I ask myself this question almost every day.
I stepped into writing as a true neophyte with no training, no roadmap and without a clue where to begin. The irony? I’ve spent my entire life building companies, leading teams, generating billions of dollars in revenue across beauty, wellness, household, and fitness brands. I’ve been the founder, the CEO, the person with the answers, but writing makes you question oneself recognizing unknown vulnerabilities; I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.
I had no team. Just me. I didn’t know I should have made an outline. I just regurgitated the facts and contacted the experts we had worked with for years to get their help on the science. I researched every detail, spoke with journalists for confirmation and the rest came from my memories and my mom’s journals I didn’t yet know existed. I had no staff to hand things off to, but I did have my old friend Gloria who has been a movie producer for years and who become my emotional “torture bitch.” She made me dig deep and get raw emotionally writing the words that will resonate with the reader.
And for reasons I still can’t fully explain, I fell head over heels in love with this new chapter in my life. I feel more alive, more challenged, and more excited than I have in years.
Who knew?
It didn’t start from nothing, of course. My editorial instincts were born after years of editing TV commercials, infomercials, digital ads, magazine spreads, business plans, pitch decks, and every creative piece that crossed my desk. Did I mention I have control issues on the creative side of my businesses? That, and the fact that I was an obsessive reader from the moment I could string sentences together.
Nancy Drew was my first love. I devoured every book, convinced I could solve the mysteries before she did. Later, it was fiction, where I learned rhythm, voice, tension, and the magic of getting lost in someone else’s world. I studied English Literature in college, which helped… who knows how. But reading? Reading shaped me. Books were my escape, my obsession. If you’ve ever flown with me, you know the rule: do not talk to me once I crack open a book.
So how did all of that turn into writing a three-hundred-page narrative?
It started with a promise.
My brilliant, fierce, unstoppable mother in her final days of cancer, made me swear I’d finish writing about our family legacy—the narrative she wouldn’t have survived writing. The story of grief, science, and the silent killer that stole both my siblings.
She didn’t ask. She demanded and if you knew my mother, you knew guilt was all part of the package. She made me promise to tell the story because she knew something I didn’t yet:
ordinary people like us can effect change. Doing it for love makes it all worthwhile.
And I thought writing this book would simply honor a promise.
Instead, it has become the most cathartic, consuming, beautiful, professional experience of my life. I’ve edited this book over a hundred times so far and I’m still excited to sit down and do it again. And yes Mom, I can admit it. You were right and it doesn’t hurt to say it.
So here I am—late to the party, perhaps, but a writer after all.
Before the Last Heartbeat is a story about love, loss, resilience, and how a family shattered by tragedy refused to break. It’s about how, sometimes, the smallest voices spark the biggest change.
I am so excited and will let you know when it will be on the shelves. In the meantime, look for more fun content and hope you’ll join me on this wild journey that’s life.
Nancy