Shame can last a lifetime

Image by Marcos Paulo Prado

My first book was a novella titled Thoughts Of A Fractured Soul. It was a story that essentially fictionalized my life as a teenage parent and the main character’s struggle to find themself while raising a child.

It’s odd because even though that book was clearly about my real life, I resisted any comparisons. When people asked me questions about the similarities, I quickly shut it down saying that “the characters are…