What Do You Do When Everything’s Falling Apart the Week Before Your Book Launch?
Apparently you lose it a few times, with coffee of course.
You cry.
You scream.
You stare at your phone like it personally betrayed you.
You ask your best friend if maybe, just maybe, you should become a Barbie and never speak to a man again.
(Valid.)
Let me paint the scene:
I’m one week out from publishing Once Upon a Time, I Survived Myself — a memoir I almost didn’t release because it felt too vulnerable, too raw, too sacred. But I did it. I survived myself… only to now be taken out by Amazon payment declines, flaky restaurant managers, and a grown man at Outback Steakhouse who tried to mansplain my own book launch to me.
Yep. That happened.
The Payment Declined.
Amazon, sweetie, why? My mom transferred money. I bought one $13 dress. The books were already ordered. And still, I get a little “insufficient funds” slap in the face like I haven’t spent the past year bleeding my soul into Google Docs.
I want to scream.
I want to throw my phone.
I want to call up the entire tech department at Amazon and say, “Listen. This book is for the girls who feel too much. You’re ruining the vibe.”
The Venue Hunt = Emotional Warfare.
TAP42 ghosted me.
MainSpot is too expensive.
The town of Davie wants to charge me a small fortune even though I am literally ON. THEIR. BOARD.
And Outback? Oh, Outback. Let’s just say the energy there was more “overcooked steak and attitude” than “soft girl signing her survival story in fairy tale fonts.”
But then… a tiny light.
A girl named Chelsea at First Watch.
A sweet angel at Filomena’s Coffee.
Maybe, just maybe, the universe isn’t against me. Maybe it’s just testing me. Again. (Which is rude, honestly. I passed this test already in 2023.)
Here’s What I’m Learning:
You can be living your dream and still be drowning in logistics.
You can be celebrating your healing and still sobbing in a parking lot.
You can have the man who broke your heart watching from the sidelines, and still feel like the one who won.
Because even when everything feels like it’s crashing — your book, your bank account, your immune system — the girl in the mirror is still standing. She’s still here. And she’s wearing all the softness she once thought she lost.
I don’t know where my signing will be yet.
I don’t know why Amazon hates me.
I don’t know why Jordan is still somehow haunting my life.
But I do know this:
✨ I am the girl who survived.
✨ I am the girl who is still showing up.
✨ I am the girl who made art out of the ache.
And that? That’s worth every tear, every text, every logistical meltdown
So to anyone who’s overwhelmed trying to make something beautiful—
You’re not alone.
This is what building your dream looks like.
Messy. Chaotic. Real.
And worth it.
See you July 1.
Book in hand. Probably still crying. Still surviving. Still choosing softness.
Because this story?
It’s only just beginning. <3