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Kate Sjostrand | Author
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Kate Sjostrand | Author
Home
About
Writing
Keeper Universe
ThrottleThread (Blog)
Contact
Home
About
Writing
Keeper Universe
ThrottleThread (Blog)
Contact
Pain, But Progress
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 4/4/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 4/4/26

Pain, But Progress

They fixed it. That’s the truth. Nerve endings waking back up, sensation returning to places that have been dead since October. That part is a win. But healing isn’t clean. It’s not gentle. It’s sharp, throbbing, and relentless. This is what progress actually feels like.

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Cut, Stitch, Publish
Personal Essays & Reflections, Writing Life, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 4/3/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Writing Life, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 4/3/26

Cut, Stitch, Publish

On the same day I hand my face over to a surgeon’s knife, I’m waiting for something else to be born: my first book. One stitched back together. One finally set free. Either way, something changes today.

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Proof of Life
Writing Life, Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/24/26 Writing Life, Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/24/26

Proof of Life

Holy fuck. I just ordered proof copies of my book. It’s real now. One last push, one last pass, and it’s out in the world.

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El Paso, Heat, and a Little Bit of Healing
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Motorcycles & Mayhem Kate Sjostrand 3/23/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Motorcycles & Mayhem Kate Sjostrand 3/23/26

El Paso, Heat, and a Little Bit of Healing

Sometimes you don’t need to burn your life down. Sometimes you just need to ride far enough to remember who the hell you are.

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Running South
Motorcycles & Mayhem, Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/21/26 Motorcycles & Mayhem, Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/21/26

Running South

I’m coming up on five months since the accident. Five fucking months. And just when I thought I was clawing my way back, life decided to remind me that sometimes the hardest hits don’t come from the road… they come from people.

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Fire, Fracture, and the Finish Line
Writing Life, Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/20/26 Writing Life, Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/20/26

Fire, Fracture, and the Finish Line

My book is so goddamned close. And So, She Rose didn’t come together in a straight line. It came together through death, through failure, through pain, and finally, through fire. Turns out, sometimes the ending of your story doesn’t come from inspiration… it comes from impact.

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The Moment the Anger Leaves
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/13/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/13/26

The Moment the Anger Leaves

There’s a strange moment after betrayal when the anger finally disappears. It’s the moment you realize the person who once held your heart no longer holds your gravity.

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Defiance
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/8/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/8/26

Defiance

Some betrayals can’t be spoken aloud. Not because they don’t matter, but because telling the full truth would burn more lives than it would heal. Tonight isn’t about revenge. Tonight is about defiance, integrity, and the quiet strength it takes to walk away while still protecting someone who never protected you.

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A Night for Broken Hearts
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/7/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 3/7/26

A Night for Broken Hearts

Sometimes the deepest heartbreaks are the ones you can’t explain. The ones you have to carry quietly, because telling the truth would destroy someone else’s life. So you sit with the pain, question everything you thought you understood about love, and ask God why the tests never seem to end.

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Memento Mori, Memento Vivere
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Writing Life Kate Sjostrand 3/3/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Writing Life Kate Sjostrand 3/3/26

Memento Mori, Memento Vivere

I died three times in 2022. When I came back, I stopped fearing Death and started honoring it. The Reaper isn’t my enemy, he’s my reminder to live urgently, honestly, and without apology.

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The Chosen
Personal Essays & Reflections, Faith & Meaning, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/28/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Faith & Meaning, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/28/26

The Chosen

There’s a difference between faith and performance. Between humility and ego dressed up as revelation. I’ve stood close to death, and what I experienced wasn’t loud.

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The Lonely Things I Choose
Personal Essays & Reflections, Writing Life, Leadership, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/28/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Writing Life, Leadership, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/28/26

The Lonely Things I Choose

I get lonely sometimes. But I’ve also gotten ruthless about who gets access to me. When you build a life around riding, writing, and leading, you don’t have room for everyone, and that’s both the problem and the point.

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I Am Not Reckless. I Am Deliberate.
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/26/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/26/26

I Am Not Reckless. I Am Deliberate.

There’s a difference between recklessness and deliberation. What people see is the decision. What they don’t see is the relentless internal trial that led to it.

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What the Hell Happened to Driving?
Rants & Raves, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/26/26 Rants & Raves, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/26/26

What the Hell Happened to Driving?

Traffic up to Los Alamos isn’t bad because there are more people. It’s bad because two or three drivers at the front of the pack have collectively decided that fifteen miles under the speed limit is a personality trait. And somewhere between horsepower and hesitation, we lost something.

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Flags
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Leadership Kate Sjostrand 2/24/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Leadership Kate Sjostrand 2/24/26

Flags

I don’t assume people are dishonest. But I do watch for flags. And once a flag goes up about someone’s integrity, I don’t ignore it.

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You’re Fucking Welcome
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Writing Life Kate Sjostrand 2/22/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Writing Life Kate Sjostrand 2/22/26

You’re Fucking Welcome

Pride wasn’t born out of comfort. It was born out of survival. This is about Michael. About blood. About hiding. About violence. About what it actually cost to make today safer. And about the complicated gratitude that comes with inheriting freedom.

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Free Enough to Complain
Rants & Raves, Freedom & Fire, Motorcycles & Mayhem Kate Sjostrand 2/21/26 Rants & Raves, Freedom & Fire, Motorcycles & Mayhem Kate Sjostrand 2/21/26

Free Enough to Complain

I rode all day in freezing sun, hands numb, coffee in my veins, donuts as fuel. And downtown? Protestors. Two years later, still marching like the sky fell. Here’s what I actually saw: a free country loud enough to complain inside it.

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What Would You Say?
Motorcycles & Mayhem, Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/21/26 Motorcycles & Mayhem, Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/21/26

What Would You Say?

If I ever sat across from the woman who hit me, what would I say? I’m not sure I’d say anything at all. I think I’d just hand her the story and let her decide who she wants to be next.

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Goddamned Appointments
Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Motorcycles & Mayhem Kate Sjostrand 2/21/26 Personal Essays & Reflections, Freedom & Fire, Motorcycles & Mayhem Kate Sjostrand 2/21/26

Goddamned Appointments

I survived the crash. I survived the hospital. Now I’m just trying to survive the goddamned appointments long enough to get back to being me.

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What Harley Is Actually Selling
Motorcycles & Mayhem, Rants & Raves, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/20/26 Motorcycles & Mayhem, Rants & Raves, Freedom & Fire Kate Sjostrand 2/20/26

What Harley Is Actually Selling

Harley-Davidson doesn’t sell motorcycles. If they did, Honda would win every time. What they sell is muscle, grit, and the permission to make a machine your own. And sometimes, they forget that.

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Words forged in fire, ink, and steel.
© Kate Sjostrand

Email me: katelynsjostrand@gmail.com
Instagram:
@katelynsjostrand