Welcome to My New Website!

Oh, my goodness. There are so many things that have happened since my last blog!

In December 2024, right before Christmas, I published my debut novel, Unexpected Love, on Amazon. It was an incredibly challenging but thrilling accomplishment, and I’ve learned so much about this world.

This first novel was an adaptation of my first one, which I wrote on Wattpad, and, quite frankly, it was a nightmare. I learned the hard way about character point of view, scene setting, and continuity. I had no real clue what I was doing. I had a solid story in mind from beginning to end, but because that first manuscript had been based on fanfiction of my beloved Turkish series, Erkenci Kus, it had to be rewritten.

Finding my voice took me a few tries, but I did it. If you know me well, you’ll recognize that my author “voice” sounded much like me in real life. I love romantic stories, snarky, tight-knit families and friends, and all of those came out in my writing. If you recognize yourself in there, that’s not by mistake!

A new friend recently asked me if I sit down to write every day or if I have to wait to be inspired. She also wanted to know what inspires me. These were great questions that had me thinking for a few minutes about how to answer.

I do sit down to write every day, but I’m not always successful. Some days, all I do is read and edit, read and edit, rinse and repeat. You have no idea how often that happens in a manuscript's life. Sometimes, it gets overwhelming, and more than once, I threatened to throw the story away and start from scratch. I’m so glad that I didn’t.

On the days that I do feel the inspiration to write, I get lost in the world of my making and have been known to write for 12 hours. Most days, it’s more like 6 hours, but I’ve had many of those mammoth writing sessions that I get lost in and forget how long I’ve been sitting there until I can’t feel my backside or my neck locks up. Not a pretty sight.

As for my inspiration, it’s different each time. I realized that as I started writing Book 2, Choosing Love. More on that later in this blog.

When I was writing Unexpected Love, I drew from my own life. The story is about a young widow, Aria, navigating not only the loss of her beloved husband but a business they created together while taking a hard look at what she wanted as a woman on her own. As I wrote, I found pieces of my own story in the words of this novel, so it ended up being very personal to me. It was a beautiful journey, and it even healed a few jagged edges of my own journey as a widow rediscovering herself.

Again, if you know me, I’m quite shy until I’m with people I trust. Or, like now, when I’m willing to be vulnerable in hopes of helping someone else.

One of the things that surfaced while writing Aria’s story is that she was plagued with guilt that she had survived the car accident that took her husband’s life. Survivor’s guilt was not something I thought I had an issue with in Bud’s passing. There were tons of other emotions that I had to navigate through multiple counselors and psychiatrists, but survivor’s guilt was not one of them. Yet… every time I had a great accomplishment, I would delve back into that deep dark hole of depression, sometimes lasting as long as 8 months. It was heartbreaking and frightening, to say the least. I kept fearing I was losing all the hard-fought ground that I’d pulled myself from.

Through the pages of Aria’s story, those emotions surfaced. It was hard at first to reconcile, but I was determined to get to the root of it. And I did. Slowly, over the last few months, I dug deep and came to terms with it. For me, that’s why writing is so powerful. Scary but powerful. After having multiple beta readers and a professional editor, I felt ready to get this story out into the world. When I went to hit the button to do just that, all my insecurities rose to the surface.

Will I be ridiculed as a silly story that didn’t matter? Would my reviews be cruel and tear apart all my mistakes? Would anyone actually read the darn thing? And the one that we all deal with in one way or another…

Is it good enough?

It turns out that every writer has those fears. I was in good company, but it was scary—and still is. But as challenging as this is, my heart is determined to make this a career. Deciding to change it from a standalone novel to a series came easy once everyone fell in love with Aria’s best friend, Corinna.

Corinna is the embodiment of everyone in my girl tribe. She is funny, irreverent, fiercely protective, loyal, and a little bit broken from life. And before I knew it, Choosing Love was born. I officially sent it to the editor recently, and the goal is to publish it on May 15th, 2025.

Interesting sidenote on that date. My editor gave me several days during the year that historically have been great for a release date. May 15th ranks up there with the summer reading buying history. When I heard that, I had to chuckle to myself because it was also my wedding anniversary. And it also happened to be the day I ended up having my New Orleans launch for my devotional back a few years ago.

I may be dealing with survivor's guilt, but those dates are a way that God keeps me connected to Bud and lets me know that even though he’s not here to celebrate these big days with me, he will always be a part of my story. One that I am writing every day as I navigate rediscovering Mary. One that I am writing every day as I pursue my lifelong passion into a career.

He is a good Father, and even on my lowest days, I am reminded that He will never leave me or forsake me. He has given me the gift of writing, and I want to do my best to make him proud.

There’s so much more to come, dear friends! For me and for you!

Keep dreaming.