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

Hi Terell , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Eleven years ago I made the decision to leave my current community of Red Deer, Alberta and move to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I was 27 and what did I have to lose? The timeline went for eight weeks to two, which threw me into a mad dash to prep my condo for sale and pack up my life into a car to then make the drive through some rather horrid winter conditions.

Many people called me brave for doing such a thing on my own. I never saw it that way, for me it was an opportunity for something new and I had always loved the coast. I ended up living there for eight years, I reconnected with an old school friend, I made some strong connections that I still maintain today, but most importantly I was able to step into the person I always was but was forever smothering certain parts of myself to make others around me comfortable. I no longer do that, and I have lost some key people as a result but the important part is that I found me. I am me, and I am so thankful for that.

Those eight years were integral to who I am today at 38, those eight years had some of the best and the very worst events that I will ever live through. Those eight years will remain some of the most important of my life.

Terell , 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?

By day I am the Safety Coordinator for a commercial electrical company in Calgary, Alberta where I spend days writing up safety processes, conducting safety inspections, and all other items that tie to the HSQE (Health, Safety, Quality and Environment) standards we abide by.

In October 2024 I decided to take my long standing love of reading to social media and created a “Bookstagram” account (@nerdy.biblilmaniac) to seek a larger community that loved the written word as much as I did. This has lead to the development of a bookish podcast that just debuted in March 2025 called the Feral & Bookish Podcast (@feral.bookishpodcast on Instagram and TikTok) which airs on Spotify, Apple, PodBean and Amazon Music. I am one of three podcast hosts, the others being Joy (@text.traveler) and Chey (@read_withchey), our primary focus is to interview indie authors and showcase their publications. We also are fortunate enough to also include other guests that are relevant within this category; bookish artists, indie bookstores, other Bookstagrammers etc.

With the development of the podcast also comes the gradual but natural progression into marketing, public relations, and personal assistant services to indie authors. This is still in development from an official capacity but we have begun to assist others in the background to gain experience and establish positive/productive relationships within the community in which we hope to grow with an official catalogue of clientele in time.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

That it is impossible to be the person that fixes everything for those you care about, not without great cost to yourself, that is.

That you can give the best parts of yourself, and you will rarely get even a fraction of that care in return.

I spent a large amount of my youth and my 20’s feeling inadequate to those around me, due to a collection of reasons and individuals that I am not prepared to dig get into details about.

Trauma is not something to be taken lightly and it is not something that you can put a timeline on to overcome, it is a deeply personal journey that you take one day at a time.

The paths I have taken have helped me learn that nothing is worth the sacrificing of myself and my values, that I need to take care of myself so that I can be there for others. That it is ok to stumble, it is ok to not be ok, and most importantly be kind to yourself. You are human, and you are allowed to take your time.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Escaping to a whole new world in the pages of a book was my first love, from a young age reading has been a passion of mine. The last ten years has seen a major uptake in self-publishing and I have come to greatly love the indie book industry, the creativity found with these authors and the determination is next level.

That is why I finally “bit the bullet” and created my Bookstagram account, to enable me to Beta/ARC read for these authors, to offer any type of help I could to get their books out into the world. With the rapid friendships I have built as a result of that decision, the natural progression with Joy and Chey then lead to the Feral & Bookish Podcast that I mentioned previously. This is an easily accessible way to provide exposure to these amazing authors, and another way for us three to just be our amazing, awkward, book obsessed selves.

Contact Info:

• Website: coming soon
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feralbookish.podcast?igsh=N2VsNmh4ZzB6aTZv&utm_source=qr
• Other: Personal Instagram account (Bookstagram):
  https://www.instagram.com/nerdy.bibliomaniac?igsh=MTkybWRpMm43ZmlwYQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr