Sugarbird Press™ · First Edition

The Next
Chapter

A Field Guide for Seasons Without Instructions

The map changed. You are still here.

Begin Here · $29
Digital First Edition Set · secure delivery by email

A companion for the middle.

Some seasons do not arrive with instructions. The Next Chapter was written for the caregiving, grief, uncertainty, reinvention, exhaustion, and ordinary courage that do not fit neatly into advice. It is not here to tell you what to do. It is here to offer you a place to pause, notice, and begin again.

01 · READ

The Next Chapter

The complete 128-page digital reading edition. Begin at the beginning, open to the page that finds you, or return whenever you need it.

02 · REFLECT

Field Notes

A 44-page printable companion for writing, noticing, and making room for what comes next.

“A companion, not a prescription.”

a few words before we begin

Hi there,

First, thank you for being here.

There is something quietly courageous about beginning again. Whether you’ve arrived here after a celebration, a loss, a question, or simply a feeling that life has shifted beneath your feet, I’m grateful our paths have crossed.

When I began this journey, I was navigating several major life changes all at once. It was chaotic and, at times, deeply lonely. I searched for resources, books, and communities that reflected what I was experiencing. I never quite found the place I needed.

So I began writing.

At first, I wrote simply to make sense of what I was carrying. Over time, I began to recognize which thoughts helped me move forward and which quietly held me in place. I learned to trust my own voice a little more. Some days I felt steady. Other days life reminded me how quickly the ground can shift beneath us.

On those days, having a place to return to mattered.

I have extraordinary family and friends whom I love deeply. Even so, I discovered there is a threshold to what others can carry with us. Some parts of our lives simply need a quiet place of their own.

That is why this Field Guide exists.

Not to tell you what to do.
Not to rush you toward answers.
But to offer you a place to pause.
To notice.
To reflect.
To leave these pages for a while and return when you’re ready.
There are no rules here.
No right pace.
No judgment.
Only an invitation to arrive exactly as you are today.

As you move through whatever season has brought you here, I hope you’ll offer yourself the same grace you would offer someone you love. Life is rarely simple. It asks much of us, often without warning. Yet even in uncertainty, there is room for curiosity, for possibility, and for quiet hope.

I’m grateful you’re here.

Maren

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© 2026 Maren Elliot · Published by Sugarbird Press™ · For personal use only