In Heart’s Dzyer, you share some of the most intimate aspects of your relationship with your boyfriend via letters exchanged during his time in prison. Why was this an important book for you to write?

This was an important book to write because his family was grieving, and I wanted to give them something about him that they may not have known.

I appreciated the candid nature with which you share your experiences. What was the most difficult thing for you to write about?

Even though I was candid and I wrote about difficult things, I did black out some private things that I didn’t think were appropriate to be shared with everyone.

What advice would you give someone who is considering sharing their own memoir?

I would advise that person to be authentic. I kept his spelling inaccuracies because, as someone with dyslexia, it would have been inauthentic to portray him as a perfect speller.

Did you learn anything about yourself in the course of putting Heart’s Dzyer together?

I don’t know if learning is the first thing that comes to mind. If anything, my experience dredged up a lot of emotions. Some days were harder than others. Sometimes I had to take a break because I needed to process emotions. So I guess I learned that I needed to give myself time to process, and I had to be compassionate toward myself as well.

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This book is a painstakingly typewritten version of more than 193 letters written between 2011 and 2015, all typed up verbatim post-mortem. Even though I started writing to Snail in 2011, we had known of each other since 1995 because we attended the same middle school. After his death in 2023, I decided to transcribe all of his letters to me to honor the life that he lived and to give his loved ones a little piece of himself. All proceeds will go toward his family.