jpicton23

There’s something surreal about reading your own story for what feels like the hundredth time. This week has been filled with line edits, query letters, synopsis revisions, and rereading nearly 90,000 words as I prepare my manuscript for agent submissions. If you've ever wondered what an author's life looks like before a book finds its way onto a shelf, let me paint you a picture. It's coffee that's gone cold because you've been staring at the same paragraph for twenty minutes. It's opening a...

There’s a reason second chance romance is one of the most beloved subgenres in fiction. It’s not just because the love story is compelling. It’s because it feels like something we already understand. We’ve all loved something we lost. A person, a version of ourselves, a life that almost was. And somewhere deep down, most of us have wondered: What if there had been more time? What if things had been different? What if we had been different? Second chance romance gives us a place to put all of...

I’ve always believed the best stories begin with characters you can’t stop thinking about. Not just the ones who are witty or strong or perfectly put together, but the ones who feel real. The ones who somehow feel less like fictional characters and more like people you knew once, or maybe people you could have known. Because the characters that stay with me the longest have never been the ones who have everything figured out. They’re the ones with emotional depth. Characters who are flawed,...