Hello aligned authors!
I'm Valerie Ihsan, and this is Episode 225 of the podcast and it's October 20, 2026 as I record this.
Main Topic: "Reinvention Through Animal Wisdom and Writing" with Christine Baker
Christine Baker is an award-winning storyteller, speaker, and lifelong animal lover. Her writing explores the quiet magic woven into everyday life — the resilience we discover in loss, and the extraordinary ways animals shape our journeys.
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Announcements/Author Updates:
What are you reading?
Holy Fuck by Amanda Frances
Just finished:
Creative Act (Rick Rubin)
Fiction:
Unlikely Animals (Annie Hartnett)
(Main Topic): "Reinvention Through Animal Wisdom and Writing" with Christine Baker
Animals help us reinvent ourselves by showing us how to let go and turn the corner and how to learn to play again and adapt. They teach us how to be human.
Raising Artemis narrated by deceased cat. The animals are communicating with each other non-verbally. They are a bridge between the living and dead, human and non. Connecting ourselves to something else.
The Artemis Circle is a new Substack project: share stories about animals, feelings, connective tissue.
Substack is good visibility for authors and for reaching a broader reader audience.
Do you consider yourself an animal communicator or medium?
It never occurred to me to be an animal communicator. It was like a language I didn't need to learn. I already communicated with them.
You wrote nonfiction before this debut novel; Why take personal story of loss and write fiction?
There's something about a novel for me... a big sandbox, and place where I can play. Wrote during covid. Wrote it to get back to self and retain animal lessons; love letter to my animals and to what role they played in my life.
I'm a Pantser with the idea in my head as long as it takes before sitting down to write it all out. With Raising Artemis, the writing wasn't working this time around. Tripping up on Voice. Struggling with the first chapter. Rewriting over and over. Trying too hard. My cat Phoebe knocks over Lucy's picture (a previous pet). Phoebe gave me the answer. The cat had to be the narrator. Because a human perspective is limited. Writing it from the cat's perspective allowed me to give voice to the themes I wanted to write about and to open the doors to telling the story in a new and different way.
Talk more about Voice. Your nonfiction book gives voice to female athletes, and your novel gives voice to animals. What does Voice mean to you and how do you use it in your work?
Has to feel true, deep in my core. What it means to have a voice and use it for good.
(how deeply we feel for our animals; love)
Adjust the way we listen to animals.
You mentioned finding purpose after loss and burnout. I stopped writing for two years after my compounded losses and subsequent burnout, but maintained a journal writing practice. I felt shame and guilt around saying I was a writer and not putting new words in a manuscript. ("How can I say I'm a writer without writing?") What did you do?
Worked in marketing and PR; always wanted to say I Am a Writer; chronic migraines; sold first screenplay and then quit the marketing industry (other than some consulting). But still tripped up on the WRITER label.
Humans are wired to tie our self-worth to our career choice and output. Living and exploring, experiencing, and journaling "doesn't count"; I found me again when writing ...
Journaling slows me, centers, grounds, helps me see connections I've missed, allows Voice to not be silenced or censored. Expression of having the thought, and putting it on the page, and letting go.
What about when you talk about "Reinvention as a Life-Long Spiritual Practice"?
Journaling is at the center of that; I can let go of my expectations around my creativity process and have more fun with it.
Don't like being stuck in one place in my mind; have so many other stories to tell; this is first step forward after all the sideways crab walking I've been doing.
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December 15th release; Preorder campaign: share receipt to get a special gift, 1st 100 people.
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Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Tools:
ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)
