Behind the Pages: The Journey to 'Meet Me Halfway'

A breakdown of how my 3rd solo came to be

I’ve been meaning to write this for some time. I love hearing about the processes and quirks of other writers—their little rituals, the ways they find inspiration. There’s something oddly comforting in knowing that no matter how solitary writing can feel, there’s this invisible thread that connects us, this quiet fellowship of creators working to give life to something that only ever existed in our minds. It’s kind of incredible, isn’t it?

So, I thought I’d let you in on how my latest book, Meet Me Halfway, came to be. Like everything else I’ve written, it had its own unique journey. When I think back to Born to Love, Cursed to Feel, it’s wild how I never even wrote that title down until the moment I sat down to start the book. It lived inside me, waiting. And with Don’t Tell Me Not to Ask Why, things got really personal, exploring family relationships in ways I hadn’t before. I even designed the cover to show a version of myself reaching back to save the child version of me. I sent the artist a photo of the first house I ever lived in as a reference. That one came from such a deep place.

But Meet Me Halfway—that book had an entirely different process. Initially, I had titled it Outcasts. I had a cover idea in my head and everything, thinking I’d gather poems that didn’t fit into my other collections. But then life happened, as it does, and I felt my writing shift along with it. So I put the Outcasts idea on hold. Funny enough, that concept might still find its way into a future book. Who knows?

act I

I reached out to my editor and let her know that I had a book in mind. I appreciate that she knows me so well. She lets me come to her when I’m ready to get started. I sent over pieces to be looked over and a theme. There was no title at this time for this new collection. The thing about me is that I normally have a few titles in mind. They might be old or something that spontaneously came to me. In this case, I had three that I was trying to pick between. For me, it makes sense to let the book form first and then see which title captures the essence of it, which is how Meet Me Halfway came about. I won’t share the other two yet because one will more than likely be the name of a new book, if not both.

To my surprise, what came next was me designing the cover even though I wasn’t sure what to call the book yet. I was playing around with AI at the time. I came up with three covers. The first one was inspired by an abstract painting that I was in love with. The second was again inspired by art and the third one randomly came to me. I loved them all, especially the third one, which ended up being the inspiration for what you’ll eventually see. I was so excited about it but then found out the publishing house had a policy against AI-generated covers. I was bummed, but I knew I had to pivot. I started searching for female abstract artists on Instagram and found some amazing work. Still, that AI-created cover kept haunting me—it was so perfect.

The covers I created

I was able to find artists that I liked, but the photograph that I had made with AI kept coming to mind. I love that photo even though it’s not real. Then I remembered a photographer I follow and love. I combed through her work and found this beautiful café scene. It clicked instantly. I reached out, got the rights, and boom—the cover came together. The hardest part was convincing the publishing team. 

At first glance, my cover didn’t make sense to the publishing house. The concern was that someone who looked at it wouldn’t know what it’s about. I liked that part. I liked the thought of someone roaming a bookstore, stumbling across my book, their curiosity building while staring at the cover until they couldn’t take it anymore and have to see what’s inside. They discover my work, get introduced to me, fall madly in love with all of it, the end. Since that is clearly not a good enough explanation, I broke it down. Think of it as a meeting between two friends. The title is the invitation, the cover is the location, and the poetry inside is the conversation. I thought that was a well thought out way to describe to them how it all comes together, but it was not. They let me keep the cover anyway.

act II

My writing process is usually pretty free-flowing, without much structure. I’ve always preferred to write whenever inspiration hits. However, this time, I approached it with more discipline. I wanted to ensure I had plenty of material to choose from when it came time to make final selections, so I set out to build a substantial collection of work. Luckily, I already had a head start with old notebooks and scattered notes stored in various places. I also set a personal goal of filling three notebooks, front to back, with poetry. In the end, I filled just over two. Most of my writing happened late at night after the kids were asleep, though I’d squeeze in whatever I could during the day if inspiration struck, even in the midst of toddler chaos. I think I'll continue the practice of filling notebooks for future projects—it's been really helpful.

Now we get to the final stretch, the editing process. A book is never truly done until you give the green light on final pages. For this book, I probably went through about 4 or so rounds of editing. Honestly, part of that was on me. I was going through a tough time personally (still not quite out of it) and I kept having to ask to extend deadlines. The team was great about it, but it was an exhaustive process. None the less, it was necessary and helped me to make so many improvements.

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t completely upend and change something at the last moment. I knew I wanted to break my book into sections. I hadn’t ever done that before and wanted to give it a try with this one. I wanted to speak to a transformative process so of course metamorphosis came to mind. It didn’t feel like it fit and naming the sections after the various stages didn’t feel ike a match. Somehow the idea popped into my head that the sections should be broken up into acts. It would speak to something so many could relate to, the life cycle of a relationship. Act I is life before. Act II is life during and act III is life after. It made sense for where I was in life and with what I was creating at the time. Once I had that worked out it was easier to format the book.

I originally sent the first pages in without titles. I decided that the poems wouldn’t have any. Until of course I came up with dividing the book into acts. I wrote my editor’s assistant to let her know that I would be titling the poems as scenes. It’s mostly in chronological order except for the ones that are dedicated to special people who have been in my life. Going back and adding all that in was a grueling process, especially since I duplicated some of the numbers so things were out of order and they had to go back and rearrange things. To add to the fire, we realized that my book needed to either have either 4 less pages or 12 more pages to meet the standards of the printer. My editor loved the book as is so she felt it would be better to remove than add on so much. After that process was done, we had to once again renumber the poems. I can’t stress enough how much I love the editing process. It’s a necessary evil as one might say.

act III

All in all, I love the way the book turned out. My editor called it “perfect,” and that means the world to me. I wanted it to feel like a movie—like you’re watching the story unfold as you read. The feedback I’ve gotten so far tells me that’s exactly what’s happening, and I couldn’t be happier. I can’t express enough how happy I am about that and proud of everything that went into bringing this to life.

The book comes out October 22, and people keep asking if I’m excited. Honestly, I think I’m still in work mode, promoting it and all. But with every piece of feedback I get, I breathe a little easier. It’s like this huge sigh of relief knowing that what I wanted to say is coming across clearly. For that, I’m truly grateful.

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Reads that grabbed my attention:

What Actually Makes You Happy by

Hauwa

- I love when I come across stories that are so gripping that I consume them immediately. As if I must get to the end of it to satiate a hunger that I can not name. This did that for me and double points for making me take a look at my own life.

My Lemon Tree Borne Rotten Fruit by

Trixie

- I can’t express enough how I am taken back by captivating story tellers, especially when the execution is seamless. This story deserves to live in some sort of visual medium. I would love to see that happen, whether as a short or an animation. It would be incredible to watch it unfold.

His story must be told….Part 1 by

Brooke Elaine

- I have a soft spot for this story because I love my Pop Pop dearly and I don’t think love ends just because life does.

Meet Me Halfway by Me - If you want to understand the love that inspired the poetry for my latest book, this would be a good read.