From Spreadsheets to Stories

She wanted to be a writer when she was twelve. A librarian she knew published a young adult novel. That made writing feel possible. At nineteen she joined finance and got a stockbroker license. In 2011 she sold her first novel. She kept her day job while raising three kids.

She wrote before sunrise, after bedtime, and during lunch breaks. Her husband took care of the toddler and newborn while she typed. She treated writing like a second job. By 2015 she felt she was working two full time jobs. She rewrote a rejected manuscript, and it became a bestseller. The book earned enough for her to leave finance.

People often dismissed her writing. A manager once mocked her romance stories. When she decided to quit, she planned to give eight weeks notice. Another manager told her to give two weeks instead. She left the corporate world. Her husband was laid off because of AI at his workplace. Now her author income covers the family health insurance. The COBRA plan costs between two thousand and two thousand five hundred dollars each month. They once had no insurance, and her child developed strep throat, forcing her to pay cash. Another year the deductible was so high that she considered an MRI in Paris.

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