I hear you, I see you, I feel you. I'm constantly feeling like I've missed some critical markers, and now I'm staring down 40 and feel like I have no more clue what my life is going to look like than I did fifteen years ago. Less, in some ways. And yeah, I play Nintendo when I'm stressed out and I still listen to the same music I did in my youth. (I read a really fascinating thing a while back about how our brains are best wired to intake and appreciate music between the ages of 10 and 25, just as a developmental thing, which is why every generation is convinced the music of their teenage and college years is the best. And we're all right! As far as our own brains are concerned). The only thing that's kept me going the past few months is the Disney trip I have planned for May.
It's just... it's hard, and it really is harder for Millennials than it has been for prior generations in a lot of ways. Financially, we're the most-screwed generation in American history, and gods only know what social media has done to our brains and our ability to enjoy life. But... we're here. And I have faith in us to make the best of it, somehow. 💗
Anyway your books are great and I'd happily listen to you talk about Audio-Animatronics.
I have never really related to a post more than I do this one. I am in my mid-30's with two doggos, and a large number of Legos. No one has ever really told me how to adult properly and I think I am discovering that I don't care to do what my parents would think of as doing it right.
Major question: what fanfiction are you still writing??? I am binge reading fanfiction from a series from an author I no longer support because she is the worst. And honestly, would love to branch especially if it means I need to watch a new anime.
I think you’ll find a lot of your followers/readers are in the same boat with you re adulthood. This coming from a 40 something professional who is also single, with cats, enjoys Disney vacations and when not at Disney hanging out at home with said cats watching tv/movies and reading, both books and fanfiction still. Maybe it’s something that was in the millennials waters? I feel like there’s a lot of us. We should start a club or something!
As a 40 year old “adult” I can relate. I think what we’ve found out is that adults when we were kids probably felt the same way but never said it out loud. It was a well kept secret until social media. I still feel like cookie dough. I don’t feel baked yet. Ha I’d love to feel baked. 🤣
What you’ve written here resonates so deeply with me. I’m 49 and still booking last-minute trips to Disney to try limited edition snacks! I’m trying very hard to wait until Tiana’s opens to book my next trip! I’ll also confess that I’m constantly amazed that when I show up as my authentic self, people really like me. Keep being completely and unashamedly yourself!!! Plus, I can’t wait until your new book this summer!
Fellow thirty-something single with cats, who would rather play online D&D than have a ‘relationship’. I love your books, all the way from Geekerella 🩵
I'm turning 45 this year and even though I'm a wife and mother, I still find many of your thoughts about the struggle to feel like an adult to be extremely relatable!
Authenticity on and offline has been such a major thought of mine for at least the past year. Also, relatability in general! Being in your mid-30s is hard! I basically started over in my career and am surrounded by younger coworkers. And the people around my age are at different professional and personal levels than I am so I don't know how to talk to anyone really! Makes dating difficult as well which is why I also write stories about romances I wish could exist. I really loved reading your perspective on this.
Boy howdy to younger coworkers. A lot of mine are college-aged kids, and sometimes it's like "Yeah, this is fine, I can hang with them, we're not that different" and then sometimes it's like "WOW I am *definitely* not 22 anymore."
Hello I would like to nerd out about animatronics with you, please and thank you. As to the rest... I read romances because of the journey, not the destination. If you really had it all figured out, I don't think you'd be nearly as interesting. It's the muddling along and figuring it out as you go and being your own weird self that's what makes things interesting!
I’m in my late twenties and newly single. I have never related to a post more than this one and I have 2 questions. 1) What’s your favorite class to play in DND? 2) are you booking a trip to go see Tiana’s when it opens?
I like when authors share their interests on social media, not just marketing content. Like, obviously none of us are our WHOLE selves online, but it's fun to know that Jen DeLuca and I like the same TV show, or to remember that Alicia Thompson was one of the top 100 listeners of Third Eye Blind on Spotify in 2023 when I hear them on the radio. (I also think that sharing personal details makes people more invested in supporting your work because of that parasocial relationship, although I don't have like, stats to support it.) I guess all of this is to say, bring us your niche, your weird, your Disney Adult content, because we are here for it.
I've always been on my own path. I turned 40 in January and I have met none of the traditional milestones culturally or when compared to most of my peers. I am single, childless, and working a job that doesn't pay a lot, but makes me happy.
I have no pets and my favorite people on the planet are a pair of toddlers. When I'm stressed I'll either choose to read (if I can) or play with them. They're the best non-prescription anti-depressants and anxietolytics available. There's something about watching them explore the world that brings me such joy.
Often times it can be hard not to take rejections personally. I've been burned by people I trusted so I've protected myself to try to avoid being hurt. I'm more than a little awkward as a result and while I hope it's endearing I fear it's more weird than anything else- and if that's the case, so be it.
Well I am 37, and have a life that is kind of the written norm for my age, married, children, but I still don’t really feel like a proper adult, although I do have an adult life. I love reading books, fantasy, romcoms, shifters and to the normal adult, that doesn’t look like the adult life I am supposed to be living.
So I think that first, our previous generation lied about adulting, it might have been a lie of omission, but they were, like us, trying to appear adult to their parents standards.
And secondly I think we are reaching a collective realization that what we tend to share sometimes is not the exact same as what we live, I know I don’t share or post every single thing that represents me, out of fear of what people might think or what/who I am supposed to be, considering the married/mother of 3 stereotype, like I, as an individual, stopped existing because I married and brought amazing people to this world.
I don’t really know if I make sense, but I do love Mickey Mouse, went to Disney a couple of months (for the first time 😭🙌🏻) and love reading time travel romance 💕😊
Always talk about Disney! I read Dead Romantics a few months before my husband died. Now I’m 55 and single and live a life like you which is great! Keep on doing what you are doing. I love your books and need to find your fan fiction.
I hear you, I see you, I feel you. I'm constantly feeling like I've missed some critical markers, and now I'm staring down 40 and feel like I have no more clue what my life is going to look like than I did fifteen years ago. Less, in some ways. And yeah, I play Nintendo when I'm stressed out and I still listen to the same music I did in my youth. (I read a really fascinating thing a while back about how our brains are best wired to intake and appreciate music between the ages of 10 and 25, just as a developmental thing, which is why every generation is convinced the music of their teenage and college years is the best. And we're all right! As far as our own brains are concerned). The only thing that's kept me going the past few months is the Disney trip I have planned for May.
It's just... it's hard, and it really is harder for Millennials than it has been for prior generations in a lot of ways. Financially, we're the most-screwed generation in American history, and gods only know what social media has done to our brains and our ability to enjoy life. But... we're here. And I have faith in us to make the best of it, somehow. 💗
Anyway your books are great and I'd happily listen to you talk about Audio-Animatronics.
I have never really related to a post more than I do this one. I am in my mid-30's with two doggos, and a large number of Legos. No one has ever really told me how to adult properly and I think I am discovering that I don't care to do what my parents would think of as doing it right.
Major question: what fanfiction are you still writing??? I am binge reading fanfiction from a series from an author I no longer support because she is the worst. And honestly, would love to branch especially if it means I need to watch a new anime.
I think you’ll find a lot of your followers/readers are in the same boat with you re adulthood. This coming from a 40 something professional who is also single, with cats, enjoys Disney vacations and when not at Disney hanging out at home with said cats watching tv/movies and reading, both books and fanfiction still. Maybe it’s something that was in the millennials waters? I feel like there’s a lot of us. We should start a club or something!
When in doubt, ramble about Disney.
As a 40 year old “adult” I can relate. I think what we’ve found out is that adults when we were kids probably felt the same way but never said it out loud. It was a well kept secret until social media. I still feel like cookie dough. I don’t feel baked yet. Ha I’d love to feel baked. 🤣
What you’ve written here resonates so deeply with me. I’m 49 and still booking last-minute trips to Disney to try limited edition snacks! I’m trying very hard to wait until Tiana’s opens to book my next trip! I’ll also confess that I’m constantly amazed that when I show up as my authentic self, people really like me. Keep being completely and unashamedly yourself!!! Plus, I can’t wait until your new book this summer!
Fellow thirty-something single with cats, who would rather play online D&D than have a ‘relationship’. I love your books, all the way from Geekerella 🩵
I'm turning 45 this year and even though I'm a wife and mother, I still find many of your thoughts about the struggle to feel like an adult to be extremely relatable!
Authenticity on and offline has been such a major thought of mine for at least the past year. Also, relatability in general! Being in your mid-30s is hard! I basically started over in my career and am surrounded by younger coworkers. And the people around my age are at different professional and personal levels than I am so I don't know how to talk to anyone really! Makes dating difficult as well which is why I also write stories about romances I wish could exist. I really loved reading your perspective on this.
Boy howdy to younger coworkers. A lot of mine are college-aged kids, and sometimes it's like "Yeah, this is fine, I can hang with them, we're not that different" and then sometimes it's like "WOW I am *definitely* not 22 anymore."
Hello I would like to nerd out about animatronics with you, please and thank you. As to the rest... I read romances because of the journey, not the destination. If you really had it all figured out, I don't think you'd be nearly as interesting. It's the muddling along and figuring it out as you go and being your own weird self that's what makes things interesting!
I’m in my late twenties and newly single. I have never related to a post more than this one and I have 2 questions. 1) What’s your favorite class to play in DND? 2) are you booking a trip to go see Tiana’s when it opens?
Mid-thirties dink here also watching The Apothecary Diaries!
I like when authors share their interests on social media, not just marketing content. Like, obviously none of us are our WHOLE selves online, but it's fun to know that Jen DeLuca and I like the same TV show, or to remember that Alicia Thompson was one of the top 100 listeners of Third Eye Blind on Spotify in 2023 when I hear them on the radio. (I also think that sharing personal details makes people more invested in supporting your work because of that parasocial relationship, although I don't have like, stats to support it.) I guess all of this is to say, bring us your niche, your weird, your Disney Adult content, because we are here for it.
I've always been on my own path. I turned 40 in January and I have met none of the traditional milestones culturally or when compared to most of my peers. I am single, childless, and working a job that doesn't pay a lot, but makes me happy.
I have no pets and my favorite people on the planet are a pair of toddlers. When I'm stressed I'll either choose to read (if I can) or play with them. They're the best non-prescription anti-depressants and anxietolytics available. There's something about watching them explore the world that brings me such joy.
Often times it can be hard not to take rejections personally. I've been burned by people I trusted so I've protected myself to try to avoid being hurt. I'm more than a little awkward as a result and while I hope it's endearing I fear it's more weird than anything else- and if that's the case, so be it.
Well I am 37, and have a life that is kind of the written norm for my age, married, children, but I still don’t really feel like a proper adult, although I do have an adult life. I love reading books, fantasy, romcoms, shifters and to the normal adult, that doesn’t look like the adult life I am supposed to be living.
So I think that first, our previous generation lied about adulting, it might have been a lie of omission, but they were, like us, trying to appear adult to their parents standards.
And secondly I think we are reaching a collective realization that what we tend to share sometimes is not the exact same as what we live, I know I don’t share or post every single thing that represents me, out of fear of what people might think or what/who I am supposed to be, considering the married/mother of 3 stereotype, like I, as an individual, stopped existing because I married and brought amazing people to this world.
I don’t really know if I make sense, but I do love Mickey Mouse, went to Disney a couple of months (for the first time 😭🙌🏻) and love reading time travel romance 💕😊
Always talk about Disney! I read Dead Romantics a few months before my husband died. Now I’m 55 and single and live a life like you which is great! Keep on doing what you are doing. I love your books and need to find your fan fiction.