You're never too old... to do something new:
- Nov 30, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 16
On January 19, 2026, my first novel was published. It’s crazy, and scary, and thrilling to step into something so new. I’ve always considered myself a writer, but really I'm just a storyteller. And that’s exactly how this novel came into being — through stories that gathered and grew and lived in me long before they ever lived on the page.
Stories of LuAnn and Vince and Dario. Stories of Vince and Charlie, LuAnn and Dario. Stories of the daughters — Gianna, with her dream of opening a restaurant where she could finally serve the Italian dishes she spent years perfecting. Stories of her and Seth, a love story she denied even as she was living it.
Stories of Stella, the middle daughter with a photographic memory and a fierce drive to become a great public defender, despite her disdain for the corruption, the back‑room deals, and the under‑the‑table coverups she sees in the system she wants to change.
Stories of Trinity and her best friend Kerry — an unlikely pair whose bond is tested to the very edge of survival.
It’s messy. And as I reread it, now on pages, rather than a screen, I try not to pick apart every line, every choice, every place where I wonder if I should have told it differently. But the truth is, part of this book is me — exposed on the page. So when I imagine your eyes moving across those words, I naturally feel every worry rise up. Will you like it? Will you hate it? Will you see the frailties and imperfections I know are there… and the ones I see in myself?
At some point, I have to let it be what it is — messy and chaotic and somehow beautiful. I don’t know what comes next. I can’t change it or take it back, and I don’t want to. I only know that it’s finally out in the world, no longer mine alone, and that feels both terrifying and extraordinary.
And maybe that’s the real magic of storytelling — releasing something imperfect and alive, trusting it will find the people who need it, and allowing yourself to be changed beyond the pages of the story.
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