About

Keep on Going. Keep on Hoping.

Hi, hellow, how y’all doing? My name is Aviva Godfrey! A pleasure to make your aquaintances, one and all. I’m an artist and author of many years, and in general, I serve as ye olde familiar oddball.

I’m from [insert the whole Deep South right here], and Texas on my best days.

When not dabbling in new stories, I spend my time studying Japanese, drawing, and generally investing in the gain of new skills. Currently working on opening a rabbitry and starting a sustainable homestead. ❤

Education

It’s easy to poke fun at my educational background, because the undergrad degree on the wall is impossibly vague and a total in-joke at this point.

It reads something like “Bachelor of Arts, Integrated Studies.”

If you squint with your psychic powers, it might say something like “Majoring in English, Linguistics, and Business, with a concentration in graphic design and a minor in Japanese.”

Maybe your psychic powers are stronger than mine?

Still, I’ve made good use of all five of my undergrad college experiences, and all eight of my majors. I may now also boast myself as a member of the 2021 Class of Southern New Hampshire University, having received my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in 2021.

What I Do

As dear mother will tell you, my catchphrase is “All the things.”

I’m a writer, obviously—and I do a lot of it. Presently I’m working on two projects—Neighborhood Noxie, an Arthurian-esque tale of a knight and an unconventional curse-breaker, and Heaven’s Sage, an epic-style portal fantasy for those who wish for second chances.

I am also an artist, so while I do art for my own work, I also take commissions! If you like my artwork, and would like a piece of your own (whether for your own characters or from a franchise you fancy, because who doesn’t love fanart?), please be encouraged to check out my commission site and give me a holler!

And while I do both art and writing, as I said…I’m also working toward a sustainable homestead. Mumther may be taking care of the garden, but I will be planting fruit trees and raising livestock. One plan is to get my hands on some Angora rabbits and start working in fibercrafts, and of course refine my rather basic sewing abilities…rather, I want to be able to create a garment from raising the rabbits all the way to wearable, because again…I want to do all the things.

We’ll see how successful I am.

My Mission

Story-teller extraordinaire that I am, I tell a lot of tales about mental health — or the lack thereof.

I have anxiety. I have depression. I have PTSD. I’ve been suicidal.

Life is hard. It can kill you, inside as well as outside. My stories are for the people in the trenches with me. If I’m the grizzled old soldier, let me lend my survival expertise to the younger, the less sure — those in a more precarious place than I am.

Thinking like that is what inspired me to tear down a lot of my previous storytelling choices, and instead use my place in this world to speak to people just like me.

Not for them, mind you. To them.

Tomorrow keeps coming, no matter how hard the present is, or the yesterday that came before it. I find myself hoping for tomorrow’s possibilities, its hope, its “I can.” I would be honored if my stories do the same for my readers.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.
 A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches