turns out i did not completely forget how to write but lowkey i thought i did for a while there

putting on my promo overalls because somehow i got a book coming out next month

I don’t know how it’s possible that it’s almost mid-February, but here we are. I have a book coming out in less than a month. On March 10th, Second Chance Duet will be published, and I’ll be a published author times two. (You’re welcome to preorder it btw!)

I haven’t written a newsletter in a while because I haven’t really been inspired to write much of anything at all. My personal life has had its ups and downs (gotta laugh when you hard launch your own divorce on the gram), plus the fact that it feels like the whole world is on fire and everything just feels generally bad in the United States. It’s hard to find inspiration and the drive to do anything other than just scrape by day to day when everything feels so sad. Then it becomes a vicious cycle, because when I made myself sit down and try to draft something new, it was like–do I even know how to do this? Do I even know how to write a book worth reading? Or did I forget and now it’s gone forever?

In the last two months, I did find my way back to a blank page and produce something that people may get to read in the near future. I think that’s pretty cool. It was a big confidence boost to discover that I still had it in me and could get words on a page, the kind that could potentially be worth reading. It was a much smaller project than starting a whole new book, which can feel very daunting to do because there’s just so many words and pages involved. Writing something shorter, with less overall requirements, removed some of the mental barriers that were clogging up my brain. Five thousand words is less scary than, say, 100k.

The general state of the world is still not great but I am feeling a little bit better about writing anything at all, including this newsletter. It is hard to believe that just a few years ago, I had this maniacal output of writing so quickly that I almost couldn’t work fast enough to get the words on the page. My creative process has changed so much in those five years that I feel like a completely different writer than I was before. I mean, I guess I am a completely different writer (perhaps even a different person, but that’s between me and my therapist). This becomes especially obvious to me when I go back and revisit Second Chance Duet because I wrote the first drafts of that book in a completely different era of my life. When it came time to rework this book and revise it with the help of my editor, it became clear that so much of it had to change. This meant my process had to change–and it did, because if you give me a deadline I will kill myself to meet it.

And now that very same book is finding its way to early readers. I love hearing from them so much. Celia and Oliver’s story is so much a part of me because of how long I have been working on this novel. I cannot overstate that it’s so special to have readers tell me what they thought of them and the parts of their story that resonated. These characters took a lot out of me!! It feels so good to reap the rewards of that journey.

Speaking of Celia and Oliver, there’s some fun stuff cooking that I’ll have more to share about soon. There has been some great stuff that’s come up in the last few weeks that I’ve shared mostly on my Instagram, but I’ll do a little round up here as well. In case you missed it, Second Chance Duet got two (!!!!) starred reviews, one from Kirkus and one from Booklist. The dynamic duo behind Fated Mates podcast included SCD in their Winter Preview episode; I died hearing Jen talk about my books because I’ve been a listener for years so I was like, what? Is this real? There’s also a Goodreads giveaway happening right now, where you can enter to win a copy of SCD! We love free books! Good luck if you enter.

I’ll have more to share soon about preorder campaigns and launch events, but for now I just wanted to remind my newsletter friends that I’m still here. I’m also finding my way back to being creative and re-establishing a presence online that I’m good with. I went into this year trying to be a lot more intentional about where I spend my time, and that means less of it on the internet. There’s a genuine, concerted effort to put my phone down and be present in my analog life as much as I can. This is not advisable when you have a book to promote, but I’m going to do my best! I do love sharing this space with readers and other authors, so it’s a work in progress to figure out how this looks for me.

I hope you’re taking care. I hope you’re getting to feel the sunshine on your face. I hope that 2026 has treated you kindly and continues to do so all year.

xoxo

Ana

Here’s what I’m reading and watching:

Reading: I’m currently reading It’s All in Your Head by Sabina Nordqvist because I need something that will make my smile and giggle and blush and I’m delighted to say Sabina is delivering on all fronts! This is such a fun debut romance that handles disabilities with such love and care.

Watching (TV): Between new seasons of The Pitt, Traitors, and Bridgerton, it’s a veritable pop culture feast for me in TV land at the moment. I’m having a great time.

love watching the entire castle (country?) be dickmatized by this man

Watching (movies): I haven’t had time to watch a movie in a while, but I feel like the only person in the book world excited about the new Wuthering Heights adaptation. Emerald Fennell has a weird little brain and I like what she does with it.

Listening: I never really stopped listening to Bad Bunny’s DTMF. His incredible Half Time performance only reignited my love for that album. Once a BAILE INoLVIDABLE-aholic, always a BAILE INoLVIDABLE-aholic.