Gel Pen Flowers

Patricia Petrakis holding her book Gel Pen Flowers on a beach, representing a return to writing and creativity

 

Gel Pen Flowers

I didn’t mean to write this book.

For a long time, writing was something I quietly let go of, tucked away while I chased other loves, built other versions of myself, and learned how to move through the world.

But some things don’t stay quiet forever.

 

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Gel Pen Flowers found its way back to me in a season where I was finally ready to listen.

What came out wasn’t perfect. It was honest, a little messy, and deeply human.

This is a story about coming back to yourself.
About the parts of you that never really leave.

 

 

 

A younger version of Patricia holding Gel Pen Flowers on the beach, symbolizing creativity, memory, and reconnecting with her younger self

I think she knew before I did.

 

 

This Book Is for You If...

you’ve ever felt like you lost a part of yourself

you’ve put your creativity on hold

you’ve wondered whether it’s too late to come back to yourself


Hi, I’m Patricia but my friends call me Trish

I didn’t choose writing it found me again.
After years of chasing other creative paths, this book became my way back. A return to something quieter, truer, and more honest than anything I had created before.

If you’ve ever felt like you lost a part of yourself, this is for you.

STEP INTO THE STORY

Now available at independent bookstores

 

Or you can just stay here for a while.

 

 

 

 

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Poetry for Quiet Moments

Growth, healing, identity, purpose

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Memoirs That Stay With You

The ones that crack something open. The ones that feel a little too familiar.

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  • Running with Scissors

    Running with Scissorsis the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead-ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules, there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs....

  • Educated

    Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.