Note: The photo collages in this blog post are from my spring and summer 2025 photography sessions.
On July 29th, 2025, a long-sought dream of mine finally came true. Your family photographer is now a published author! My debut novel, Soulmatch, is now available in North America from Simon & Schuster and will soon be published in Spanish and German as well! Soulmatch is a dystopian romance where you must report to the government on your 18th birthday to learn about your past lives and if you have a soulmate. You could inherit millions from your former self… or a prison sentence.
I first got the idea for Soulmatch back in 2010, but because I was building my photography business at the time, working in the corporate world, and raising two toddlers, I had no bandwidth to spare. Instead, “writing the novel” became a retirement goal, something I’d do when I finally had time. Then came the Covid shutdown.
Faced with mounting anxiety over the loss of income from my non-essential photography business, I decided I needed a project. So, after watching a three-day online workshop on crafting a good story, I had an outline and began writing. It was fun! The panic attacks subsided as I escaped from the real dystopian world into one I could fully control.
By the time I started taking clients again, I had a full first draft. A few months later, I had a revised manuscript and starting searching for a literary agent. Dozens of critiques and revisions later, I finally secured an agent. Then it was time for more revisions. Eighteen months after writing the first draft, she started submitting my novel to publishers, hoping for a book deal. That deal wouldn’t come for another TWENTY MONTHS! But when it did, it was with one of the top five publishing houses in the United States and for a two-book deal. That was in August of 2023.
More revisions followed, along with writing articles for publications like People Magazine, Paste Magazine, Nerd Daily, and Writer’s Digest. I was interviewed on a half-dozen podcasts and DC’s News4 Today. Five years after writing the first draft, I finally held the final copy of Soulmatch in my hands.
Through it all, except for those first three months in 2020, I’ve remained a family photographer. I have no plans to stop being a family photographer, either. Though Soulmatch has sold well (especially for a debut novel!) and was recently awarded the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard, my author advance in no way replaces my photography income. Besides, publishing is STRESSFUL. So very stressful. Being a family photographer is very much not.
No matter how much anxiety I carry into your sessions, I always ALWAYS leave them in a good mood. I love goofing off with your kids and hearing what you’ve been up since the last time I saw you. I love meeting new families, and I love capturing the love you all share with each other. So much love. Photography provides me much-needed stress relief. Why would I give that up?
I’ve had to adapt my business to make time for writing, though. I now work with a photo retoucher, who follows my directions on each of your images to ensure they are edited how I would personally edit them. I also cut back on photography marketing and social media posts to focus on pushing book sales. The issue with that is I’m far behind on booking sessions for 2026. By now, I would usually have a full spring calendar and most of winter booked. Now I have more openings than not. Oof!
In sum, yes, I did publish my debut novel this year (woo hoo!). But also, yes, I’m still a family photographer and would love to photograph your family next year! Please take a look at my availability and reserve your session online today! I have openings from December through mid-June!
Check out more of my work on Pinterest and in my online porfolio!
