The Time For Silence Is Over

The days are getting more overwhelming as we go along.

A week ago, I was going about my day as usual — starting at the coffee shop, getting everyone where they needed to go, squeezing in a little DoorDash. That afternoon, I heard about the untimely death of a certain someone (I refuse to speak his name because, frankly, he has gotten far too much attention this past week) and I didn’t feel any sort of way.

If you had told me then that the United States would be even more divided than it already was over the passing of someone who made racism, transphobia, and anti-women’s rights part of his platform, I would have thought you were crazy. And if you had told me that his death would cause left-leaning people to turn against left-leaning people — and some on the right to turn against their own — I would have called that impossible.

I have tried so hard to keep the peace on my social media. I rarely post political content. I don’t stir the pot or rock the boat. And I take full responsibility for that silence — even though just a few weeks ago, I said the time for remaining silent had come and gone, I didn’t back that up with action.

Yesterday, I realized my silence wasn’t just unfair to those who follow me — it was unfair to every other author who has put their neck on the line to fight for what they believe in. And so, I finally started speaking.

John Stuart Mill once said, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing.” I refuse to be that good person who stands by and does nothing — because standing by is no better than joining in.

When I started writing Comatose, I promised myself I would never again believe the lie that I was too much or too loud. It’s time to start living like it.

If you follow me on TikTok, what you saw yesterday was a whirlwind of videos making it clear where I stand. Moving forward, I’ll go back to posting about my writing journey and my books — but I will no longer be silent when I see the line between right and wrong being blurred. Because at the end of the day, those beliefs are part of who I am — and they’re the beliefs that helped shape the book I’m working so hard to share with you.

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