Welcome to Good Practice

Hi, I’m Whitney. I’m so glad you’re here.

I’m a writer currently at work on a book-length hybrid memoir1 about my complicated family and the ways we try and mostly fail to love each other well. (We’re practicing.) I also write essays (cultural criticism, personal) and have a novel resting in a drawer. I live near Seattle on Puget Sound with my spouse and a cow cat named Charlie Bird.

Six years ago I was a marketing executive in the specialty coffee industry.2 Before that, I was a technology marketer for a company you definitely know. Along the way I got an MBA while working full time and spent thousands of hours driving or flying hundreds of thousands of miles to offices where I did work that involved a lot of meetings and email and calendars and slides.

In 2017 I realized I didn’t have it in me to do that type of work anymore. I also realized I was far afield of the types of practices that made me feel alive and connected to others: mostly writing and creative expression, but other things, too. Like nurturing relationships, breathing outside air, experiencing art with others, actively engaging in the work of creating the community where I live, and advocating for the things I value (I’m a big fan of justice).

For the last several years I’ve been making my way back to a creative practice. I’ve been writing and studying and doing a lot of preparing to put my work out in the world, but feeling shy about actually sharing it. Here, I’m trying to be braver, share some work in its imperfect form, and invite community around the idea that we’re all just practicing.

So that’s what Good Practice is about. You’ll find essays on the process of making a way in the world. As a writer. As a human. It’s not perfect, it’s practice.

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Where else you can find me

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Threads.

I have a Facebook account that I use to know when my local gardening group is planting out their seedlings in the spring, but I’m otherwise rarely there. I deleted my twitter account in September 2023. I deleted my LinkedIn account in 2017 (but… I might go back? IDK the internet is so weird.)