Running to Stand Still
I went to my local farmer’s market this weekend and did all the things I normally do. I checked for ripe tomatoes so that I could cook batches of homemade sauce to last us through winter. I checked for the perfect Walla Walla onions that we like. I selected the perfect kabocha squash so that I could harvest the seeds and plant some in my yard.
As I was standing at the table chatting with my favorite farmer at the market, the same person I've spoken to every weekend for years, who has seen me navigate seasons of such poor health that I didn't have the strength to hold a tomato in my hand, she smiled and asked me for a little life update.
I answered with a smile and a shrug as I told her about publishing my first novel next week. How my release will be quiet and lovely, and how I wrote a book from my heart that explores trauma, love, tenderness, tragedy, and redemption, and how I hope it will heal someone else.
Then I shared how I wrote a whole universe, that the first six books are done despite needing heavy rounds of editing, and that I have my first twenty books lined up. Because I built a world I love with characters I root for, and it’s been healing.
I didn't realize people were standing behind me.
So when I shared my news and kind of shrugged it off like, "it's no big deal,” a crowd of strangers cheered and applauded, sharing well-wishes, and asking to read my book.
Honestly, it was just so darn nice.
And healing.
Navigating health issues, loss, grief, and all sorts of other heavy things these last few years has been emotionally isolating. So to whisper my accomplishment out loud and to be met with overwhelming kindness and presence by busy strangers who paused to sit with me and shine their love and support even for just a brief moment in a tiny covered farmstand in the corner of the market in a little town on this amazing rock in the middle of the galaxy—it was humbling.
That’s where I hope this book finds you.
In the heartbeats. In the quiet moments. In the space of the unspoken. I hope it unburdens your soul for a few moments or hours. I hope the EVERLYVERSE is a place you can retreat to when life feels hard and walk away feeling restored.
On that note.
After I left the market and walked home, tracing the familiar path that had left me winded and practically in tears of overwhelming fatigue even a year ago, I felt centered, seen, and held by strangers, acquaintances, and the universe.
I listened to U2's The Joshua Tree album all day, made fresh tomato sauce and blueberry pancakes, and wrote and enjoyed my life because sometimes I forget to do that.
Collision: A Dark Romantic Suspense will be here on August 24th, 2026. This is a book that healed my heart, whose characters and stories were whispered back and forth between my husband and I in the dark as we held hands and I held back tears during one of the most stressful and uncertain seasons in our lives.
These characters filled our hearts when they were empty.
Their imperfect journey made us feel like we could also be okay.
The purity of their love, despite their circumstances, reminded us of what truly matters.
I’ve always said that no matter what life has thrown at me, I want to see what happens if I don’t give up.
And here we are.
I can’t wait until you meet Daniel and Lennon and see what happens when they don’t give up, when they sit in the truth, and when they collide, tragically and beautifully, and make something new.