Welcome to Moonflower & Myth

Hello, y'all! I'm Tia; an overachieving, neurospicy human who has a tendency to turn "I have an idea..." into "I accidentally started an entire website."

A little background about me (although I apparently don't know what "a little" means)...

The longest job I've had since college has been in early childhood education. The funny part? I didn't have a background in education when I started. After leaving a marketing job with absolutely no backup plan, teaching became my Hail Mary.

My educational path has always been... unconventional. I earned a B.A. in Liberal Studies (which basically meant I built my own degree), with a minor in Mass Communication, followed by an M.A. in Human Rights Practice. A few years into teaching, I grew tired of feeling like an imposter, so I returned to school to earn my M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education (it also helped that my school paid for it).

Like many people, my dream has changed over the years. As a kid, I wanted to be a writer. In college, I thought I'd spend my life working in gender-based violence prevention and nonprofit organizations. Then I became a preschool teacher, and somewhere along the way I discovered something I wasn't expecting: a deep love for children's literature.

The more books I read with my students, the more I noticed how expansive children's literature is and yet how many voices are still missing. Representation matters, but so does authorship. Inclusive stories are important, but it's equally important that they're written by people with lived experience whenever possible.

That realization lit a spark.

Together with my co-teacher, I co-founded the Homegrown Author program at our school. We invited local authors into our classroom so our students could hear stories directly from the people who created them. We wanted our children to see that authors aren't just names on a book jacket; they're real people from their own communities. We wanted them to believe that maybe, someday, they could become authors too.

That program changed me just as much as it changed my students.

Fast forward to now.

I'm preparing to transition out of teaching for reasons that have very little to do with teaching itself. While thinking about what comes next, I realized something: the part of my job that filled my cup wasn't just teaching; it was building programs, connecting with authors, and creating communities around literacy.

Then, quite literally yesterday, I had a thought:

"I should write more book reviews."

That tiny idea quickly snowballed.

It reminded me of the Minnesota Children's Author Database I've been building. Then I started thinking about interviews with authors. Then children's book lists. Then podcasts. Then I caught myself dreaming about one day creating a publishing house dedicated to helping meaningful stories find their readers.

And then I asked myself a simple question:

Why wait for someone else to build the kind of literary community I want to be part of?

So I didn't.

I started Moonflower & Myth.

Why "Moonflower & Myth"?

Moonflowers are remarkable plants. They spend the day quietly waiting before blooming under the moonlight, revealing their beauty long after the sun has disappeared. I love that image because so many of the best stories and so many people don't bloom on someone else's timeline. They unfold when they're ready.

The word Myth isn't about fantasy or fiction alone. Myths are the stories we tell to understand ourselves, our communities, and the world around us. Every culture has them. Every family has them. Every reader carries them.

Together, Moonflower & Myth represents the belief that stories can help us grow, connect us, and remind us that wonder still exists.

I hope that this becomes more than a website.

I hope it becomes a community.

A place for thoughtful book reviews, children's book recommendations, author interviews, conversations about storytelling, and celebrating the people who create the books we love. A place where readers, writers, educators, librarians, illustrators, and dreamers feel like they belong.

And maybe one day it will grow into a publishing house that helps new stories bloom.

For now, though...

I'm simply glad you're here.

Welcome to Moonflower & Myth.