Creatives: Charity Herndon

Ria's questions: Wendy Weetabix question take over - What is your ideal sleeping situation?

When the Ria's Questions website went down, the Collective pivoted and called upon a friend of the pod, Wendy Wimmer and her Wendy Weetabix questions! Wendy asks: What is your ideal sleeping situation? Do you wear pyjamas, preferred pillow type, sheets or duvet... do you need a fan running or perfect silence? Jess shares her story about being delirious at the bed shop and investing in excellent pillows. Alyson calls good pillows 'game changers' and shares her disgust at fluffy little pillows. Ada has incredibly specific sleeping arrangements which is super impressive. Ria extols the virtues of a v-pillow and how she would keep it with her in a post-apocalypse world. Also, separate duvets are a game changer. Do it. Tonya thinks Brits are weird for not having top sheets, and her ideal sleeping situation which is VERY specific. How do you sleep?

Femme On Creatives with Jill Christman

Alyson sits down with Jill Christman, serial memoirist, editor and author of The Heart Folds Early, a book about choice. The most obvious being her choice to have abortion when she finds out halfway through her pregnancy that her child has developed only half a heart and will live a short and incredibly painful life if he is carried to term. It is also about her choice to heal, to keep hoping, to keep building a family and a life, in the face of loss and trauma. Alyson loved the book and connected with Jill on so many levels. An incredibly powerful conversation. This passage is one of Alyson’s favorites: “I tried to push the pain under by submerging memory, but we all know repression doesn't work forever. Holding onto secrets makes us vulnerable, and there is always someone waiting to exploit that vulnerability. This is one of the ways that patriarchy does its work. The patriarchy teaches us to capitulate, smooth over, hide. Most damaging, the patriarchy teaches us to stay silent. The patriarchy discourages real healing because healed humans want bodily autonomy. Healed humans want their power back. Wounded, hiding humans are easier to manipulate. When we’re at our most vulnerable, there's usually someone waiting to use our subterranean pain to get what they want out of you. Above ground.” You can find Jill and her books at her website: https://jillchristman.com/ [https://jillchristman.com/]

Creatives: Clarence A Haynes

In this episode of Femme on Creatives, Tonya speaks with Clarence A Haynes about writing, the revision process, and how real world experiences can inform writing and writing with authenticity. Clarence speaks about his book The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery. Find out more about Clarence: https://www.instagram.com/clarenceahaynes/ [https://www.instagram.com/clarenceahaynes/] Goodreads bio: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22220239.Clarence_A_Haynes [https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22220239.Clarence_A_Haynes]

Creatives: Charity Herndon

Tonya speaks with Charity Herndon about her delightful Jane Austen-inspired mobile bookstore, her Audiobook Walking Club, and the ways she has used her most painful experiences to champion her literary citizenship. Follow Charity's socials: Website: austensshelf.com [http://austensshelf.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austens_shelf [https://www.instagram.com/austens_shelf] tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@austensshelf [https://www.tiktok.com/@austensshelf] Charity's charity: https://www.tcfoodjustice.org/ [https://www.tcfoodjustice.org/]

Ria's questions: You have one slice of peanut butter on toast and one slice of Marmite on toast. Which do you eat first?

Join us in this episode where Ria slightly loses her mind and we find out that Tonya has been warned off Marmite, to Ria's disgust. Jess slips in a comment about eggs because she is egg obsessed. Alyson talks up bone dry toast. Jess argues for wet toast. They discuss if fruit is dessert. And it is just chaos!!! If you