I wish that I had started sharing this from the very beginning, but here we are. I turned in the first big draft of my manuscript to the editor a week and a half ago, and by the time I pressed SEND on that email I wasn’t even sure if the thing made sense anymore. It was like when you stare at a word for too long and then you start to wonder if it’s spelled wrong or if it’s even a word at all. My brain had gotten a bit lost in the delirium of writing 60,000+ words (mostly) ABOUT MYSELF.

I’m doing it! I should say, I’m FINALLY doing it, as writing has been my ultimate goal since I moved to Los Angeles in 2001.

And I have been writing for many of these years, it just didn’t look like what I imagined. When I started a mommy blog in 2010, writing on the internet was meant to be temporary, a way to learn how to write for an audience, a stepping stone to “real” writing. But I just kept doing it. And it just kept working (mostly). The opportunities that came up in those early years came through my blog posts and blog audience, and traditional publishing felt like a dinosaur.