✦ custom fiction, written by hand ✦
Stories that hold up a mirror.
Every life is a story. Most of us never get to read ours.
Tell me yours, or the story of someone you love, and I’ll write it back to you as fiction.
✦ a question first ✦
What's the story you keep telling yourself?
Most of us never chose it. But a story is never finished. It is always a draft.
THE OLD DRAFT
The one you keep rereading
The thought that keeps coming back. You know how it ends because you've told it to yourself a hundred times.
A feeling with no name. It sits underneath everything and won't come out in a sentence.
Not knowing what to say. Someone you love is going through something, and every card sounds the same.
A NEW ONE
A story that shows it from outside
Your life, told as fiction. The distance of "once upon a time" lets you see it clearly.
Words for the thing you couldn't say. Narrative therapists call it re-authoring. I do it in fiction.
Something to hold on to. A story to give, to keep, and to reread when you need it. Some people still read theirs years later.
✦ read a page ✦
Before you order one, read one.
A few lines from She, the Woman, a Tarot Fiction story: a woman, an apple tree, and a horse who remembers her.
SHE, THE WOMAN
“Let me take them from you,” said the horse and she let him.
She let him take the pain she did not know she felt, let him take the rules she held inside of her body, rules on how to dress, rules on how to act, rules that told her she needed to be quiet or she would get in trouble.
And when the last rule left her body, she felt it — space. The way a field feels after snow has melted and before anything has grown back.
The horse stood quietly.
She opened her mouth.
“I am here,” she said.
— from Tarot Fiction
✦ ways in ✦
Choose how your story begins
THE DEEPEST WAY IN · FOR YOU
The Mirror Conversation
We talk, one to one, for an hour. It won't be heavy; I listen for the thread. Then I write you a story of about 3,000 words from what came up.
60 min + ~3,000 words · €222 · one free revision
FOR SOMEONE YOU LOVE · FOR A CHILD · FOR YOU
Order a story
Magic, Birthday, Tarot or Children's fiction. Tell me what you need the story to do, in a short form.
from €55 · up to 10 business days · one free revision
For your guests: a live typewriter story for each one →
Looking for a present? Give a gift certificate. Most gifts are finished before you give them. This one begins when it's opened.
✦ how a story begins ✦
Every story starts the same way: you tell me something true.
I.
Tell me
Over an hour together, or in a few lines when you order. A name, a memory, three words, a tarot card. Whatever you have.
a conversation or a short form
II.
I listen for the thread
I write the first draft by hand. I let it rest. The next day I rewrite it, still by hand. Never in one day.
no template
III.
You read it
Your life, or theirs, seen from a little further away. A story to keep, to give, and to come back to when you need it.
PDF, or typewritten by post
Hundreds
of stories written in the last ten years
By hand
every first draft, every word chosen by me
4 languages
English, French, Spanish and German
✦ kind words ✦
What people say when they read theirs
SEEN BY A STRANGER
“Julie did not know me but the story she wrote did. My mom thought we had been hiding our friendship from her for years.”
A STORY FOR A HARD GOODBYE
“I cried when receiving my story. I had just lost my cats and what Julie did for me is incredibly precious.”
THE UNSAYABLE, SAID
“She is so attentive to the human soul, and knows how to speak an unspeakable language.”
✦ from the shop ✦
Reviews from people who ordered a story
MAGIC FICTION
“This story was magical beyond my words. I will order another and another and another.”
CHILDREN'S FICTION
“The perfect story for my grandson's enrollment into primary school. Warmhearted, encouraging, and wonderfully personalized.”
BIRTHDAY FICTION
“EXTRAORDINAIRE !!! Julie m'a tendu le miroir de mon âme.”
Dear reader,
For years I lived inside a story that wasn't true. Changing it changed my life.
I've written hundreds of stories since, and earned an MLA in Creative Writing at Harvard Extension School.
Every story I write says one thing: I see you.
— Julie
✦ before you begin ✦
Three questions people ask me
Is this therapy?
No. It's fiction. It isn't a clinical service, and it doesn't replace one if that's what you need.
What if I can't afford it?
Write to me anyway. Tell me your situation, why you want this story and who it's for. I read every message, and sometimes I lower the price for someone who needs a story.
What if I don't love it?
Every order includes one full round of revisions. If the tone, a detail or the ending doesn't feel right, tell me, and I rewrite it.
Not ready to talk? Write to me instead.
Tell me who the story is for, and what you'd want it to do. Read by me, not a sales team. I reply within a few hours, a week at most.