And no – it’s not a cool science fiction title. This is literally just the story of my life as an overactive busy-brained freelance writer.
My brain is so tired – like all the time. And I’ve found I also don’t retain things as well because of it. So, it’s high time I handle my crazy workload before it gets too big for me to manage. That’s why I really enjoyed my recent conversation with Walt Robillard – Editor in Chief of WarGate Books.
I was fortunate enough to land a spot on his podcast show,Coffee & Concepts, to talk about my books and my writing process. What so many people don’t think of when it comes to interacting with their favorite stories, is the way authors have to weave these narratives from literally nothing. And finding time / motivation to write can be challenging at best and near impossible at its worst.
We talked about what kinds of coffee we like (which is largely frappuccinos and lattes for me), as well as what kind of inspiration I gathered for my latest release of The Rewind Duology. This series is so important to me, because it really took the struggles I experienced as a kid, and flipped them all around. Where I used to feel weak, these books transformed into a triumph – and I’m also donating a portion of the proceeds to KIND Campaign as well!
Giving back to the community is a crucial component of my work – that’s why I love being able to support an amazing charity that I believe in. Alongside my work with high school students who have an interest in getting into the writing field, as well as my work on the Board of Directors for ARIA, it’s been a blessing to donate my time and efforts.
“Maybe getting older lets you finally see all sides of the dice – not just the ones that are facing up.”
Vera Bartlet is a soon-to-be college graduate with absolutely no idea how messy her life is about to become. It’s not just the job search looming on the horizon or her lack of a boyfriend that’s got her stomach in knots – rather, her dad has been missing for almost a decade, and no one knows what happened to him.
When Uncle Edgar mysteriously arrives back onto the scene, he comes armed with some interesting new ideas about what may have happened to Vera’s dad – and an even more revolutionary idea of how to find him. With nothing short of bending time and space, Edgar sends Vera back in time in the hopes that she might find the clues they need to get her dad home.
As she sifts through the mangled pieces of reality and her altered memories of middle school drama become jumbled in between truth and fantasy, Vera has to choose which elements of her past should stay in the past, and which she might like to incorporate into her future. Time travel is never simple, and there are always side effects – but in this case, it might just hold the key to finding her dad. Will Vera stay sane long enough to find her dad and make peace with the bullies who made her miserable?
I have plans to start drafting my next concept, but my life has been so chaotic. Here’s hoping things settle down soon. But until then, keep hustling!
Just when I think things are about to settle down, they always seem to ramp up again, LOL. I spent this past weekend selling a ton of my books at Burrillville Arts Festival in RI – which was super fun! It never gets old meeting other creative people and bringing new readers into my work. I know summer is pretty much over, but I’m always the last to put the shorts and crop tops away for the season. Maybe if I add the flannel (like in this picture) I can wear them longer?
I also wanted to pop on here to firstly, say thank you for 1.2 followers on Instagram (like seriously, what even is that?!?). You guys are amazing. If you haven’t seen my page because you’re new here, you can access it HERE. And you just might hear about a giveaway I’m doing soon… so it’s worth your while!
The second big thing I wanted to talk about here is that my good friend Liz Theresa invited me onto her entrepreneur podcast recently, and my episode just aired today! Ugh, it was SO MUCH FUN and I am so grateful to be given another platform on which to share my life and my creativity. You can listen to that episode HERE.
Listening to my segment now reminded me of how far I’ve come as an author and freelancer. Not only am I happier (and busier) than I’ve ever been, but I’m finally stepping into my full potential. It took years of healing and mindful adjustments, but I got there – and you can too! So if you have a spare few minutes, take a listen. We discussed…
🌸 balancing sense of self with personal branding 🌸naming your fears so they don’t eat you alive 🌸 where I got my story inspiration
So no matter where you are in life or what you want to accomplish, I think there’s something in here for you that could make all the difference! B sure to let me know if it helped you! At the very least, I hope that the lessons I’ve learned in my life can help others avoid frustrating things. Because then you’ll have your own struggles, but at least they won’t be the same as mine. Life sure is fun, isn’t it? LOL.
Regardless of all this, I am so humbled by your support. Please do pop by one of my upcoming events, which you can find on my events tab @ angelinasinger.com!
What are your upcoming plans for this fall? Anything in particular you’d like to tackle? Tell me in the comments! Stay well, live your best life, and if you see me at one of the aforementioned book signings, don’t be shy – come say hello!
I know I’ve dropped the ball a little in the blogging department – sorry about that! It’s been a really unique season of change for me – which is obviously a really great thing! Regardless, I still hope to be more present on here to chat with you. It means a lot to me that you’re here, and I never want to take that for granted.
From my recent book signing at The Looff Arts Festival in Riverside, RI
So here’s the lowdown: You may know that in addition to being a published author, now with SIX BOOKS on Amazon, I’ve also been a freelance editor and music critic. These gigs are usually far and few between… until now. More recently, I’ve really hit my stride by partnering with brands and companies I care about (like KIND Campaign for my anti-bullying time travel fiction, and Dash of Social for copyediting). I’ve also started doing some copywriting work for my favorite YouTube cover band ever First to Eleven (they play amped-up versions of favorite rock and pop songs). Plus, I finally launched my own website, which is angelinasinger.com.
Long story short – I know it’s cliché, but I’m here to tell you: don’t give up. Ever. I know you’ve probably heard that from everyone and their grandma, but it’s true! I graduated from college in 2019 with an English degree I had no idea what to do with. I had some small gigs here and there, but nothing that I could live off of. It was so disheartening to leave school with absolutely no idea of what to do with my life. That is, until I found L’Abri Collective – a very exclusive ghostwriting coalition that hired me onto their team of writers. It’s an incredibly holistic approach to collaboration which frankly, I never knew existed in the professional world of cut-throat desperation and frustration. So now not only do I have all that going on, but I also still have my smaller reviewing gigs and fun stuff on the side. It’s a really amazing opportunity that will grow as much as I want it to.
Quote from Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change
Sure, it might take a little longer for my books to take off, but that’s okay. I have big plans for those too. Ideally, I hope to pitch my newest fake-dating rockstar romance concept to an agent who can get me into a big 3 publisher. If that happens, then I would think my other books will get some extra readers as well. All in God’s timing of course – as I’ve already seen with my professional life as well.
So I’m heading into the fall happier and more well-adjusted than I’ve ever been. I’ve got some good work to keep me busy and productive, amazing friends and family who love and support me, and, big dreams to keep me motivated. I’m also training to teach guitar lessons on the side, so I guess in many ways, I’ll always have a full plate. But honestly, that’s how I like it! My latest audiobook is in the works now, and should be available for your listening pleasure in a matter of a couple months. My narrator is truly the best – to hear her work on book one of my time-travel duology, access Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember HERE.
Recent shopping trip where I found a trinket VERY similar to The Lacune Diamond (item in The Rewind Duology).
That isn’t to say that my life is perfect – far from it, actually. I’m still trying to balance all my skills and interests in a way that allows me to maintain a healthy work-life balance. And I think that will take a bit to develop – but that’s all part of the process. I’m also still very, very single. And I don’t talk about that often enough. But guys in this age group are usually really immature (most of the time – there are some exceptions, of course). It’s finding those exceptions that’s the hard part. But I’m leaving all aspects of my life in God’s hands – He’s never scared me wrong yet.
Thank you for all your continued support, and I can’t wait to hear what you’ve been up to this summer or what your hopes and dreams are. Drop me a line anytime!
Tomorrow, my sixth book gets launched into the world.Being that this isn’t my first rodeo, so to speak, I always think about how weird it is to publish a story. Like, you pour your whole heart into this thing, just to slap a $2.99 ebook price on it and hope that someone deigns to spend their hard-earned cash on your emotional journey.
Okay, that definitely came out way more cynical than I really intended,but hear me out: writing a story is no small matter. Especially, one as big and important to me as this one.
The Rewind Duology came about as a result of me still trying to work through the bad emotional patterns I sustained as a result of chronic bullying as a kid. My bullies were kids with significant psychological and emotional issues. And as I’ve become an adult, I’ve become privy to some knowledge about them that definitely shed some light on their situations.
That doesn’t make it right – but it does make it make a little more sense than it used to, perhaps.
Regardless, the first book of The Rewind Duology was Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember – and that was a coming-of-age time travel. My character, Vera, went back in time to find her dad, who was trapped in a virtual reality world. So in book 2, Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change… Vera gets stuck in that very same virtual reality world.
This is a picture of my dad and I from today – Vera’s dad is modeled a lot after him!
It’s really interesting to reflect on all this, because the sequel almost didn’t happen. About two weeks before I published the first book, I got this wild idea of a way to continue the story – not just in the VR world, but in Vera’s life as well. Because after all – there’s still her friends Willow and Zander, her brother Jet, and her – well, whatever the heck Alex is to her these days.
I’m so excited about this latest and final installment of The Rewind Duology, and I really hope you love it as much as I loved writing it. But most importantly, I hope it shows you how healing truly isn’t a linear process – and the key to getting there, is embracing the journey – with all its twists and turns – as long as it takes.
I’d been putting it off for months. It’s a time-sucking, highly addictive platform that I knew would probably be more irritating to deal with than it was worth. But I did it anyway – because marketing reasons.
Yep – in any marketing endeavor, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that you’ve got to go where your target demographic is. And for me, as a Young Adult / New Adult author, I know that my readers probably are hanging out on there. So engaging on that platform was a no-brainer, even if learning the controls was slightly clunky at first. But in many ways, it’s not really all that different from Instagram (which I’d like to think I’m pretty well-versed in).
The concept of Tik Tok is fun, because it’s pairing music with trends and ideas that bring people together. I’m not typically a huge fan of taking selfies, but I do that anyway for marketing reasons. If there’s anything I learned from my college marketing classes, it’s that people want to see the human behind the product. Even though I’m selling books, they want to relate to and see who they’re supporting. So if Tik Tok is a way for readers to catch a glimpse into my illustrious life of sitting at my desk blogging, then so be it.
If you want to give me a follow on Tik Tok, I’d surely appreciate it, but by no means do you have to, of course! I just appreciate that you’ve read this far, and care about my stories.
I always try to limit how much of the irritating “buy my book” posts I do, but I have to tell you that my sequel is getting SO CLOSE to being finished! Well, the first draft anyway. If you want to read the first installment of my time-travel coming-of-age bully-ass-kicking snark-story, you can find a copy of Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember HERE.
“Maybe getting older lets you finally see all sides of the dice – not just the ones that are facing up.”
Vera Bartlet is a soon-to-be college graduate with absolutely no idea how messy her life is about to become. It’s not just the job search looming on the horizon or her lack of a boyfriend that’s got her stomach in knots – rather, her dad has been missing for almost a decade, and no one knows what happened to him.
When Uncle Edgar mysteriously arrives back onto the scene, he comes armed with some interesting new ideas about what may have happened to Vera’s dad – and an even more revolutionary idea of how to find him. With nothing short of bending time and space, Edgar sends Vera back in time in the hopes that she might find the clues they need to get her dad home.
As she sifts through the mangled pieces of reality and her altered memories of middle school drama become jumbled in between truth and fantasy, Vera has to choose which elements of her past should stay in the past, and which she might like to incorporate into her future. Time travel is never simple, and there are always side effects – but in this case, it might just hold the key to finding her dad. Will Vera stay sane long enough to find her dad and make peace with the bullies who made her miserable?
This year didn’t completely suck! Here’s a brief run-down of the bright side of the whole thing.
It’s safe to say this year was collectively a turd sandwich for just about everyone, at least in one way or another. So I was thinking back on my year as we’re about to welcome in 2021 later this week, and along with it, a fresh start. And I realized something interesting, that I honestly didn’t expect: this year was actually pretty lucrative for me.
Sure, all my in-person book signings and concerts were cancelled (of course) and I do really miss all those things. But something I didn’t expect was how the creativity in my mind didn’t stop moving – not at all! It just leaked out in new and innovative ways that I probably wouldn’t have discovered had 2020 not happened the way it did.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m upset and frustrated at the craziness of the world right now, and praying that it improves soon, but through it all, I realized I still have so much to be grateful for. So, as we move into 2021 which is hopefully a significantly better year than the preceding one, I’ve outlined below some cool things that happened to me this year. My hope is that by reading the good things that happened to me, you’ll be able to reflect on your own year too, and get pumped for what’s up next!
1. My social media following grew.
Seeing as how everyone has been stuck at home on their TV and devices, I’ve been able to capitalize on my reach. The biggest example of this might be my Boston Sports Desk music article gig, which has seen a good handful of my article get like 80k views (seriously, I’m shocked too). My Instagram page @ angelinasingerauthor also just hit 900 followers today, so I’m pretty psyched about that! Additionally, this blog is pushing almost 100 followers, not even counting my Facebook and Twitter following. I’m so grateful for everyone who’s taken an interest in my work! I’ve also met more amazing new friends through social media, and I’m so grateful for them as well.
I also published my sixth novel, the sequel of which will be available for purchase hopefully mid-2021. In the meantime though, you can read the first book, Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember available on Amazon HERE.
2. Freelancing became my main hustle.
And I’ve never been happier. I spent the majority of the year and a half or so since graduating from college looking for corporate jobs, padding my resume, and just generally pulling my hair out trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing. But as it turns out, I’ve been doing the thing I’m meant to do all along. And that thing is: writing. Through this gig, I’ve connected with some pretty high-profile people, like Tree Paine (Taylor Swift’s general manager) since I provided some media coverage on her latest two surprise albums Folklore and Evermore.
3. My diet got healthier.
Despite the temptation to binge on sugary carbs all the time since I’m home and there isn’t much else to do, I’m determined to cut down on my intake because I feel better when I eat more proteins and healthy fats. Don’t get me wrong – I still love a good late night bag of chips, but I try to only do that occasionally at most. Taking care of yourself, including amping up on vitamins, was critical to get through this year without getting sick. I’ll definitely be carrying those habits into 2021 too!
I guess this wasn’t really part of the diet thing, but I also got my nose pierced this year finally! I’ve been wanting to since high school honestly and I feel so much more confident with it than I did without it. And most importantly, it’s a promise to myself to be happier with my appearance and love myself a lot more than I used to. Overall, a win-win. Still figuring out why it’s taking months to heal, but I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles!
4. My faith in Jesus got stronger.
When everything is crashing down around you, turning to Jesus is the only thing that truly brings me comfort. He even helped me with frustrations about the pacing of my life, and how I worry that I’m so far behind everyone else. I’m 23, but it literally took most of my life to realize that it actually doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. The only thing that matters is doing what God has for you the best you can. I know for a fact that I’m meant to write, and that’s exactly what God has me doing – and I’ve never been happier!
5. My author association voted me onto the board!
This is very possibly one of the coolest things on this list, but I was so humbled and blessed by the opportunity! My main responsibility as a board member in the Association of Rhode Island Authors is to recruit more young adult authors to join up, so if you live in or around Rhode Island, reach out to me for more info! I’ll be setting up an Instagram (and possibly Twitter) account for them too so that everything will be more accessible to younger writers as well.
6. Landed a weekly blogging gig.
Semi-related to the author’s association above, one of my good friends invited me to join her writing team for the Inkitt Writer’s Blog. It’s a really cool platform where writers can share stories and ideas about writing. It’s a nice little paid gig, and I love doing it! Stuff like this is super productive and helps me fill my time post-grad. I’d definitely recommend it for anyone looking for something similar.
7. My music journalism expanded into a magazine.
Yet another plug through my author association, I met someone at an expo event a year or two ago who manages Rhode Island-based Motif Magazine. Then earlier this August, I reached out to them to ask if they had any writing positions open, and they said yes – freelancing. So now I do the bulk of their music critiquing for local artists and bands. It’s super fun to network this way, and I love that I get paid for my articles to be included in a printed magazine!
8. Finally met a long-distance friend in person!
This one, was probably the most incredible of the whole year. Still not over it, to be honest. When his family went on vacation within driving distance of where I live, he invited me to spend a few days with them. So I did, and it was just so surreal and amazing. I’m grateful for the time we got to spend together, and hopefully it’ll happen again sometime in the near future.
As the pandemic wore on, my music teacher wasn’t as available for lessons, so I lost my rhythm (no pun intended, LOL). But that time away from more structured lessons gave me time to reflect and take a little breather from my in-depth music theory studies and guitar training. I’ve been learning guitar for over 12 years, and now I’m training to teach part time. Although it was a bit uncertain switching to an instructor who was more available (as I really admired my other teacher), I’m actually excited about a fresh perspective and new ideas. Very 2020 of me to say that, right? Like how life surprises us sometimes, but it’s what we do with it that matters. And I’m absolutely making the most of the opportunities I’ve been given to learn all I can!
10. Enjoyed more family time.
With nothing to do outside of the house, my parents and I found ourselves hanging out with the small group of just my aunt, uncle, and their two kids (my cousins) on weekends. We’re all feeling totally fine, and spending time together in a safe, home environment every week. We play games, eat a big dinner, and laugh a lot. It’s made my 2020 a lot brighter, and I’m so grateful for them.
I hope this little list of things I actually enjoyed in 2020 brought you to some of your own realizations. That maybe after all, this tough year had some good lessons in it. And that after we get through 2021 and everything turns back around, you’ll see that you’re more resilient than ever before. And in some ways, that makes the struggles (almost) worth it!
Happy new year, my friends! Here’s to a bigger and even better 2021.
P.S. – Keep an eye out for my next book, Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change, coming in (hopefully) mid-2021!!!
I’m not giving up, but I’ve come to the realization that I might have to accept that there will be detours in my professional planning.
My biggest dreams are to be a bestselling author and a world-renowned music journalist. Of course, I’m well aware that the first thing is probably about as likely as becoming a pop star and the second thing takes years to accomplish.
Since those ideas obviously fell through (shocker, I know right?), I’ve been looking for remote work through all the typical job finding sites, preferably for something like copywriting or marketing. And due to probably a bunch of different variables, that just hasn’t happened for me yet either.
And I’m not giving up, but I’ve come to the realization that I might have to accept that there will be detours in my professional planning. No matter what happens in the future, I gotta be okay with where I am now (very zen-like of me, isn’t it?).
So here’s where I’m at, and what I’ve been doing lately to make the waiting productive and not a waste of time:
#1: I’ve embraced freelancing as a legitimate option.
At least for now, working for myself has been really really great, and I’ll be able to pad my resume for later. Hopefully the world stops imploding soon enough, and at that point, I’ll land a full-time gig. Or hey, if the freelancing thing goes well enough, maybe I won’t even have to at all! As my uncle put it once, I could work for someone irritating and make less money, or work for myself and make more money. The choice is pretty obvious!
As far as what kind of freelancing I’ve been doing, it varies. Sometimes it’s an article for Motif Magazine, Inkitt Writer’s Blog, or an edited manuscript for a client. No matter what it is, I’m totally busy enough with whatever I find and it’s actually really fun! I’ll attach some links to my work below if you’re curious about it.
I’ve also still been working on my latest book, Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change (Book 2 of The Rewind Duology), but I’m not expecting that to be a full-time venture anytime soon necessarily. So I’m diverting my attention to these gigs full time (for now).
#2: Trust God.
‘nough said, right? My faith in Jesus plays a massive role here, because it helps me remember that even when I’m convinced my life is spinning out of control (or worse yet, not going anywhere at all), He’s got it covered. It’s a pretty good feeling, once you retrain yourself to think through struggles that way. So just hang in there best you can until things start to change 🙂
#3: Be nice to yourself.
Lilly’s not worried – you shouldn’t be either!
Don’t blame yourself for not having a job yet (especially these days). There are so many totally valid variables that are making the job search harder than it’s ever been. Maybe the company you want to work for isn’t hiring right now. Or the one that is being extra picky in their hiring process because as it is, they have a shoestring budget. But the overwhelming consensus us that it’s not you. Everything is just tough right now, and that’s okay.
In the meantime, fill your time with productive action steps that could lead to getting out of your rut sooner versus later. As for me, I took a leap of faith and joined the Editorial Freelancers Association – a paid database that connects freelancers with people who need their services. It was a bit more expensive to join than I typically would have been okay paying for, but I think it was a smart investment. Point is, do things that are productive, even if it feels like a tangent.
In my limited experience, sometimes side quests end up leading you right back to the main path anyway 😉
If you’re in the same boat as me and need to invest in some new hardware or a quick fix, read on for my tips on what to do while you’re waiting to get your device back.
I had to get my laptop battery replaced the other day, because it was dying on me way too fast and that obviously isn’t cool (especially when you’re a writer with heavy dependence on your tech). Anxiety around keeping your work safe is real, and I for sure was not enjoying gambling with my battery percentage before my computer would die on me.
So naturally, I made an appointment at Apple and got that fixed up. The tech people there are always super nice and professional, but I was still SUPER nervous. If you’re in the same boat as me and need to invest in some new hardware or a quick fix, read on for my tips on what to do while you’re waiting to get your device back.
#1: Ask any questions you may have.
Seriously. Like while I was there getting my battery replaced, I asked about some issues I was having with storage maintenance on my MacBook Air. The technician was able to help me sort through that, and thankfully warned me that even though I now had space to download the latest operating system, I should probably wait because it would change the formatting of my super-old Microsoft Word software (as an author, that’s a BIG deal, so I opted to wait until I finish my current book duology so that everything stays consistent). The point here is, asking those other questions helped because I had a plan of action, and a good reason to wait before stupidly downloading a thing that would create a massive headache for my formatting consistency.
#2: Plan to be without your device for at least a day or two.
If you’re a freelance blogger, journalist, and copyeditor like I am, you’ll know how important it is to follow through with your deadlines. Early is always cool, but late is not. So since I knew I’d have an album review due this past weekend, and a blog on Inkitt due on Wednesday, I went ahead and wrote those ahead of time. That took a lot of the pressure off, because I knew that when I handed off my computer, I’d be all set for essentially the rest of the week.
The only thing I wouldn’t be able to do was work on my story draft, but I figured a little break from that would be good for me anyway (and if I got really desperate, I could always write a scene on my iPad, iPhone, or even an old-fashioned notepad to add in later). And if blogging here called my name, I downloaded the nifty WordPress app and logged myself in. Finding other ways to stay on task even without my laptop relieved a lot of my anxiety, because I realized I wasn’t so limited without it.
#3: Invest in some YOU time!
If you’re a workaholic like me, use the time while waiting for your repair to be finished by doing things you might not typically have time to do. You already worked ahead, so there’s no need to worry. Maybe you want to spend time with family more, or pick up a dormant hobby that you’ve been missing. Or maybe you’ll just curl up with a new book (shameless self-promo here, but here’s my latest time-travel coming of age book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084QK6DFW/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)
Regardless of how scary it can be to leave your beloved tech in the hands of someone you don’t know, it helped me to remember that these people are trained professionals. The odds of them breaking it or something are extremely low. I mean yeah, it’s good practice to still back everything up before you go, but you’re not likely to really need it.
And as for my repair? I literally got my laptop back within twenty-four hours (yes, I was shocked too). They told me it would probably be a few days, but they replaced my battery super fast and I was beyond grateful. So don’t worry about timing so much – I’d wager they’re often faster than they tell you.
Sophie Pecora’s song “Seventh Grade” fresh from the studio really hit home for me, as she deftly tackles issues – like bullying and feeling like you don’t belong – with ease and sensitivity. I first heard this song while she was competing on America’s Got Talent a couple years ago, and it’s really stuck with me ever since.
But that’s not to say that she sugarcoats things either. Absolutely not. This girl took all the things I remember feeling in middle school. You know the stuff – like somehow no one understands you, and most other kids were too snotty and rude to even give you the time of day.
In my experiences, more often than not, I always felt like the odd one out, and that I had to just suck up whatever the bullies threw at me, because if I didn’t, the teachers would punish me worst of all. Looking back, I realize now that the entire situation was incredibly messed up, and it was beyond unfair of my superiors to take away my human need to defend myself (verbally or otherwise).
My latest book, Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember (Book 1 of the Rewind Duology), tackles these very issues through the narrative structure of (what I hope) is a really fun and intriguing time-travel coming-0f-age romance:
Vera Bartlet is a soon-to-be college graduate with absolutely no idea how messy her life is about to become. It’s not just the job search looming on the horizon or her lack of a boyfriend that’s got her stomach in knots – rather, her dad has been missing for almost a decade, and no one knows what happened to him.
When Uncle Edgar mysteriously arrives back onto the scene, he comes armed with some interesting new ideas about what may have happened to Vera’s dad – and an even more revolutionary idea of how to find him. With nothing short of bending time and space, Edgar sends Vera back in time in the hopes that she might find the clues they need to get her dad home.
As she sifts through the mangled pieces of reality and her altered memories of middle school drama become jumbled in between truth and fantasy, Vera has to choose which elements of her past should stay in the past, and which she might like to incorporate into her future. Time travel is never simple, and there are always side effects – but in this case, it might just hold the key to finding her dad. Will Vera stay sane long enough to find her dad and make peace with the bullies who made her miserable?
Thank you so much for your interest in my writing blog – I’m so excited to get to know my followers a bit better, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below and tell me if any of this resonated with you too. For your sake, I hope you don’t relate, because it was a really tough subject for me to deal with and I’m still dealing with the repercussions even today, over ten years later.
But I’m convinced this is why art is so important – it’s an incredibly effective medium for sharing relatable struggles and connecting with others who have been through the same (or similar) things.
By creating and sharing our work, we can show others that they’re not alone, and maybe even connect on a deeper level.
So I guess I’ll get off my soapbox now, but I’ll leave you with this: Don’t be afraid to share the things that matter to you, because I’d wager there’s a really good chance that it’s going to matter quite a lot to someone else too (just the way Sophie’s song mattered quite a lot to me) ❤
Angelina Singer Author Updates 