🌱 Welcome to The Joy Rise
A sanctuary for creativity from internationally best-selling author, Holly Ringland.
Hello dear reader,
I’m so glad you’re here. Whether you’ve come to this space with a clear creative longing or just a flicker of curiosity, welcome.
The Joy Rise is where I share the tender, messy, euphoric, frightening, bewildering, challenging, beautiful process of actively living a creative life. And gently encourage you to do the same.
No matter if you’re a reader, writer, dancer, gardener, surfer, sculptor, singer … or someone quietly longing to make something just for the joy and love of it, this is a space is for you, me, and the creative fire in our bellies.
🪺 What to expect
The Joy Rise is here to support your creative life with tools, stories, prompts, and notes from the heart, full of candour, encouragement, wonder, and, wherever possible, humour (to keep us sane).
In every issue, I offer encouragement and inspiration for you to join me in the magic and mess of allowing ourselves to create what we love. Here, we name the fears that keep us from making. We reclaim our courage to create.
As Emily Dickinson wrote:
If your Nerve, deny you —
Go above your Nerve —
This the a place where we go above our nerve together. Because the joy of creativity, whatever that means for us, is reason enough.
Whether you’re reading for free or joining as a paid subscriber, here’s a little visual map of what you can expect from The Joy Rise:
✨ Free Subscription
Perfect if you're just getting to know The Joy Rise. You’ll receive one full issue from me a month:
🩷 SIGNAL & SPARK
News from my world. Inspiration from the wider one.
A text post to stay connected, full of personal news plus my creative response to something I’ve been inspired by, and an invitation for you to try the same.
🌟 Paid Subscription
For readers who want to go deeper. You’ll receive three full issues of The Joy Rise from me each month:
🧡 NOTES to SELF
A voice memo from the heart for the month ahead.
A short podcast (with transcript) of reflective notes, including provocations for your journal and ideas, to begin each month, like a choose your own adventure map, inwards.
🩷 SIGNAL & SPARK
News from my world. Inspiration from the wider one.
A written post to stay connected, full of personal news, plus my creative response to something I’ve been inspired by, and an invitation for you to try the same.
💚 THE WORK of WONDER
Tools and prompts to support your creative life.
A text or video post exploring an obstacle to creating, offering tools, ideas and prompts for ways to respond, reconnect with your imagination and make what matters to you.
By subscribing, you're directly supporting my work, and helping build this space for others too. Thank you.
👩🎤 Subscription Options
💌 Monthly: AUD $10
(approx. USD $7 / GBP £5)
💌 Yearly: AUD $100
(12 months for the price of 10 — approx. USD $70 / GBP £50)
🌱 How to Choose Your Subscription
If you’re not sure whether to subscribe for free or join as a paid supporter, please know this:
✨ Free subscribers will always receive news, updates, and writing from me in SIGNAL & SPARK each month. Being able to share that with you is a privilege. Thank you.
🌟 Paid subscribers sustain The Joy Rise, and in return, I share my most personal work: audio and video notes, creativity tools, and new writing, plus the full archive.
However you’re able to subscribe, it’s an honour to write and create with and for you.
🌸 A Note on Subscriptions
You can change or cancel your subscription anytime.
Whether you stay for a season or the long haul, thank you. Your presence helps me to sustain and grow this space with courage and heart. I’m so glad and grateful to be in creative company with you.
🦋 About Me
I’m Holly Ringland, the award-winning author of two internationally best-selling novels: The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, and, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, and the Australian non-fiction best-seller, The House That Joy Built, a love letter to our imaginations and the pleasure and power of giving ourselves permission to create. In 2021, I co-hosted the ABC TV 8-part series, Back To Nature. In 2023, the screen adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart premiered globally on Prime Video, starring Sigourney Weaver. I’m currently writing my third novel (fourth book), The World Beneath Her Feet.
Though I knew that I wanted to be a writer from the age of three, I lived for decades too scared to write. Learning how to write the stories I love despite the fears that kept me small and silent for so long has changed the way I live. Creativity is an innate part of being human. We knew this as children. Over time, life can make us forget. But creativity doesn’t forget us.
As Carl Jung wrote:
What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.
The Joy Rise is where I write about creativity, courage, and connection. Everything that I create here is focused on naming without shame the fears that stop us from making the stuff we love, and exploring ideas and provocations to reconnect us with our imaginations and creativity.
My hope for every dispatch of The Joy Rise that I send is that it might be a balm delivered to the inbox of anyone else whose creative expression has ever felt flattened by fear.
🧚 Meet Alice Wood, my partner in crime joy
In 2025, while I’m writing my third novel, The World Beneath Her Feet, I don’t want The Joy Rise to suffer; we’re growing such an enriching space here together. So, my right hand colleague and 100% Wonder Woman, Alice Wood, is joining us.
Since 2015, Alice has been my ride-or-die friend, colleague, champion, and was the Campaign Manager at HarperCollins Australia responsible for so much of the stratospheric launch and success of my debut novel, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. (At which time in 2018 I affectionately nicknamed her, Whiz, which sticks to this day.)
This means you might hear from Alice in the occasional newsletter from time to time. Of course, you’ll continue to hear from me, as always.
To get to know Alice, take a peek at our delightful little Q&A about creativity, which includes a chocolate torte recipe!
A note from Alice:
This is such a lovely, warm and interesting part of the internet - I couldn’t be happier to be here. I know that everyone is creative, but I guess as someone who considers themself creative adjacent, I’m looking forward to hearing from likeminded Joy Risers who maybe aren’t working on a grand piece of art as such, but just finding ways to weave creativity into their busy daily lives.
📩 Let’s Stay Connected
Have a question about creativity? Or what keeps us from making the stuff we love?
This is a safe place to ask.
I answer questions in Signal & Spark, the monthly free dispatch on The Joy Rise.
You can send your questions to me here.
And even if you don’t have a question, I’d love to hear from you.
What would you love to read from me?
We’re building this space together.
Here’s to us, our creativity and joy.
With a light left on,
If something here has stirred your heart or imagination, I’d love for you to stay.
You can subscribe for free, or become a paid supporter to receive more in-depth tools and encouragement for your creative life, and to help me keep this space blooming.
In whatever capacity you’re able to be here, thank you for your readership and support. Your presence makes all the difference.
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