Two Tracks. One Truth. (And Why I’m Not Retiring Any Time Soon)
This isn’t reinvention. It’s expansion for us all, especially women 55+, with clarity.
The Ongoing Track, Entry No. 1
In my 30s, someone told me I had too many interests.
“If you just focused on one,” they said, “you’d be wildly successful.”
In my 40s, someone softened it:
“You’re multi-passionate.”
It felt better. But it still implied a flaw that needed managing.
In my 50s, I coached others to focus. I had this whole metaphor about train tracks: stay on the rails, don’t divert, pick a direction and go. And while that metaphor worked for others, it never quite fit me.
Because I had never followed my own advice.
I’ve always had more than one thing going. Early on, it was about money. Survival. Then it became desire. Curiosity. Joy. Something in me thrived on the tension of doing more than one thing at a time, so long as the tracks ran close enough to see each other.
Now in my 70s, I’m doing it again. Two tracks. Fiction and… something else.
But the truth?
I’m not changing that.
I’m deepening it.
And oh, how alive it is.
Riley’s Garden Oasis started as one book, creative nonfiction.
Which led to starting Whispers of Echo Canyon, not to launch a career or build a brand.
It was to find myself again.
After leaving my business and moving to Hawai’i, I felt… unmoored. I wasn’t the entrepreneur anymore. I wasn’t “the desert garden lady as a business person.” I wasn’t who I used to be, and I didn’t yet know who I was becoming.
Then fiction came along like a soft knock at the door. And I let it in.
At first, it was the one book. Now I’ve planned a five-book series. Possibly more.
Raven, Riley, Quinn, Val, Skylar — they’ve become companions, not just characters. I don’t want their stories to end. And frankly, neither do they.
This track is about imagination, intimacy, and reinvention. As a life.
But something else emerged alongside it.
Substack Notes
The shorter reflections I didn’t know to publish.
Not fiction. Not coaching. Just truths in motion.
And somehow, these Notes became a second track.
A lane of its own, paved with resonance by readers who commented.
Women in their 60s, 70s, even 80s wrote back to say:
“You’re doing what I didn’t know I was allowed to want.”
“I’m watching. I’m remembering what I still have in me.”
“I didn’t think it was possible to begin again. Until now.”
They don’t ask how to write a novel.
They want to know how to start and then to keep going.
How to build. How to bloom again, intentionally, not apologetically.
These aren’t sideline stories.
They’re second tracks.
So no, I’m not choosing between these two tracks - fiction and purpose.
I’m not streamlining, niching, or simplifying.
I’m expanding, with clarity.
📖 One track is storytelling through the women I’ve written into being.
📝 The other is real-time story-igniting, through reflections that echo what so many of us, over 55, are living through.
The work is doing what it was meant to do.
Not for algorithms. Not for a brand.
For connection.
For movement.
For the woman reading this right now, whispering, “Me too.”
If you’re here for the fiction, stay close. The next chapter’s coming.
If you’re here because the Notes sparked something in you, this is just the beginning. I’m writing more. And I’m writing directly to you.
And if you’re here for both?
Oh, friend❣️
You’re exactly why I’m not choosing.
This is the ongoing track.
Not the end.
Not the pivot.
Just the next mile.
Let’s go 🚀
For Readers Who Want All of It
If you’re walking both tracks with me - fiction and purpose, you’re invited in:
Become a Story Insider and receive:
🆓 Full access to Women of the Canyon chapters as I write them
📕 Riley’s 2am Journal - entries she wrote in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep. The backstory that shaped who she was and who she’s becoming. Available immediately when you join.
📂 Monthly Secret Journals - rotating private entries from Raven, Quinn, Val, or Skylar. What they write when no one’s watching. What they can’t say out loud yet. The tender, unfinished parts that don’t make it into the books.
💌 Letters From the Canyon - a character writes directly to YOU. Not as fiction, but as if you’re the friend she needs to talk to.
🛤️ Ongoing Tracks – notes from my life: what I’m learning, noticing, and becoming in this chapter of my 70s. Not teaching. Not advice. Just the steady hum of what’s still unfolding.
✨ This isn’t a content feed.
When you become a Story Insider, you’re not just reading the story.
You’re part of it.
You’re trusted with pages no one else sees — fictional and personal.
You’re invited to walk both tracks with me, at whatever pace you’re ready for.
I’m inviting you inside.
Fiction for free:
or join me for the parts that don’t make it to those pages.
The ones that might just feel like your own story, too.
💕