Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday. New Year's Eve is my birthday, and I spent it with some dear friends who I adore. That's me contemplating what story I plan to write next and me vibing in the Dimmick Memorial LIbarary in Jim Thorpe. I've got that look in my eye...lol

Today I’m in Jim Thorpe and it’s snowing! It’s time for a Pining for You update to start 2026. First, for those of you that are new to my blog, I’m Melissa. I write rom-coms, contemporary romance, and young adult sci-fi stuff. Pining for You (PfY) is my newest contemporary romance, inspired by real events, about a mature romance author who finds love with a rugged woodsman in the idyllic Pocono Mountain town of Jim Thorpe. When past heartbreak causes him to walk away, she pours her heart into a novel, writing her own happily-ever-after in the hopes of winning back the love she’s always dreamed of.  Edits are done and my agent is getting ready to submit the manuscript to publishers. Yay! It’s happening.

I’d like to talk about another theme from PfY. I’ve previously written about the mental health issues that PfY addresses, but today I want to spend some time talking about past trauma and the role it plays in budding relationships. In PfY, Nicole, the main character, is a fifty-year-old woman who has started to date again after her divorce. The men she encounters all have previous relationship baggage and trauma just as she does. The issue she runs into is that most of the men she goes on dates with have not healed from their previous trauma or have mental health issues of their own that are unaddressed. Many blame previous partners for their issues and their inability to open up to have something real. Nicole sees a therapist weekly, while most of the men she dates have never considered therapy. Many of them deal with their sadness and anger by self-medicating with alcohol and/or drugs. Some believe that the right woman will solve their problems, while others believe they can solve their issues on their own without help. In any event, there are walls in place, which creates a lack of vulnerability that is essential for human connection. Anyone that is on the dating train KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

In a society plagued with mental health issues, especially for men and women who are older, it seems like it’s always doom and gloom. But, as anyone who reads romance novels knows, there is (or should be) a happily ever after (HEA) at the end of each story. PfY does, but it doesn’t happen the way most romance novels do. We’re taught to walk away from those that hurt us. No contact is a thing. Don’t accept breadcrumbs.  Etc. etc, etc. But what about compassion and faith? What if, instead of focusing on how broken the other person is, and how much they hurt us, why not root for them to heal? That’s what Nicole does in PfY. She has a big heart and loves the MC, Everett, unconditionally. She believes that he is her person, and that kind of love, the kind that endures, is exactly what feeds her soul each day she is without him.

There are a number of people from my life that inspired the heroes in PfY. The version of Everett that Nicole meets at the beginning of the story, and Josh, the secondary love interest that I wrote about in a previous blog post, are both inspired from my life. To be clear, all the characters are fictional, of course. But as any writer will tell you, we write what we know. On the other hand, a healed Everett, the one Nicole hopes and prays for in the second half of the book, is purely from my imagination and my attempt to manifest something beautiful. He is the man that every woman hopes exists. A man who values a woman so highly that he’s willing to fight his own demons for her—to earn the right to love her the way she deserves to be loved. He faces his past traumas, tears down the walls, and opens his heart because he knows she’s a one-of-a-kind woman who he’d be blessed to have in his life. He transforms and does the work to be whole, healed, and emotionally available.

There’s no ending to spoil since this is a romance (although there is a big twist at the end!), but if Nicole can get her HEA in PfY, maybe it’s possible for this author too. I can’t deny my hopeful heart. It’s who I am.

Until next time…check in with anyone you know is struggling. Seasonal depression is real. Be well.