these days and how it had a big hand in the outcome of the 2016 election, but this documentary… well, just watch it.

That being said, it made me want to connect with people even more like the “olden days” IRL and less on a screen.

PODCAST: Reading Glasses Podcast with Brea Grant and Mallory O’Meara

I’ve known Brea for many years and when she started this podcast with Mallory I was instantly hooked. I never would have thought that 6 years into this show they’d still have an abundance of book related things to talk about, but I feel like they are just getting started! I have to completely give credit to both of them and the Reading Glasses Podcast for sparking my joy for reading again after it had been lost for many years.

I highly recommend diving into this podcast because it’s all about bookish things and reading life, and “helping you read better”. Plus they are hilarious, swear as much as I do, and read and chat not only about great literary fiction but also sci-fi, horror, LGBTQ focused novels, and so much more. I love it so much and I was honored to be a guest on the podcast when my poetry book came out.

You can find Reading Glasses wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Okay, I’m going to go keep filling my well. :)

See you next month!

xoxox Helenna

P.S. Please hit reply or leave me a comment about things that fill YOUR creative well. Would love to learn what inspires you!