This sweet little girl gave us a hell of a scare this week, but it’s looking like she’s going to be ok 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 Not all better yet so healing vibes welcome for my Sandy!

Also I am apparently enough of a big deal for there to be scam emails going around saying I want to connect with people. Ignore. If I want to connect with you, I will stalk you online and slide into your DMs like a normal person, as all of my author buddies will attest to 🤪

#miniatureschnauzer #dogmom

Some days author life looks like being all polished at events. Other days it’s mainlining Hershey’s Kisses and Diet Coke at the kitchen table while monitoring a sick dog. It’s really all about balance 🤪

#bookstagram #amwriting #authorlife

I love going to get bagels and seeing MY BOOKS staring at me from the window of @jurisdictionclothing! Stop by for a signed copy, an Off the Record bookmark, and to shop because everything in there is hand curated by my amazing friend and alpha reader @jessgha (who even has a character named for her in my work-in-progress that I can’t tell you about yet, but that Jessica is loving!).

#shoplocal #womanownedsmallbusiness

There are a lot of different starting points in my author journey. There’s when my uncle Jules sent me a typewriter when I was eight and told me I’d be an author when I grew up. Or when I decided to teach, knowing it was the only career that gave me two months a year to write. Signing with my agent. That first contract.

But another starting point was 23 years ago today. My dad and I drove down to Richmond for our first @springsteen show. I was student teaching at the time, and quite honestly in a rough headspace. My friend group had fallen apart, and I wasn’t sure I was making the right career choice (sorry mom). But when the lights went down, the band came out, and the opening notes of The Rising started to play, something changed. Forever.

The first book that I ever finished was called Beyond the Palace, and it follows two characters who meet on The Rising Tour. They say your first book is you, and well… yes. Not me now, but at the time it was. I tried unsuccessfully for years to find an agent, then eventually self-published it in 2010, thinking I’d be an overnight success.

To clarify, I am NOT telling you to read this one. It is very much a self-published book by a 25 year old who thought she was somehow writing The Great American Novel. (Spoiler: it isn’t. I very much see now why it never landed an agent or took off and is kinda cringy now that I’m where I am.)

But that first book was what told me I could do this. And now, with five books out, a sixth almost here, and more in progress (I’ll have news I can share soon, I swear!), I’m here.

I’m 47 shows burning down the road, with tickets for #48 (thank you @mgizzi!) in May (and that Philly show that I’m eyeing hard with @mattlombardonfl). But that first show will always hold a special place in my heart. And @jordangoodman341, you’re still my favorite concert buddy, even if you won’t do the pit anymore. 🩷

#bookstagram #brucespringsteen #author