Hi, I’m Katie! Welcome to Before the Rough Draft.
I’m a mother of two and a high school English teacher.
A lifelong booklover, I’m convinced that the right book always finds me at just the right time. I love to tell you about what I’ve been reading lately, how it's changing me, and how its words resonate in my daily life. I’m also a seventh-generation southerner, raised on family land that breathes in me still. I write often about family stories and the tight cord that tethers me to this place.
I wrote for many years on a now-archived blog called Mama the Reader, and you can find my work in numerous places including Huffington Post, Yellow Arrow Journal, Literary Mama, Salvation South, Braided Way Magazine, and HerStry. I am currently at work on my first book, a memoir about finding a home in myself after so many of the people and places I loved are long gone.
This is the mess before the rough draft, the place where I share my process and my midlife musings as I ready myself for whatever is coming. It means so much to have you reading along.
I write to better understand myself and to to sew the disparate pieces of my life together. I have lived what feels like a thousand lifetimes in this life, and writing has been my most reliable tool of growth and transformation. Writing is my beacon in the wilderness, my closest friend, my way back to myself.
When you subscribe, each new post goes straight to your inbox. In a world overflowing with so much content, I’m deeply grateful you take the time to read my work. If something resonates with you when you read it, feel free to leave a comment, share with a friend, or hit reply to your email and tell me about it. Thank you for being with me in this space.
