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Jenna Tico

@jennaticowrites

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relentless weirdo who loves words.
✒️ author of CANCER MOON @shewritespress
✒️ director & host @backbonestorytelling
✒️ buy my book!👇 ✨

POSTS STORIES REELS

I’m grateful to be a category winner for this year’s IndieReader Discovery Awards. 🫶 When others approach me about what it was like to release a book and birth a baby in the same year, along with debilitating pregnancy sickness and a four-year-old whose favorite activities include “dinosaur” and the timeless “throwing myself at the wall,” I answer honestly. It was hard. I imagine I get a little glazed in the eyes, like my dad does when describing all the years he worked in his studio til 2 or 3 a.m., waking to take me to 7 a.m (7!! A.M.!!!!) orchestra practice for an instrument that I have not touched since 2007. (Violin. You’re welcome.) I asked him once how he did it, and he said “I dunno. I just had to. So I did.”

And last year, I had to, so I did. It was hard, and it was immeasurably worth it. I no longer gauge my life by the sum of what went easily—nor do I reject ease when she shows up wearing fabulous shoes. I’m human. I’m proud of both my babies… and notably, fascinatingly, of myself.

🙏💘

#indiereaderdiscoveryaward #indiereader #cancermoonbook #memoir #indieauthor #shewritespress #shewritespressauthor #hybridpublishing #femaleauthors #millenialmemoir @shewritespress @booksforwardpr by @jennaticowrites

A real honor to be this week’s @sbindependent cover story! 💖💃 I interned for the Indy when I was 19 years old (remember seeing me at traffic court? no? hm) and have been an avid reader of the paper since I was “knee high to a grasshopper,” as my dad would say. In fact, the first time I showed up in the Indy was with my dad, at just 6 months old. So this was a real full circle moment for me. ♾️

It was especially wonderful to sit down with @reporterzoe, whom I love and admire more than words can say. She was the first person to blurb Cancer Moon, and remains one of my favorite people to chat writing, motherhood, and life with. She captured the essence of my journey with this book, opened a window into hybrid publishing, and left me feeling supercharged to enter these FINAL WEEKS before launch. 🫣

In the article, I mention that being part of a cohort—a community—was one of my favorite elements of working with @shewritespress. That remains true; not only for this pub journey, but for my life. I am a sum of the people who surround me, who have elevated my voice and this story (even the crunchy, cringey parts), and who make me who I am. Thank you. 🙏

Head to the independent.com (link in bio!) to read the full story. 🌟 On stands now thru 9/5!

#sbindependent #coverstory #cancermoonbook #shewritespress #shewritespressauthor #booksforwardpr #memoirist #millenialmemoir #hybridpublishing @booksforwardpr by @jennaticowrites

✨6 months from today ✨ link to purchase in bio!

“For fans of ‘You’ll Grow Out of It,’ this comedic patchwork of flash-prose, essay, and poetry snapshots a millennial performance artist’s journey from late bloomer to adult, inviting twenty-something women to embrace their self-worth, sexuality, and own-your-weird mentality.

Growing up in Santa Barbara, California, way too close to the Hollywood dream machine, Jenna Tico’s self-worth wanes to invisibility when her identity becomes enmeshed with validation from celebrities and spiritual F-boys . . . until she claws her way back to empowerment. Here, Tico shares vulnerable personal essays, stories, and poetry—all grouped following the cycles of the moon—chronicling her journey from late bloomer to full grownup. Observing the world of twenty-something relationships from perspectives as diverse as a bachelorette houseboat, a music festival afterparty, and the airplane ride to a death bed, she validates the experiences of women who feel like they have been abandoned by the generation that came before them. Her self-reflective stories encourage healthy life choices for young women without telling them where, what, or how to live their lives—and always with a healthy dash of humor on the side.

Simultaneously hilarious and poignant (without the whiff of morality play), Cancer Moon invites readers to embrace their twenties—aka the ‘age of wallowing’—as a humorous and necessary step toward understanding how we become who we want to be in the world.”

Ready or not, here it comes. 🌛💓🌜
9.17.24 by @jennaticowrites

It’s too heavy to hold, so I gave some to the page, and some to the sea. 🌊

#believewomen #1in3 #metoo by @jennaticowrites

It’s SPOOKY SZN, storytellers!🦇 And you know what that means—the news cycle is more horrifying than ever!! JKJK. (Cept not.💀) Come counteract the capitalization of our misery, and remember the FUNDAMENTAL GOODNESS of humans SHARING STORIES in our own words—and in community. Better yet, the magic of listening, and being reminded of the ties that bind…even in the afterlife. (*ghostly whistle.*)

This month’s theme? SPINE TINGLING. 😱😳 Bring your stories of ghouls, goosebumps, and things that go bump in the night. Hairs prickling, or back tickling. Spinal surgeries and haunted cemeteries. A good trick? The first story that comes to mind when you hear the theme—that’s your gold.

This month is especially exciting, as our first official collab with @lowstate_writing_salon! 🤝🙌Join their crew on 10/13 to write on the spine-tingling theme, and then bring your works-in-progress to @goodcompanysb on 10/29 to see how they land LIVE! 🎤

If there were ever a time to build human connection, it’s now. You do NOT need to participate nor prepare in order to attend, but both are welcome. Just no perfection, please. Or we’ll haunt you. 👻

🔸WHAT: true personal stories on the theme, told live, drawn at random from a bowl, capped at 10 minutes.
🔸WHO: dozens of soon-to-be-less-strange strangers. All ages welcome.
🔸WHEN: Thursday 10/29. Doors/potluck @ 5:30, stories @ 7:00.

🪦🌙🪦
#backbonestorytelling #storieswithspine #wegotyou #truestoriestoldlive #lowstatewritingsalon by @jennaticowrites

I’m no physicist, but I know some kind of sinister law goes into effect every time dad gets out of cell range by @jennaticowrites

The feeling of logging back into author email and socials after avoiding them for almost a year
💀💀💀

#imbaaaack #terrified #whateverimgettingcheesefries
Shirt by the only @loudflowerartco by @jennaticowrites

For one full hour yesterday, I let myself feel the fullness of despair, and then my kid woke up, and I had to go right back to building a world that she may believe in by @jennaticowrites

“Stories are a communal currency of humanity.”
- Tahir Shah 🌎

In MOTHER TONGUE, you brought stories of redefined boundaries, the red thread, travel mishaps & magic, spit & sensation, relics & relishing & learning to rely. As one of you said, we live in bodies that “need to leak in order to heal.” Leak we did. Healing we are. Continue we will.

Thank you to @sbwinecollective, @luckypennysb, @partyproperproductions and our beautiful storytellers for an unforgettable evening. 🎤💫

#backbonestorytelling #storieswithspine #truestoriestoldlive #storyslam #sbfunkzone by @jennaticowrites

Join me as I read the transcription for several “Super Important and Totally Legitimate Opportunity Miss Shina!!!!!!” voicemails I’ve gotten about my book. Can’t wait for my big break in Germany! 👻🫩

Where have you gotten lost in translation? This Thursday, #backbonestorytelling takes on MOTHER TONGUE: stories of terminology, temper tantrums, terrifying transcriptions, our tender tethers, tonality, and of course, kissing with tongue. 👅

See you there, Santa Barbara. Find out what happens when we listen between the lines.

5.21.26 @sbwinecollective
Doors at 5:30, mic opens at 7:00
Tarot by @manymoonsmentorship

#storieswithspine #truestoriestoldlive #storyslam #mothertongue by @jennaticowrites

We all come from one mother or another. 🌷Join us Thursday 5/21 for MOTHER TONGUE: an evening of true stories on the maternal, motherly, tonguerly… on matriarchs and melting hearts and how many licks to get to the center? … and the dream of a common language.

As ever, true, personal stories (in any form) will be drawn at random from a bowl, capped at 10 minutes, and paired with delicious local wines, @luckypennysb, and the loving attention of dozens of soon-to-be-less-strange strangers. 🫂 You do NOT need to participate nor prepare, but both are welcome.

Kick off MOMorial day weekend, bring your true stories of tongues, & give mom (and yourself) what she (and you) really want: to be heard. 🪽

In the spirit of sharing the mic, @centerlinecommunity will also be repping onsite to share resources for caregivers in and around Santa Barb and the SY valley! 💐

THURSDAY 5/21
DOORS AT 5:30 (mingle & eat)
STORIES AT 7:00

#backbonestorytelling #storieswithspine #wegotyou #truestoriestoldlive #momorialday by @jennaticowrites

Back, baby. 🏮🔥 🏮
Join us at @sbwinecollective on Thursday 2/26 for the ORIGINAL HUMAN TECHNOLOGY OF LISTENING TO OTHER BODIES TELL THEIR TRUE STORIES IN THEIR OWN MF WORDS 🐦‍🔥🐦‍🔥🐦‍🔥 and yes, we need each other now more than ever, and listening deeply with empathy is not only the ultimate subversion, but also the revolution we need, and we’re all in this together, and also, pizza. 🍕

Our theme: FEET TO THE FIRE. 👣 Stories of feet, flames, and the good kind of pressure. As ever, true, personal stories (in any form) will be drawn at random from a bowl, capped at 10 minutes, and paired with delicious local wines, @luckypennysb, and the loving attention of dozens of soon-to-be-less-strange strangers. 🫂 You do NOT need to participate nor prepare, but both are welcome.

Usher in the lunar new year (FIRE HORSE HERE WE GO 🐎) and give yourself over to the delicious duality of being heard/hearing well, leaning/being leaned upon. We love you. We got you. This is a safe space for all bodies to find our spines and set fire to stuck places. Together. ❤️‍🔥

THURSDAY 2/26
DOORS AT 5:30 (mingle & eat)
STORIES AT 7:00

#backbonestorytelling #storieswithspine #wegotyou #truestoriestoldlive #santabarbarafunkzone by @jennaticowrites