About
Hi,
I’m Michael. I’m a writer, music critic, tarot practitioner, and educator.
I believe that rebuilding a creative life isn't about starting over. It's about listening more closely to what has been quietly carrying you all along.
I’m drawn to the places where art and spirit blur. Where the creative act becomes a way of finding the self again.
Tracework is a living archive, a record of return, a practice of tracing what endures beneath collapse and loss.
To trace is to follow the faint outline of something beneath the surface. To recover what was once hidden.
To bring shape to the invisible.
To walk backward and forward at once.
It’s what I do when I write, when I remember.
Here, I share essays, reflections, and rituals for reclaiming my life—after burnout, addiction, and creative silence.
But this is slow work. I add to it as it unfolds.
And I invite you, dear reader, to walk that unfolding.
If you're standing at the threshold between the life you built and the life that's calling...you're already a part of the story.
Each section of Tracework explores a different facet of the self—through sound, story, ritual, and shadow—organized around the four Minor Arcana of the tarot.
Some pieces are new.
Others are reclaimed.
Think of this as a trail of fragments, where art, spirit, healing, and memory meet.
It's a nonlinear record of what I’m reclaiming in my life, line by line.
Along the way, I’ll be sharing select excerpts from my forthcoming book, Fire in My Mouth: A Memoir of Queer Voice and Becoming.
Here, we move to the rhythm of our inner wilderness:
Where we tend our creative fire slowly, carefully.
Where there is less striving, less dogma.
Where there is more room for something raw, ritualistic, and real.
If that sounds like what you’re seeking, you’re already home.
- Michael
Here's how everything is organized.
- The Fools Notebook. This is where the road begins. The Fool is the card of beginning, trust, risk, becoming—the energy of stepping forward without knowing exactly where the road leads. This series is a record of the early steps—fragments, sketches, and reflections from a life and memoir still taking shape. Here, I share process notes about my memoir-in-progress, Fire in My Mouth. Nothing here is finished. A sketchbook and seedbed.
- Listening Rituals. A devotion to sound, story, and the emotional texture of music. This is where I write about the albums that shape me, the songs that haunt me, and the soundscapes that echo through memory. Part criticism, part meditation—these are sonic essays that move between the personal and the collective, the beat and the breath. Listening becomes ritual here.
- Tracing the Arcana. Essays, reflections, and fragments shaped by the archetypes of the tarot. This series follows the Major Arcana as a map for healing, transformation, and return. Each post traces a card—not as static meaning, but as invitation. Through shadow and light, memory and myth, I write my way into what the tarot reveals about queerness, identity, and the lifelong ritual of becoming.
- The Reclamation Plan. A seasonal blueprint for creative return and personal renewal. What happens after burnout, rupture, or loss? This series is a living document of that question. Here, I share the phases and rituals that are helping me reorient my life around art, authenticity, and healing. It’s both a map and a mirror—for anyone tracing their way back to themselves.
- The Deeper Thread. Become an annual supporter of Tracework. This is a space of gratitude to those of you who have become founding readers for this publication. Free and monthly supporters can't access these pieces.
- The Minor Arcana. A different kind of way to explore this living archive. All work is also organized according to thematic, tarot-aligned themes that align with these four suits: Cups, Swords, Pentacles, and Wands.
New writing, delivered
Stay up to date with posts sent straight to your inbox. No more worrying about whether you missed something special just because of the algorithm.
By signing up, you'll get access to the full archive of everything that's been published before and everything that's still to come.
Find your creative kin.
Join a community of other subscribers who care deeply about supporting independent writing and visual art. No confusion about where your money goes. Just pure, unfiltered support for creators who want to bring their art into the world.