Liz Cultivates | L.M. Fern

If you’ve been following me for a bit, you may notice a few new things around here.

I started this blog in 2013 as a way to stretch my creative muscles and figure out what, exactly, I’m doing with my writing, my education, my life. It’s been ten years, and a lot of the time, it feels like I haven’t figured any of that out at all — but looking back on artifacts of this website, I am in awe at all the growing and learning I have done in the last decade.

When I started doing this, I leaned into the “taking myself too seriously” form of blogging, and you can see it in those early posts. As I’ve gotten older and experienced a couple (ha!) more things, though, taking myself seriously has become one of the last things I want to do.

This website has been a lot of things over the years. It’s been a setting for reviews, a place to commiserate about graduate school and to talk about what I’m reading and writing, a safe space for me to complain about (and revel in!) NaNoWriMo. But in recent years, the focus has started to coalesce into one overarching theme: showcasing the joy in growth. The joy in living. The joy in building myself — and creating the person I want to be, that I can be proud of. This isn’t a “writing” blog or a “cooking” blog or a “gardening” blog — it’s a journal of my personal growth.

A couple years ago, I changed all my social handles to @lizcultivates, because I wanted to focus on that kind of growth. What am I creating? How am I growing? These questions informed that shift. The website also changed, but not as much. I think I was too scared to make big shifts. What if it looks bad? What if no one likes it? Then, when I self-published my first novel earlier this year, I had to pick a “publisher name” before assigning any ISBNs. I thought about my socials and chose “Cultivates Press.” I keep using that word to refer to myself and my life. (Maybe someday it’ll be a real LLC. I’ve certainly bookmarked a “business cards” website more than once.)

So, when I discovered that lizcultivates.com was available, and that my personal brand could finally be cohesive across all platforms . . . It was like a dream come true!

This is a really self-congratulatory post, but I wanted to take the time to break it down. And, more than anything, I wanted to introduce you to Liz Cultivates. I won’t say this is my final form. In fact, I’m not even sure there will be a final form. I don’t want to ever feel truly “done” — because the act of growing is the whole point. Every new adventure is about spreading my roots farther, unfurling new leaves, stretching new branches. It’s about the scars in my bark that grow fainter as the years progress. Two roads diverged, and all that.

Anyway, this is still the place for my rambling (clearly), and for updates about my projects, including crochet and my podcast, Literally 2 Cents (it’s literally a party). You’ll also find a new page for Cultivates Press, which will hopefully have more titles soon!

This is a journal of my personal growth — and if I’m the only one who truly cares about that, that’s okay too. But I hope you’ll join me on this path!