Jessica Goldwatch never planned to become a novelist.
Born and raised in Miami, she spent much of her adult life in New York City before eventually settling in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. But New York never entirely left her. Its energy, ambition, beauty, and constant sense of possibility continued to live somewhere inside her.
For years, Jessica devoted herself to raising her family, placing her own creative ambitions quietly to the side. Motherhood became the most meaningful part of her life, but it also left her wrestling with questions about identity, purpose, and the parts of herself that existed beyond being a mother.
It was not until a return trip to New York that something in her reawakened. Walking through the city, she felt connected to a version of herself she had nearly forgotten — the woman she had been before motherhood, before responsibility, and before life became centered around everyone else.
Soon afterward, ten words unexpectedly appeared in her mind. She did not know where they had come from, but she knew they were the beginning of something. Those ten words became the first spark of Becoming Maxine.
Writing the novel gave Jessica a way to express some of her own complicated feelings about motherhood, identity, and the desire to reconnect with herself. It also allowed her to explore the choices women make, the identities they lose and rediscover, and the distance between the life they once imagined and the life they eventually build.
Through Maxine's journey, Jessica writes about consuming love, devastating betrayal, and the courage required to begin again.
Jessica began writing later in life, proving to herself most of all that creativity does not have an expiration date. Becoming Maxine is her debut novel.
She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their two children, and their Sphynx cat, Taco.