Hi!
Wherever you’re finding this post from, I thought I’d take a quick second to (re)introduce myself. I’m Molly, a former wellness/lifestyle blogger and current romance author!
If you had been following my blog previously, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted in the last year, and posts had become sparse prior to that. The pandemic really cramped my style and creativity in terms of that content, but really re-invigorated my passion for writing fiction! I think when the world became an incredibly scary place to be, diving into a fictional world instead felt safer than writing about the real one.
Similarly, I haven’t been active on my old Instagram account in the past year, but I am very active on my current Instagram account that is dedicated to books! I started it to share books I was reading (which I still do), but also to share about my own books.
I wanted to take some time today to catch you all up on what the heck I’ve been up to in the past 365 days, as well as give you an idea of what to expect from me here going forward.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. If you purchase anything through them, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!
Soon after covid initially hit, I was partially furloughed from my job for 10 months because there wasn’t enough work for us all to do remotely. During that time, I found myself really craving some sort of purpose or bigger meaning. I quickly found that in writing, and shaped up a manuscript I’d been playing around with for years into my very first book!
I’m a published author!
At the beginning of this month, I released my first book! Beauty In The Details is a lighthearted contemporary romance novel/beach read with open door steam. It is the first in a series of three books about the McNally Men – three brothers who fall HARD for some strong women. You can purchase the book on Amazon here and/or add it to your Goodreads TBR here.
Now, I’m back on the blog to share more about my books, writing journey, self-publishing, and you may see some of my old style content sprinkled in as well.
My Journey To Becoming An Author
First off – if you’re more of an audio person, I recently discussed this on a podcast I recorded with my friend, Laura. If you enjoy consuming content by reading, then read on!
Starting Young
I have always been a writer in some capacity. As a child, I wrote books on printer paper stapled together, including hits like King Kangaroo, “Mystrey Forest” (I was very offended when my Mom pronounced it “My Stray Forest” instead of the actual title, which is obviously pronounced “Mystery Forest”), The Great Bubblegum Mystery (I guess I learned from my past blunder), The Magic Garden, Joey’s Magic Book (this must have been my magic phase), and even a trilogy very creatively entitled “M.”
Throughout my school years, I always enjoyed my English classes and would choose to write a research paper over taking an exam any day of the week. Something about collecting all that information and organizing it into one cohesive piece was so satisfying to me.
Becoming a blogger
Right before I turned nineteen, my doctor found a lump on my thyroid. To make a long story short, they thought it was cancer so they removed the entire organ. Luckily, it turned out not to be active cancer, but the surgery left me dependent on synthetic thyroid hormones for life. (If you’re interested, you can read the full story here).
A year later, I had a series of viruses over the summer between my sophomore and junior years. I was sick and miserable all the time. When I returned to school, I found myself much more fatigued than usual and was struggling to get through classes and my usual activities. It got so bad that I eventually had to leave school and move home.
After much pushing from me and my mom, I was diagnosed with Sjogren’s – a systemic autoimmune disease. You can read more about my journey to diagnosis here, and learn more about Sjogren’s here. After my diagnosis, I essentially dropped out life for four months, sleeping and healing and learning to deal with this new disease, before returning to college via online learning and getting a part time job.
During those months, I found myself craving meaning and purpose (just like I did years later when the pandemic hit!). At that point, my driving urge was to write about what was going on in my life with my mental and physical health. I felt so lost and alone that I decided to start a blog called Balanced and Blissful (and corresponding Instagram account) to try and connect with others like me.
This platform served me so well during that time. It was incredibly validating to write about my struggles as a chronically ill twenty-something and have others say “I feel that too!” As I healed, I began writing about other passions too, like skincare, yoga, DIYs, etc. I learned a ton about building a website, marketing on social media, Pinterest, using affiliate links, etc.–all skills that are serving me so well now.
Turning to fiction
Having always had an affinity for writing, publishing a book was always a dream of mine. I didn’t know how or when it would happen, but I knew that I wanted it to!
Sometime in my early twenties, I decided to start writing down the little scenarios I created in my head before falling asleep. Thus began a collection of moments and scenes that created the rough outline of an actual story! I only wrote when I was struck by inspiration, and might go weeks or months between writing sessions. I never forced myself to sit down at my computer and write during this time. I simply waited for inspiration, and then let it flow.
As I mentioned above, when the pandemic hit and I had some extra time on my hands, I went through everything I had written and fleshed it out into an actual manuscript. It was ROUGH and pretty cringey at first, but over time it became something I was really excited about! I eventually shared it with my mom, and then with some beta readers who really helped me improve my story.
Eventually, I got it to a place where I felt like I wanted to share it with the world! I figured that I had written this entire book (something I truly did for me and because I enjoyed it), so I might as well share it, because there were bound to be people out there who would enjoy it too.
In my next post, I’ll talk about my decision to pursue self-publishing, but this all is basically what led me here! A passion for writing since I was young, various difficult times in my life that inspired me to write what felt relevant at the time, and a longstanding dream to write a book.😊
