Welcome to My Corner of the Multiverse

A Beginning (and a Slight Confession)

Hi, I’m Jacq—though around here you’ll probably get to know me as Indigo Winter, the writer who can’t walk past a book without touching it like it’s a good-luck charm. I’m a librarian by trade, a storyteller by compulsion, and a southern girl who grew up believing that stories were portals long before fantasy novels told me so.

This space is my little crossroad of all things creative: the library shelf, the writer’s desk, the worlds I’ve made, and the ones I’m still building (chaotically, lovingly, with too much coffee).

How a Part-Time Library Job Became My Lifelong Plot Twist

I didn’t plan to become a librarian. Honestly, I was just a college student applying anywhere with air conditioning. The library caught me first. It always does.

One part-time job turned into a career filled with readers, writers, and the kind of bookish gremlins who know exactly when the new releases arrive. Working there gave me backstage access to the whole literary world—stories before they had a chance to cool, research materials stacked like treasure hoards, and shelves that became both map and compass.

Somewhere between shelving returned books and getting way too excited about new sci-fi arrivals, my own stories started whispering back.

From Art Kid to Writer (A Plot I Did Not See Coming)

Before writing, I lived in the world of sketches and paint splatters. I loved creating faces, gestures, dynamics—characters born from charcoal dust and watercolor bloom. Then high school happened, and I made the reckless decision to write a story “just to see what it would feel like.”

It felt like falling through a trapdoor into a new reality.

On the page, I didn’t have to perform. I didn’t have to speak on a stage (my stage fright politely thanks fiction for existing). My characters could do the talking—dramatic, silly, heroic, messy. They could run toward adventure even on days I couldn’t.

Why I Write Diverse Stories (Hint: Because the World Is Gorgeous That Way)

Growing up, I rarely saw Black girls in the kinds of stories I loved—girls kicking down doors, solving mysteries, drifting through galaxies, inheriting ancient magic, or yelling at sentient libraries. If we showed up at all, we were side characters or symbols. Never the ones carrying the lantern.

So I started writing the stories I wanted to find.

Women like Leiliana Collins, navigating life abroad with a graphic designer’s eye and a quiet yearning for adventure. Women like Ziayea, powerful in a way that defies both physics and expectations. Women who look like me, love like me, dream like me—but get to exist in worlds where our identities don’t limit our destinies.

Diversity isn’t an add-on. It’s the air we breathe. The people I see every day. The cultures that overlap, blend, contradict, and harmonize. My writing simply mirrors that kaleidoscope.

Where This Blog Fits Into All That

Being a librarian means research is my love language. Being a writer means I trip into fictional worlds like uneven sidewalks. This blog is where the two meet.

I’ll be sharing writing adventures, publishing discoveries, behind-the-scenes chaos from my projects, and thoughts on building stories full of vibrant, inclusive casts. Think of it as a cozy reading nook where we talk about everything from mystery atmospheres to starship chases to magical libraries that judge your life choices.

If you’re also trying to write diverse narratives: stay curious, tread respectfully, and let yourself be changed by the cultures you learn from. The world is wide and full of voices worth listening to.

Here’s to building a literary landscape rich enough to hold all of us.

Welcome to the journey. I’m glad you’re here.

Until next time,

Indigo Winter