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It’s 3 AM. At least… one of my clocks says it is. The others are running a full‑blown rebellion. My stove thinks it’s midnight. My microwave believes it’s tomorrow. My phone is lying straight to my face. And my laptop? My laptop has entered a different timeline entirely and refuses to come back. Meanwhile, Aurora Silentia has me so deep in the trenches that I genuinely don’t know if I’m supposed to be writing, podcasting, sleeping, or ascending to a higher plane of existence.

(A cozy, chaotic sunrise update for the Feral Crew) July rolled in like a sleepy sunrise. Soft. Golden. A little chaotic. Full of possibility. I am running on no sleep, a grocery order at noon, and a friend coming to help me haul the last of my life into storage. Even in the middle of the madness, the site is glowing with new things for you this month. Here is everything coming to TovaRiversCreative.com in July. You're official feral forecast. Daily Freebies Every Single Day

Good morning, Todays message is a little different. I usually write about my chaotic life, my writing journey, or the madness of building Aurora Silentia, but today I want to open myself up and be vulnerable with you. People who have known me long enough know the life I have lived. They know the dark roads I have walked, the battles I have fought, and the versions of me that did not survive. They have also seen me turn my life completely around and become the strongest versio

I was sitting here tonight thinking… If someone had asked me five years ago where I thought I would be today, where I am is not where I would have said. You would have heard of an interior designer, a landscape designer, or a wedding event planner. Cause well, that is what I have degrees in, that is what my life goal was. That is what I had my goals set on, and I worked my butt off with it, trying to make it sustainable, yet in the end, it was not unless I was willing to relo

There are days when my brain feels like a curated aesthetic Pinterest board, soft lighting, clean lines, motivational quotes, and a color palette that makes sense. And then there are days like today. Today, my brain is the Pinterest board after someone picked it up, shook it like a snow globe, and dumped it onto the floor. No categories. No order. Just vibes. And maybe a feral squirrel running through the middle of it. Here’s a sample of what’s currently scattered across the

Every morning, before the house wakes up and the noise of real life starts crashing in, I sit down and make something small for someone I may never meet. A printable. A journal page. A little piece of art. A reminder. A tool. A spark. People call them “freebies,” but to me, they’re more like tiny care packages I get to send out into the world. And here’s the truth: I don’t make them because I have endless time or perfect routines or a Pinterest‑worthy life. I make them becaus

Some people wake up, sip their coffee, open their planner, and follow their day in a neat little line. I am not one of those people. My brain wakes up like a feral squirrel with a to‑do list taped to its back. I’ll sit down to do one thing, like edits for Aurora Silentia, and suddenly I’m building three new pages on my website, designing a subscription package, uploading a week’s worth of journal pages, creating promo codes, and answering comments across five social platforms

I sat down today fully prepared to be productive. Edits open. Coffee ready. Headphones on. I was in my “serious writer” era for a whole seven minutes. Then I looked down. And there is Bunz. My rabbit. My companion. My tiny fluffy saboteur. CHEWING. ON. MY. MIC. CORD. Like she pays for replacements. Like she is the audio engineer. Like she is trying to silence me permanently. She had the cord in her mouth with that same “What are you gonna do about it” expression she uses when

Listen. I woke up this morning thinking, “Maybe today will be calm.” The universe said HAHAHAHA NO and handed Bunz a Q‑tip like it was her starter pistol for the Bunny Grand Theft Auto Championship. I walk into the hallway, and there she is, my rabbit, my emotional support menace, holding a Q‑tip in her mouth like a tiny furry mob boss with a cigar. She LOCKED EYES with me. Not scared. Not guilty. Just pure, unfiltered chaos. And then she TOOK OFF. I’m talking full‑speed, tur

by Tova Rivers, professional overthinker and Google’s favorite customer Let’s get one thing straight: I am not on any government watchlist. Probably. But if someone ever reviewed my search history, they’d either hand me a publishing deal or a restraining order. 1. “How long does it take to bleed out from a wolf bite?” Because realism matters. Also because I needed to know if my character could deliver a dramatic monologue before passing out. Spoiler: she could. Barely. 2. “Ho

by Tova Rivers, caffeine enthusiast and nocturnal word witch Let’s be clear: I don’t choose insomnia. It chooses me. Like a clingy plot twist that refuses to be edited out. 12:00 AM – The “I’ll Just Write One Chapter” Lie I tell myself I’ll write for an hour. Then suddenly it’s 3 AM, I’ve rewritten the same sentence twelve times, and I’m emotionally attached to a side character who wasn’t supposed to exist. My coffee is cold. My sanity is lukewarm. 3:30 AM – Existential Crisi

by Tova Rivers, professional chaos conductor and accidental genius Let’s be clear: I do not have a process. I have vibes, caffeine, and a rabbit who occasionally judges me from across the room. People always ask, “How do you come up with your stories?” And the answer is: I don’t. They usually appear at 3 AM when I’m halfway through a cold cup of coffee and questioning my life choices. Step 1: Panic Every creative idea begins with panic. I stare at the blank page like it perso

by Tova Rivers, who definitely did not write this at three in the morning with too much coffee Let us be honest. If my characters ever got their hands on TikTok, the entire app would combust. Not metaphorically. Literally. Servers down. Chaos everywhere. Ronan blamed. Samantha unbothered. So here it is. The official and absolutely accurate breakdown of what would happen if the cast of Aurora Silentia joined TikTok. Samantha Moonspire — POV Queen with Unhinged Energy Samantha

I was not prepared for today. I was not prepared for the way my chest cracked open when I saw that first review. I was not prepared for the tears. I was not prepared for the way my rabbit Bunz started binking around the room like she knew something sacred had just happened. But here we are. And I want to tell you why this moment matters. Not because it is my first review, but because of everything that came before it. I did not grow up knowing what love looked like. Not the s

When I first started writing Coming Out of the Dark Side of Love (CODSL), I didn’t realize I was stepping into a two-year transformation. What began as a story about heartbreak and healing turned into a mirror that reflected every shadow, every spark, and every truth I’d been carrying. For two years, I wrestled with words that felt too heavy and scenes that felt too raw. I learned to write through exhaustion, through doubt, and through the quiet moments when I wondered if any

Every writer has a doorway into their stories. Some outline. Some dream. Some chase characters until they finally turn around and speak. My doorway has always been emotion. I do not start with maps or magic systems or political structures. I start with a feeling, a moment, a question, a lesson, a wound, a spark, and I build outward from there. The worlds I write grow around the emotional core, the way a tree grows around its heartwood. It is never about recreating real life.

I Wasn’t Supposed to Be Here: A Journey of Resilience and Creativity Embracing My Story I wasn’t supposed to be here. Not according to the doctors, not according to the circumstances I was born into, and certainly not according to the statistics that follow kids like me. Yet, I have always felt a stubborn pulse within me, a refusal to quit, an instinct to survive, and a quiet belief that I was meant to become something more than the chaos I came from. The Beginning of My Jour

Behind the Scenes of Aurora Silentia Aurora didn’t arrive gently. She came in a rush, a vision, a feeling, a pull I couldn’t ignore. I wasn’t planning to write a fantasy novel. I wasn’t planning to build a world with wolves, prophecy, bloodlines, and ancient memory. But sometimes a story chooses you long before you understand why. Aurora Silentia began on a night when I couldn’t sleep. I kept seeing a woman standing alone in Italy, quiet, observant, carrying a heaviness she

I have slept a grand total of nine hours this week, which at this point feels less like a sleep schedule and more like a cryptid sighting. I don’t know whether I’m coming, going, teleporting, or just vibrating in place like a stressed-out hummingbird. Every night I try to sleep. I do the whole routine — lights off, blanket up, deep breath, “maybe tonight will be different.” And my brain just goes: “Nope. Absolutely not. We have things to overthink.” So here I am again, sittin

I did not expect a website rebuild to turn into a personal reckoning, but that is exactly what happened. I spent the last few days pushing myself far past what is healthy. Last night I worked from eleven in the morning straight through to six forty in the morning without stopping. I kept telling myself I had to finish, had to fix things, had to make everything perfect for everyone else. Somewhere in the middle of that exhaustion, I realized something I had been avoiding for a