In this follow-up to last week’s episode, I talk about what happened when everything got even messier.

After my sister passed away, I couldn’t write. I didn't even care about the story I had spent months working on. Grief completely threw me off track, and just when I was getting back into creative flow, I started questioning the project all over again.

In this episode, I talk about how loss changed the way I see work, why my sci-fi script started to feel irrelevant, and how I’m trying to finish it anyway (to keep a promise to myself). I also had some thyroid drama and ended up in the ER! Like whaat? Tangled up with everything else! I really thought I knew about aging, hormones, and midlife identity, but nope. Life keeps teaching me new things.

If you’re grieving someone you love, second-guessing your passion project, or fighting with your health and hormones, this one’s for you.

Hot Flashes & Fiction is about navigating grief, writing through chaos, and figuring out who you are at 40 and beyond.