We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy Frost a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Amy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Achewillow is far and away the most meaningful project I’ve worked on. And continue to work on. Achewillow is a cozy horror fiction podcast that I collaborate on with my best friend, author J-F Dubeau. It was born out of the fact that he is a horror writer while I am an absolute ninny about scary things. The goal was for him to have horror content to release between novels and for me to have a story with horror elements that I could enjoy while flexing my audio skills. It’s a story that combines small town weirdness and a cozy coffee shop with kitchen witchery and terrifying demons. It aims to strike a balance between the horrific and the comforting, providing a little something for everyone.

In 2019, I participated in and won the first season of America’s Next Top Podcaster. Over the course of the competition, I completed challenges that revealed skills even I didn’t know I had. J-F and I had been doing a fairly bog standard video game podcast together for several years at that time, but hearing my work during the competition made him realize that there was so much more we could be doing with the medium.

It began very much as a project for each other. J-F writes a story that he thinks I will love in a way that toes the line of my tolerance for all things spooky. I then take that story and tell it in a way that I think he’ll love listening to. Of course we also put it out into the world in the hopes that it would be enjoyed by other people, but it has grown beyond what we ever thought would happen.

We’re now seven seasons in, with over sixty-five hours of content. We’ve gotten fan art, gifts, and overwhelmingly touching messages from listeners who are really into what we’re doing. We are even in the process of campaigning to get the first season published as a book, complete with a mini cookbook of the recipes in the season. We have years worth of future content planned for as long as people want to hear about the goings on in the weird little town of Achewillow. Above all, it’s a project that I get to share with my best friend which fuels creativity in a completely different way than working alone does.

Amy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a self proclaimed hobby magpie. I find shiny, new avenues of creativity irresistible. I am a podcaster, in several different categories, a miniature wargaming content creator, gamer, Twitch streamer, cosplayer, quilter, sewist, baker, and storyteller. If there is a creative medium, I’ve probably at least given it a shot.

I have an art degree that I got at exactly the wrong time. Digital art and sculpting software was around, but not anywhere near what it is today. In the end, I did my concentration in sculpture, largely because the Typography 101 class that was required for a focus in graphic design was always full. In that time, I took classes in painting, ceramics, papermaking, bookbinding. Most notably, I took a noise class that was recommended by the department head who simply said “Oh, you’ll love it.” Everything I learned in that objectively weird little course has been of endless use in my work as a podcaster. I could never have known that a class I picked on a whim while sitting on a broken down couch in the art department would have such far reaching consequences.

In my day job, I am the studio manager for quilt fabric and pattern designer Alison Glass. So much of the work I do there spills over into my other projects; skills transfer from one side to the other. I have to wear many hats, as most people working for a small business do, and as a result, my perceived lack of focus in my creative endeavors actually means that I’ve honed a variety of abilities to take on a multitude of tasks. I edit tutorial videos and take photos for social media. I sew sample projects and help manage an online community.

All of that feeds right back out to my creative projects. From the YouTube channel where I put out videos about miniature painting to managing the social media for Achewillow, the project that has my heart. If any of these disparate pieces in my hodgepodge of hobbies were to be pulled out, the whole tower would start to wobble and fall.

The adage “Jack of all trades is a master of none” is frequently misquoted. The original finishes with the phrase “though oftentimes better than master of one.” Finding out this little detail was a game changer for me. It frames my scattershot approach to art as a strength rather than a weakness.

Would I be more “successful” if I was able to focus all my energies in one direction? Perhaps. But I would also be less fulfilled creatively and as a person. It’s the challenge to try new things that drives me. In the end, that means not everything I do is going to be for everyone, but there’s probably a little something that anyone could find to enjoy.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being able to look at something and say “I made that.” To have a finished project and to be proud of the accomplishment, flaws and all. When I bake a fancy pie or paint a miniature or finish a quilt, I can turn it around and look at it from all angles and appreciate the effort and love that I put into it. This becomes a much trickier proposition when dealing with digital media as it’s not something you can physically hold and admire.

Podcasts and videos lack that visceral completion, so I need to find other metrics by which to measure them. Measuring what I do based on views and downloads feels hollow in that respect, so I’ve had to do things like keep a spreadsheet of Achewillow’s runtime. I get to enjoy my work in a different way, seeing that it would take a person almost three entire days to listen to the whole story as it’s been presented so far.

Sharing what I’ve made with others is the other side of the coin. It’s less about the validation of having an outsider tell me that my work is good and more about me saying “Here is this thing I love” and having someone else say that they love it too. There’s a little piece of me, no matter how small, in everything that I create, and having someone else say that they see it and that it resonates with them too. That connection is so invigorating.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think a lot of people don’t understand that in making art, whatever form it takes, the effort you put in is the entire point. Creating something takes your time and your brain power and your physical skills, which have had to be honed over time. And all of that is what adds value to this thing you have made.

Even the most beginner works can be appreciated when you can see the energy and love that has been woven into it. Art is a means of expression, it’s not a product. It’s a vehicle for you to show others the pieces of your soul, your essence, that are normally only for you. There’s an intimacy in making and sharing art that is so far beyond the finished work.

As a society, we love to put a dollar value on the end result. How much did that painting sell for? How much does this artist make on Patreon? But that is a huge mistake. It ignores the true worth of creation. Be bad at it. Make mistakes. Make art only for yourself. Love the process no matter what the end result looks like. Making art is what makes us human.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Daniora.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Achewillow
• Twitter: https://x.com/Daniora
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@achewillow