It all started one day in January, while Aly and I were sitting together at Lots of Local. Aly and I always just catch each other very randomly, and I enjoy our conversations. We know each other just enough to know broad strokes, but hearing new pieces of her lore emerging is always a delight to me, which makes conversations light and fun, and a perfect way to make full, overstimulating rooms feel a little smaller and intimate, as all good conversation does.

But I was surprised when she mentioned this collab! She asked if I wanted to write a few love notes for a line of stem holders she was imagining. It would be shaped like a note, the edges of the page curling to hold a stem.

Perfect, I thought. I knew all the best lines. Journeys end in lovers meeting.I love none in the world so well as you. You bewitch me body and soul, and I love you. All perfect.

I usually end up quoting one of these lines when I write. I love them so much, and hold them close. As a contemporary romance author, I see my books in scenes, in moments. In a feeling of a touch, or the sensation of a flavor.

So when Aly asked if I could write her a few love notes for her to add to her new Valentines pieces, I found myself focusing on her description. She called them love notes, something you would find left for you, something to mark a moment in time between two people in love (with a sprig of flowers they picked up thinking of you).

I could picture those scenes clearly, and could imagine these ceramic pieces as a part of that memory. Where else does writing start but a clear picture of something, or someone, right? So, as I always do, I headed right to my notebook and just wrote a bunch of lines. Some were obviously not mine, but I liked them enough to keep them in the list and keep whittling it down, keep editing.

I wanted the notes to feel like something an actual half of a couple left for their other half, maybe placed somewhere they would definitely see. So there are a lot of “let’s ____” because that’s what notes are to me! An Ask that you couldn’t say out loud, or something so immediate you needed to write it down now for the other person to find later.

To me the kindest thing a person has ever done is to leave me a little note in literally anything. It makes me feel thought of, more than the gift it’s sometimes attached to.

This was Aly’s note!

All this to say, I’m really happy that Aly thought of me for this, and that it gave me the opportunity to write a bunch of one liners like this! I hope the notes find (found) happy homes, I know my own little notes (mine says “let’s kiss 🙂 ) are happy holding on to a pen at the moment.