“Diamond Heart” x The Rewind Duology

“The most beautiful things can come from the hardest times.”

Madilyn Bailey

Just like you may have seen in The Rewind Duology, the idea of a character interacting with her younger self is present in Madilyn Bailey’s new music video. Of course, this is a bit more voyeuristic of a style, in that she’s more watching over her younger self – but the nostalgic feeling is the same! Just like my character, Vera, Madilyn was an outcast as a kid, but that didn’t stop her from accomplishing amazing things later – namely, being a semi-finalist on America’s Got Talent (in addition to garnering millions of views on YouTube).

I love seeing art like this that directly relates to my work, because it becomes a great tool to layer my own writing up against. It also proves to me that the things I’m working on matter to people, because other people are writing about issues like bullying too. What it comes down to, is that you cannot ever let people put you in a box – break out of that shit and get moving. You’re better now than you’ve ever been!

This song is so powerful, seriously – check out these lyrics:

“I took all the sticks and stones
All the blows and bricks they throw
Everything that ever gave me scars

All the hurt and bridges burned
Every word and lesson learned
And turned it into art
And in time built a diamond heart.”

As cliché as it may seem to say, it is those experiences that are tough at the time, but they make us who we were always meant to be.

In my books, Vera has to grapple with her past alongside her present moment to be her best self – and that includes going head to head with her old bullies, but now as an adult. The Rewind Duology is something that I am incredibly proud of, and I’m so humbled to be able to give a portion of the proceeds to KIND Campaign to prevent bullying in school. Might as well do some real-world good with my pain, right?

My new business cards, signifying the new era of my freelancing career! And I am SO EXCITED.

But honestly, I’ve already healed so much. I am so grateful for the lessons I learned. If I wasn’t forced to make due with being by myself for as long as I did, I probably wouldn’t have been half as motivated to make something great of myself. That’s why I’ve really thrown myself into freelancing more recently – and that has been so incredibly fulfilling for me!

So case in point – even if life ends up looking different than you originally expected it to be, you can still make something beautiful out of the cards you’ve been dealt. Don’t believe me? Watch “Diamond Heart” by Madilyn Bailey HERE.

If you’d like to read or listen to The Rewind Duology, you can access it on Amazon / Audible HERE. And if you’d like to meet me at one of my upcoming events, you can view those on my website!

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Listen to my Latest Podcast Interview HERE!

This morning, I got to be a guest speaker on WNRI’s Author Hour, with my fellow Association of Rhode Island Authors Board Member Wayne Barber. I answered all kinds of questions about my writing process, as well as offering some opinions about current events and publishing in general.

It’s always fun reflecting on how far I’ve come, because I remember starting the publishing thing for no other reason than I had a story I was dabbling with. I didn’t set out to publish my first book; I swear it happened totally accidentally. And it’s for a very amusing reason, LOL.

If you’d like to take a listen to hear all about this and more, you can do so at THIS LINK HERE.

Additionally, I am so pleased to say that I’ve hit the 95k word mark on my latest book, the sequel to my time-travel coming-of-age story Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember. The sequel will be called Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change, and I’ll have ARC’s available pretty soon, so if you want to be the first to hear about that, join my review team HERE.

This one is so important to me, because I’m finally coming to terms with the bullying I lived through from ages 5-14, and how that profoundly affected my outlook on life. But luckily, there are so many healthy ways to adapt and grow even though that was extremely difficult at the time. Writing this sequel, and the prequel before it, has helped me immensely. If you want to read book one of the Rewind Duology where Vera Bartlet time-travels back to middle school to teach the bullies a lesson, you can grab a copy of it HERE.

Life is about growth and change, after all. And I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given. Thank you for reading this far, and feel free to share a bit about yourself in the comments. Tell me something you’ve GROWN through that felt awful at the time, but now is a source of strength ❤