The unstrategic choices that built my life.

The long-form origin story. Three times in fifteen years I made the choice that looked wrong on paper — working for free at 20, quitting my dream job at 25 to move to a country where I had nothing lined up, and walking away from an executive career at 35 to write a series that fell into my head on a Sunday morning at the bathroom sink. Each one became one of the best decisions I've ever made.

In this episode: growing up Canadian with Hong Kong roots and never quite feeling like I belonged, the business-school pressure cooker I hated every day, turning down a position everyone told me was "mine," the piece of advice from my mom about working for free that I've never forgotten, and the pattern I only understood in hindsight.

The single week that made me finally leap — the one I still get chills over — is coming in its own episode.

Call of Matter, Book 1 of the Erastasis series, launches February 2027.

A couple of months ago, I was a corporate exec at a global multinational. Fourteen years of branding, marketing and communications for big brands like BMW and Kraft Heinz — a career I built from scratch after moving to Germanywith no language, no network, and no job.

Then I quit to write a romantasy series.

I'm Viv. I'm writing a seven-book series called Erastasis, and I'm publishing the first book, Call of Matter, myself in February 2027. This is the show where I take you all the way inside it — the writing, the cover-art disasters, the beta feedback that shocked me, the money, the decisions, and everything that's gone right and wrong till now.

I have no idea if this is going to work. But I have to try.

New episodes regularly. Subscribe and follow along from the beginning.

Call of Matter — Book 1 of the Erastasis series. February 2027.

Three days. That's how long it took Vivian Lee-Lauss to draw the emblem for a seven-book series — with no design background, no idea how to use the software, and no ability to draw.

Then she spent a week making the real cover. The proper one. The one she was proud of.

Everyone saw something she didn't draw. Everyone picked the one she didn't want.

Fourteen years in branding and marketing, and she still missed it.

This is what happened to the cover of Call of Matter — and why, eventually, she gave in.

Call of Matter launches February 2027. Read the excerpts at callofmatter.com.

Vivian Lee-Lauss hired professional beta readers in the US — strangers who read romantasy, who didn't know her name, who owed her nothing. The report came back 35 pages long. She didn't sleep the night before she opened it.The most shocking thing in it wasn't the criticism.Also in this episode: the friends who said nothing for weeks and then called when they'd finished the book. Seven weeks of 100-hour days, and why 30,000 words had to go.Call of Matter launches February 2027. Read the excerpts at callofmatter.com.

Vivian Lee-Lauss spent fourteen years in branding and marketing. She led packaging design projects. She knows exactly how visual cues work.

Then she designed her own book cover and accidentally made it look like a Chinese takeaway menu.

"I'm Chinese. No self-respecting Chinese person would ever use this font. And I went and drew it. With my own hands. For my romantasy novel."

Two weeks to learn graphic design from zero. Day one made her want to call those headhunters back. What happened in between is this episode.

Call of Matter launches February 2027. Read the blurb at callofmatter.com.