Happiness Sprinkles + Book Club ZOOM Link
Michelangelo Lost & Found, acrobatic art, color hunting and more
Note: Sorry no audio this week! Evelyn is traveling, and Joanna is sick. 💛
Hello, Protagonists, and Happy Lunar Year of the Fire Horse!
Welcome to this month’s edition of Happiness Sprinkles—a soft, joyful roundup of small things worth smiling about and a few wonderful things you in this community have been reading and writing.
In this post, you’ll find:
🌸 Happiness Sprinkles
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight - You’re the Hero of the Story
📖 Book Club Details + Zoom Link
Reminder! Our “Reading with Wonder” Book Club meeting is this Wednesday, February 25th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
Zoom Link at the bottom of this post
xo,
Joanna & Evelyn
🌸 Happiness Sprinkles
A few quiet delights we’ve loved this month—and hope you will, too. (Links included if you want to learn more).
Color Hunting: Inspired by her Being a Creative Villager post, Joanna went on a color hunting date! She and her partner wandered the city together, each looking for a different color. It was such a fun, vibrant way to practice attention, capture beauty, and share our creativity.
Artist Arranges Ocean Stones in Hypnotic Art - Jon Foreman walks along beaches and transforms what might seem like ordinary rocks into beautiful art, often in wave formations that echo the seascape. Read the article to see more of his mesmerizing work.
Lost Michelangelo Sketch Sells for $27M - The owner of this drawing had no idea what it was, because it was just part of a collection that had been passed down in his family. Then he submitted a request to Christie’s to evaluate it for possible sale, and they discovered it as a lost Michelangelo study for the Sistine Chapel! (I would not mind finding one of those in my attic.)
Virtual Class: The City of Paris and Its Impact on Culture - Last fall, Evelyn took a “Love and the French Novel” course with Professor Chloe Edmonson at Stanford and learned so much. Now she’s back with a class about Paris, tracing its cultural and literary influence from the Enlightenment to the Belle Epoque. Looks like the “homework” will include films and books by Mercier, Sand, Baudelaire, Zola, Colette, and Barthes. It doesn’t fit in my schedule, but I would take it if it did! Registration for the online class is open now to everyone.
Acrobatic Ballet: The athleticism and artistry in this piece are stunning! You just have to watch it.
Ringtones in the style of classical composers: This blend of silliness, nostalgia, and talent made me grin. What a perfect way to end this month’s Happiness Sprinkles!
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight
Every month, we love highlighting what you are creating. Here are a few wonderful projects from our community:
🤩 One of Bill Hiatt’s books is being made into a movie!
🥳 Barb Navidad published a micro memoir in Tiny Memoir Literary Magazine!
🙌🏼 Michael Teferi put out his debut poetry book “Transformation” on Kindle!
💗 Belle Gayer is publishing her book, after 7 years of posting on Quora with over 33 million views, sharing insights and hard earned wisdom acquired in 54 years with her beloved.
CONGRATULATIONS, everyone!
Want to be featured in a future post?
Just reply to this email or leave a comment with a 1–2 sentence description of what you’ve been working on. Or, hang out in our community chat, where we share our recent smiles and successes.
📖 “Reading with Wonder” Book Club — This Wednesday!
You’re invited (even if you haven’t read the book):
🗓️ Wednesday, February 25th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT - ZOOM link below
📚 Book: The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck
The “Reading with Wonder” Book Club is for our community members who want to dive even deeper into how great books work. Come nerd out with us! 🤓
💬 During the book discussion:
We’ll walk through Beck’s version of the Divine Comedy, focusing on our creative life.
The Dark Wood of Error (Recognizing Misalignment with Self)
The Body Compass: Beck argues that the body doesn’t lie. Have you ever had a physical reaction to a project you were working on? Did your body try to tell you that a certain story, genre, or plot point was “wrong” for you before your mind admitted it?
Hell: The Inferno (Identifying the Lies)
Culture vs. Nature: One of Beck’s core concepts is the battle between our “Nature” (who we are) and “Culture” (who society tells us to be). As creatives, what cultural scripts are we following? For example, “You can’t make money from art,” “You must publish by age 30,” “Real writers suffer.”
The Lie of “Should”: What is one thing you are writing or pursuing right now only because you think you should? If you dropped the “should,” what would happen to your work?
Purgatory (The Practice of Alignment with Self)
The Withdrawal from Praise: Creatives can be hungry for the “hit” of validation—likes, publication, glowing reviews. Beck warns that stepping into integrity often means disappointing people. Are you willing to write something that your current audience (or family) might dislike, if it means telling your truth?
The “One Degree” Turn: Beck suggests we don’t need to blow up our lives, but rather make small, one-degree turns toward truth. What is a “one-degree turn” you can make for your creative life this week to bring it closer to your integrity?
Paradise (The Flow and Wholeness of Integrity)
Defining “Integral” Success: Beck redefines success not as achievement, but as alignment. If you removed sales, agents, and reviews from the table, what does “success” look like for your creative soul right now?
The Feeling of Flow: Beck describes the state of integrity as one in which magic seems to happen and things become effortless. Have you experienced this specifically in your writing or other area of your creative life? What conditions allowed that flow to happen?
💬 During the Mini Creativity Coaching portion:
We’ll do a creative exercise inspired by the book.
The 10-Minute Truth: Beck challenges readers to go 24 hours without telling a single lie. We’ll make this challenge a 10-minute writing sprint with the prompt: “What I am really trying to say is...” Write without stopping or censoring, even if what comes out is scary or “bad.”
We hope this will be a connecting experience!
Zoom link is posted below the paywall to keep our gathering cozy and private.
(This also prevents any non-book-loving Zoom crashers!)
If you’d like to join us in the Book Club, you can upgrade to a paid membership here:
or:
Refer friends to receive complimentary months:
1 referral = 1 month free
2 referrals = 3 months free
3 referrals = 1 year free
✨ Note for fellow introverts:
You are welcome to come as you are—cameras on or off, display names changed or unchanged. No pressure, just presence.
📹 This session will be recorded for those who can’t attend live.