My life and how I became an author.
Okay friends. I thought it was time I went back to where this whole author journey began and restart my blog. Forgive any grammatical errors or such seeing as how this is straight from my chaotic brain (and likely written between wrangling my three little angels) and has 0 editing done before I hit submit.
Back in 2017 I became a mom for the first time to my beautiful son and I began blogging about my life as a mama. It was mostly for myself, but I began sharing on Facebook because, why not? And I wound up finding this major love for writing. Getting my thoughts, opinions, experiences and encouragement out to other people and if they loved it or could relate, then even better! But before I became a mom, I became a wife, and before that I was just a free-spirited homeschooled girl who fell in love with a baseball player. So let me rewind about 10 years and give you the full scoop.
Up until I was thirteen, I was convinced no one was ever going to love me. Dramatic, I know. What else would you expect from a thirteen year old girl?? I was homeschooled so I’d never met boys outside of the ones I went to church with and while all my friends has their first boyfriends and the one boy I liked was interested in someone else, I was convinced there was something wrong with me. Like I said, dramatic. Until my older sister went to her boyfriend’s baseball game and let her baby sister tag along. She and I are only 3 years apart and have always been best friends so getting to go out with her to a public school summer baseball game was like my cool girl moment. LOL!
At this game a certain number on the field caught my eye, and little did I know it, I caught his from the stands as well. Number 14 and the guy they called “Pirtle” (I bet you’re thinking this story is about to get GOOD—spoiler, you’re right) While my thoughts went as far as He’s cute and Oh, angry when he tossed his bat after a bad pitch, they didn’t go much further. Let’s remember, I was convinced no one would ever want me to be their girlfriend.
Fast forward a little bit (I have no idea exactly how far in the future, it’s been 10 years so cut me some slack) he calls me ON THE HOUSE PHONE. Like, this man was serious about getting in touch with me, right? He leaves me a message saying he got my number from my sister’s boyfriend, he hopes that is okay, and that he wants to hang out sometime. insert immediate freak out and then I NEVER. CALLED HIM BACK. for like, three months. I literally got scared that a boy finally wanted to hang out with me and just left him hanging. But we love a persistent man. We finally hung out that fall and the rest is pretty much history. He asked me to be his girlfriend officially about a month later, and we’ve been together ever since. He promised to always be mine when I was seventeen, he proposed the month I turned eighteen, and five short months later, I walked down the aisle to promise him forever.
As it goes, we bought our first house a year after we got married, welcomed our first baby boy home a year after that, and it’s been a whirlwind of new jobs, no jobs, more babies, and big decisions to get us where we are today.
In 2022 I was gifted a book for my birthday that sparked my love of reading. I got on bookstagram as a newbie and started writing reviews of some of my favorite reads and when the same friend who had gotten me the book for my birthday told me she enjoyed how I wrote reviews so much and how they actually made her want to read the books, I laughed to myself and mentioned how I had, believe it or not, started writing a book several years earlier. She said “send it to me” and after digging through my old computer and polishing a few things in the files, I sent it to her. Three months later I had a complete manuscript, an editor and designer and enough anxiety to fill Antarctica, probably.
Truly, I didn’t think anything would come of my books. That maybe a few people would find it and like it, all the while praying no one would just HATE IT, and then we posted a reel. One date night while I was touching up some of my manuscript I looked at my husband and said “You know what would be funny. If we posted a TikTok of the ways you’ve helped me with the MMC gestures in my book.” So we did. We did the chin tilt, the lip caress, the neck grab, etc., and when I woke up the next morning, everything went WILD. It had thousands of views, comments were pouring in, everyone wanted to know “WHAT’S THE BOOK?!” and if I wasn’t nervous before, I sure as heck was then. My following climbed to 50,000 people before my first book ever released. And while not all of those people have stuck around, liked my books, or even finished the first one, I have connected with the most AMAZING people from those “silly little reels” and found a community that loves the stories that I write. Stories that I pour my heart and soul into. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you guys enough for being here and supporting me through this journey to becoming an author over the last year and a half, but I could have never even began chasing this dream if it wasn’t for the boy I fell in love with that’s become the man that is determined to fulfill my every dream.
Pirtle, my love, you are the single greatest man I’ve ever known. I know our life isn’t always “cupcakes and rainbows” as Branch would say (haha) but even in the storms there’s no one I’d rather share an umbrella with. Thank you for allowing me to stay home and raise our babies and be the one to teach them. For letting me freak out when I’m on a deadline and locking myself in our room while our children are being feral so I can finish a story. You are my biggest dream, everything else is just a happy bonus.
Okay besties, I’ve rambled long enough and I have a cover reveal to get posted today. EEEEK! So more stories you may or may not want to read coming to the blog soon.
See you in the pages.
xo, Sarah.