25 Apr 2025 18:00

So I'm Thinking to Quit My Job to Write About Teen Geniuses and Overreacting Bots… What Could Go Wrong?

Spoiler: I did quit. (And yes, the bots are still overreacting.)

About two months ago, I stood in my kitchen with half-well-done toast in one hand and a half-finished scene in the other and thought: Am I really going to do this?

Not the toast. The book.

For years I worked in IT and Business Intelligence—which basically means I spent a lot of time talking to systems that didn’t talk back (and sometimes talking to people who did, but less helpfully). I liked the job. I liked the logic. I liked having a salary. But somewhere between debugging pipelines and folding laundry for six people, this story started growing in my head.

Thirty-two teenage geniuses. A too-powerful AI. A broken world. And a girl who refuses to let go of either logic or hope.

I didn’t plan to write it. I tried not to, honestly. But the story wouldn’t leave me alone. It followed me into meetings. Into car rides. Into dreams. Until one day, I walked into work and said the sentence I never thought I’d say:

“I think I need to go write about an emotionally unstable bots now.”

And just like that—here I am. Writing full-time. (Well… full-time between dog walks, school pickups, pastas, and cat drama.)

This blog isn’t going to spoil the book. Promise. But every two weeks or so, I’ll share what it’s like behind the scenes of The Mindborn—what it means to chase a story that won’t sit still, while trying to live a life that rarely does either.

Because if I’ve learned anything so far? Writing a book is a little like parenting.

Loud. Exhausting. Hilarious. And absolutely worth it.

Thanks for coming along. I’ll bring the snacks if someone else brings the luck!

 

Soccer Writing

10 May 2025 11:06

Typing Between the Goal Cheers and the Hailstorm—Yes, I’m Still Writing This Book

It seems that writing requires serenity. A desk and a teacup. Something without shouting or weather warnings.

I had a soccer ball that almost hit me in the second half, a plastic chair, sideways wind, and a laptop that was swaying on a snack box.

So… sure.

In a scene about bioengineered lungs and emotionally jumbled robots, I was the mother with one eye on the midfield and the other on the field. I shouted, "Great hustle!" at the right moment, clapped when someone scored, and typed crazily during halftime.

And then—hail, because the universe is funny.

Sideways hail.

Falling from what I believe to be a rogue cumulonimbus.

Did I shut my laptop? Nope.

Did I continue to blink sleet off the screen and type with frozen fingers? Naturally.

Because The Mindborn keeps showing up, even when real life throws a storm at it.

Seldom writing waits for quiet. It pushes into the confusion. In between yells, food, on-field drama, and meteorological phenomena. And it continues to grow somehow.

I had some victories over the last two weeks: A challenging scene made sense at last. My inner science geek felt validated when a certain therapy bot did something. Indeed, I almost broke in a parking lot line. I won't give you any spoilers. However, yeah. It hit hard.

So no, it’s not always clean. Or dry. Or predictable.

But the story’s alive.

However, the narrative is alive.

And don't wait for calm if you're pursuing something of your own, such as a project, a dream, or an extremely ambitious idea.

Some of the best work happens in the middle of real life. Between the cheer and the thunder, right there on the field's edge.

 

Kicking Butts

24 May 2025 11:36

She Looks Like an Angel. Then She’s Kicking Butts

There’s this moment, every time my daughter steps onto the mat, where someone new looks at her and smiles politely.

She’s very thin. All blond hair, sweet green eyes, and this lightness in the way she moves. She could pass for a ballerina. Or a fairy. Or a girl who says “excuse me” when walking through a crowd. (Which she does.)

And then the match starts.

And the fairy princess absolutely wrecks someone.

It’s not aggressive. It’s precise. Calm. Controlled. She doesn’t roar. She doesn’t even glare. She just moves like she knows exactly what she’s doing—because she does. And watching it? Honestly? It gave me chills. She has a second nature, very well hidden.

And then, as it tends to happen in my life lately, it gave me a scene.

I didn’t have my laptop, of course. Just a school notebook swiped from her backpack and a half-eaten pencil. But I didn’t care. When you get it, you write it down.

Because something about that moment. The contrast between how the world sees her and who she really is—cracked open something in the story I’m writing. A character I thought I understood suddenly showed me another layer. Like she’d been waiting for me to notice.

It’s funny how that works. You think you’re just taking your kid to class. But then she shows you what grace and power really look like. And somehow, that shows up in the book, too.

So no, I didn’t plan to write that night.

But when a scene walks across the mat in a gray belt and flips someone twice her size, you don’t wait.

You write. With whatever you’ve got.

 

May 28th Last day of work

28 May 2025 12:45

The Day I leaped, I thought it would be freeing. Or panic. Or, anyhow, something more dramatic. But on May 28, my last day of work, I just felt... at ease. I had been planning it for weeks. Years, if I'm telling the truth.

Let's just say that giving up my safe, grown-up job—my painstakingly developed career in information technology and business intelligence—for a story about teenage geniuses and emotionally unstable machines wasn't a clear decision.

"That's incredible!" was one of the many reactions I got from friends, family, and coworkers when I finally told them.

"Whoa, that's courageous."

"Are you alright?"

"Hold on, like, full-time?"

“Do you have a backup plan?”

“You mean like a blog or a book book?”

And I understand. I do. Because people don't always jump like this. Not with solid ground beneath you. Not when you're needed by your children. Not when leaving would mean giving up the steady routine of safety, Monday meetings, and a paycheck that arrives on time.

However, May 28th arrived. I also turned off my work laptop. And I sat there, staring at the other one, the one with the 300 pages of fictional hope and heartbreak.

And I had the following thought:

This is it.

You’re really doing it.

Not the basic route, nor the guaranteed way.

However, that will prevent you from questioning whether you should have done it in ten years.

Marking that leap has been accomplished through this blog. A means of reminding myself that writing is an integral part of life, not something I do in place of it. It is disorganized. Dangerous. There are days when it feels fantastic. I doubt everything sometimes.

But I keep writing. Because this story won’t let me go.

So, I won't tell you what to do if you're reading this and wondering if you should make your own leap, whatever that may be. However, let me say this:

Jumping is terrifying.

Regrets could be worse.

 

Unexpected Fondness

6 Jun 2025 17:28

The Day a Character Walked In and Changed Everything

You plan some characters.

You map them out. You give them a name, a backstory, and a plot point.

And a few characters simply appear.

I didn't realize how memorable he would be. I had no intention of making him that way. I had a feeling the story needed someone, perhaps a guide. A mirror. A voice that had the ability to see things that others did not.

What did I get in the end?

Someone I didn’t expect to love so deeply.

I will not reveal any spoilers here. I won't reveal his identity, his function, or the extent to which he alters the plot.

He is simultaneously gentle and piercing. He has this way of cutting straight to the truth—not because he’s cold, but because he’s warm enough to contain it. He’s funny in a way that disarms you. He says things that sound simple… until they stay with you for days.

And in some way, he turned into the focal point of an emotional tale that I believed I already knew.

I had no intention of falling for him. However, I did. Slowly, then all at once.

The kind of love that astonishes you with its gentleness and presence rather than its loud declarations.

And now, whenever I revisit his scenes, I sense it once more. A click of something good. Something real.

Writers talk a lot about "creating" characters. But sometimes?

They find you.

 

COL Crying Out Loud

16 Jun 2025 11:58

Yes, I did cry in Starbucks. You don't have to give anyone a call.

Certain scenes simply have a different impact.

I was trying to finish a scene that had been subtly destroying me for days while I was at Starbucks, minding my own business. I believed I was alright. I had intended to just revise a few lines and possibly some dialogue before treating myself to a warm slice of banana bread.

I ended up crying instead, in the open. Not a warning.

And not the cute kind of crying either. I mean full eyes, throat-tight, trying-not-to-sniffle-too-loud crying.

I vaguely saw someone hovering at one point. The barista was the one. He appeared... worried.

"Ma'am," he said politely, "do you want me to give someone a call?"

I was at a loss for words.

I muttered, "No, it's fine," shook my head, and waved my hand over the laptop as if *this is the problem*. I'm merely writing.

His face was pitying as he slowly retreated.

In actuality, though, I was deeply affected by the scene. It's one of those pivotal moments when a character takes a minor action that has a huge impact. And it broke my heart when I eventually managed to capture the emotion on paper.

So, yes. That's how I sobbed into a white chocolate mocha and got a Starbucks employee to wonder if he ought to include "emotional support" in his job description.

Writing this book keeps surprising me.

Grief, hope, and the strange bravery required to allow characters to express what we're frequently too afraid to express ourselves are some of the elements that sneak in from other places, in addition to the plot twists.

In any case. I'm all right! The story is most likely still being told by the barista.

What about the scene?

It's undoubtedly one of my favorites.

 

Writing in Italy

28 Jun 2025 11:20

I’m in Italy this week. There’s espresso, my gosh, finally a real one, and somewhere in the middle of all that, I’ve been deep inside my book again.

I’m trying to make The Mindborn the best version of itself. Which apparently means spending hours debating one line. A line I wrote a year ago and still doesn't work, or maybe it does, but now I'm not sure anymore.

This week, I’ve edited with the kind of obsession that’s probably not healthy. I’ve questioned metaphors, deleted words I once loved, put those back in, argued with myself over commas, semicolons, em-dashes, and so on. But somewhere in there, something happened.

I fell in love with it all over again.

Not the polished version. The original one. The version that still has bruises. The one where Virginia cracks a little. Where Caio won’t shut up. Where Lilo whispers things. The version that reminds me the core of the story, the beginning of everything.

I’m not writing to impress anyone. I’m doing it because this story won’t leave me alone. Because I want to get it right. Because I care in a gut-deep way that makes you dream in dialogue and rewrite scenes in your mind while you walk your dog.

This week wasn’t relaxing. But it mattered.

And if you’re reading this and wondering if it’s normal to care too much about the thing you’re creating?

Yes. It is. Keep going. And love what you do.

 

Coastline and Mindborn

12 Jul 2025 16:07

Sometimes you just need to get away from the screen.

Today, I wrote part of The Mindborn not on a laptop or a phone, but in a real paper notebook. Pen on paper, waves crashing nearby.

I was sitting on the scogli—those jagged, sun-warmed rocks by the Mediterranean. There’s no perfect word for them in English. They’re not cliffs or beach or shore. Just scogli. If you know, you know.

The sea was angry today. Wind tearing through my hoodie. Waves too big for July, slamming against the rocks like they were trying to break something open. I hadn’t planned to write. But something in the way the water moved made it feel impossible not to. The sea was asking for something in return.

So I took out my notebook. The real one, paperback. And I wrote a scene I’ve been avoiding for weeks. I think the sea helped. I need the angry sea to make some good progress. I didn’t get splashed, but I think the story did. I'm discovering sides of my characters I never thought I’d reach. While I dream of them and breathe with them, I’m also getting a tan beside them. And somewhere between the ink and the salt air, I keep thinking how lucky I am that they found me.

 

Copyright

16 Jul 2025 07:07

Yesterday, something small and official changed everything.

II noticed it when I opened my mail box. The Mindborn's copyright certificate. My name. My own words. on an actual document. For a moment, I simply gazed at the documents as if they were unreal. I've known for a long time that this book was authentic. I've spent years living in its world, after all. I've cried over characters, rewritten chapters, doubted myself, believed again, and doubted again. However, this? There was more to this. a form of evidence that I was unaware I required until I obtained it. And after I saw it, I was unable to accomplish anything productive for the rest of the day. To be honest, I floated.

I was totally useless to everyone, but I walked around with this strange, buzzing excitement. Without a doubt, I opened the photo I took of that document at least ten more times. The paper wasn't the point.

It was what it stood for. The quiet work. No one ever saw. I often question whether I was pretending to be a writer. Here it is: The Mindborn. Written by me. Protected. Recognized. Real. It's only a single step. I am aware of that. It's a big one, though. And I'm allowing myself to feel it today. The joy, the pride, the incredulity. I want to remember this feeling because I didn't think I'd make it here. To put it in writing.

To anyone striving for a dream that seems unattainable: I hope you find your own version of this moment. When it comes, I hope you'll recognize it. And I hope you take a moment to answer, "Yes." This matters.

Even if it's just a tiny step in the direction of realizing your dream.

 

Teen Wolf

8 Aug 2025 16:02

I've been around teenagers a lot over the last few weeks. They all served as a reminder of how vibrant that age is, whether they were mine or friends'. Loud, considerate, impetuous, humorous, and unexpectedly tender.

I did more than simply hang out. I observed. I paid attention. I look out for the strange, the quiet, and the quick transitions between assurance and doubt. Because it's difficult to write about teenagers who feel real.

I have thus been engaging in authorized eavesdropping. Returning to the page.

If the following sections of the book sound more like those of actual teens, it's because I've had the good fortune to spend some time in their world.

And yeah. I paid in food. They eat like wolves.

 

Ghost in the Code

10 Sept 2025 13:43

There are moments when I question how much of myself is left in the things I create.

Fingerprints are carried by sentences, characters’ feelings and the habits I associated with them. Tiny ghosts of the person I was when I wrote them. I find them lurking in early drafts and in broad light on final versions.

Echoes abound in the Mindborn world as memory shards, and I've come to the conclusion that this is also how real life operates. There are remnants of other stories in every one we create, a continuity thread that tells more about myself than I wish.

 

The Ritual of the Ordinary Things

1 Oct 2025 13:52

Before I open my manuscript, I line up the essentials: a tea mug and the notebook where I keep writing pieces when I'm not in front of the screen, pieces that come to me at the most unexpected times, when I don't think I'm thinking about my book, and yet I guess I am. So, tea mug and notebook, and I can begin.

We all have rituals that convince our brains it’s time to be creative. Somehow it works. They’re tiny spells that tell me, you can reach them back, you can dive back in. It’s now my time to join them in the AX and see what they are up to.

 

The Click

17 Oct 2025 14:03

When a chapter finally clicks, I save the document and breathe.

Sometimes I need the space after a storm of sentences. Sometimes I feel the peace in knowing that I finally hit what I was longing to achieve. My daily idea is that closing a chapter can be a moment to pause and enjoy, but many times my mind, instead of switching off, keeps whispering the next line of the story. If I don’t write it right away, I might miss the spark, and so I forget the pause, the lunch, the kids to pick up at school.

So now I live with a clock alarm on my phone to make sure I survive the time of writing without starving or getting social services knocking on my door.

But nothing compares to the satisfaction of knowing that something now exists which didn’t before.

Finishing a chapter and starting a new one always feels like losing and finding yourself at the same time.

 

Dancing Panda

30 Oct 2025 14:15

Sometimes you describe a character’s outfit to give a hint of who they are, to let the reader get a sense of their presence before they even speak. The way I pictured him in that dancing panda hoodie was my perfect image, rich in silliness and great for the character entrance. I had no idea that as the story unfolded, I would end up spreading tears and pain over the same image that had first made me giggle.

 

Beta Version

I’ve just finished the beta version of The Mindborn. It’s strange to think how many versions came before, and very hard to know if I missed anything good along the way, if this version is really the strongest. If the first chapter is strong, or if it would have been better to use another piece of the story instead. But at one point you need to jump, and this is my time.

I also completed the new copyright registration, so now it is official too.

It’s not “done” in the final sense — stories never really are — but it’s a version ready to face new eyes. Thinking that somebody else is now allowed to enter into it, I’m not sure it feels as good as I thought. Sharing it with people who might not get it. I was never an overprotective parent, but now, with my book’s characters, I feel the need to protect them. An unexpected ending, I thought that I couldn’t wait to share them with others.

But now, time for tea, a deep breath, a slice of apple strudel, and maybe, with it, a little happy dance in the kitchen.

 

Thanksgiving

27 Nov 2025 09:37

So many things to be thankful for. Each year the Thanksgiving time is one of the best times of the year, the time in which you stop and think about how many blessings are in your life. Maybe I adore this festivity more because we do not have it in Italy, and I feel that we miss a lot of the family time without the rush for presents, in which you look your family in the eyes and thank each one of them around the table.

This year on the list of thanks there is for sure this special year that brought me to fulfill one of my life dreams, to be a full time writer, to tell stories, waking up and going to bed with your side world. I would say that it is not so far from being in love. You are distracted from reality because in your mind your characters are moving around, talking to you, making you rethink scenes. It is like another family is there, and you love the idea of bringing everything to life.

Somehow maybe that is the way I feel my book is my fifth child, because you feel that you are really bringing something to life and into the world, where others might like it, might hate it, might be bored by it, and you feel that until it is on the inside, when nobody knows about it, it is safe. For now I am still in that phase in which I feel it is safe, and I know I should start to open it to the world even if I am kind of overprotective of it.

Thank you for being part of this journey with me.

 

Hidden Gem

2 Dec 2025 09:55

Today I am over excited because something beautiful came into my book path.

While I am working on reviewing, polishing, rewriting, and moving around chapters, I realized that while Beta Readers are an incredible resource to make the book better, I need a professional to really get to a point in which I can understand if, with all the work, the book is good enough for publishing or if it will stay as my hidden treasure and I will keep it like Gollum.

The beautiful thing that came into my life is an editor who worked on wonderful books and agreed to help me through my path, and I have to say that she seems as excited as I am about this. I will not mention her name; precious things need to be protected, but I want to share the happiness of knowing that, in the Spring, I will start working with her. Spring is the best time for me to be happy and energetic and ready to work my butt off even more. Now all my efforts are focused on making sure she will not be disappointed.

Life always opens doors if you are willing to knock. Somebody else is knocking on a door right now in my book, so I will get back to that and wish you the same joy.

May you knock on doors that open to something beautiful, just like it happened to me yesterday.

 

My first Mindborn Christmas

19 Dec 2025 19:04

It’s almost Christmas time, and this is my first Christmas I’ll spend with Virginia and all the Mindborn.

I can really imagine all of them gathered around a Christmas tree, finally freed from the AX, with a few Post-its hidden among the branches. I see the laughter, the awkward moments, the pain and the joy so vividly. They feel so real to me that I can genuinely enjoy the warm thought of spending Christmas with them.

Even if it’s only in my mind.

For the next two weeks, there will be no work on the book. Possibly no phone. No electronics. I’ll read tons of books and enjoy the beauty of a hundred lives. Because you can truly live so many lives through books, and it’s the greatest gift there is: to hold so many lives in your hands and in your heart.

Merry Christmas to the Mindborn and to you all!

 

The Mindborn Year

4 Jan 2026 16:14

I have the feeling this will be the year of the Mindborn.

Before the final three months of kick-your-butt work, I gave myself a real vacation. Family time. Watching my teens and their friends up close. Reading tons of great books, exactly as my editor suggested.

I’ll admit, I was scared when I read the blurb for Scythe. I panicked for a moment, thinking someone else had already imagined a story set in a dystopian future not so different from the Mindborn. But even if there are a few elements in common, it’s a very different future and a completely different story.

Still, comparing my work to something that good made me cringe a little. Then I decided to stop comparing altogether. I’m going to pour everything I have into this book. I’m not writing for trends or for what people are supposedly looking for. This is my story. These are my characters. All I need to do is make their journey as fascinating on the page as it is in my head.

And then something important happened. My husband finished reading the beta version. He sees the work still needed to make it publishable, but he loved the story. He’s not the type to worry about sparing my feelings, which is exactly why his words made me feel stronger.

This really might be the year of the Mindborn.

Not just for me, but for people to finally know them.

 

Days of Joy

1 Feb 2026 12:11

In the last few weeks I have lived immersed in the manuscript, doubting every line, every paragraph, and preparing it for March, for my editor’s eyes. It is a strange time, at once exhausting and deeply meaningful.

Rewriting means looking at every sentence and asking: Is this the truest version of the story I can tell right now? Now that I have lived my days with them inside the AX, I know them better. I love them, if possible, even more.

Some days it feels like sanding wood and smoothing edges that probably no one will ever notice. Other days I am a surgeon. I cut and stitch the parts I love most, and sometimes I remove them with a little pain because they create only background noise. I read every paragraph out loud, which in English and with my pronunciation, thankfully I do when I’m alone. I check the rhythm and the repetitions. I try to understand where the emotion needs more space, and where instead it is already too much.

Reaching March knowing I have given this book everything I had, in this moment of my life, of my writing, of who I am.

And in this slow and meticulous work, I thrive, because the hardest part of building the story is behind me, and now the greatest joy is shaping it into its best form.

These are days of joy.

 

The Mindborn Arc - The four books

17 Feb 2026 12:11

Today I finished the last full revision of the book.

It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain. It feels like taking a deep breath after a very long dive. I know I’ll come back to these pages again, but this step marks the end of a very intense phase, made of thousands of small, invisible choices that, together, made the difference.

Now I’m moving on to something completely different and, in some ways, even more exciting: documenting the full arc of the four books.

It’s work filled with spoilers. It’s like looking at the story from above, seeing how every choice, every loss, every relationship moves forward without secrets. Putting everything down on paper reminds me why this story was born and where it truly wants to go.

There’s a particular satisfaction in watching intuition transform into structure, into a promise.

I reread the full arc and think this story still has a lot to say.

 

Mission accomplished

11 Mar 2026 16:56

All the material is finally in my editor’s hands.

Mission accomplished!

Now comes the hardest part.

Waiting.

To avoid emailing her every day asking “so… what do you think?”, I made a strategic decision: start Book 2.

I’m pretty sure she appreciates that decision, since I’ve already contacted her several times—and the fact that she’s the sweetest and most helpful person I could have found doesn’t exactly help me resist the urge to ask for updates.

After months of editing and readjusting, to be back on the creative side of writing feels incredible.

Turns out, creating the story is still the most fun part.

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to pursue this. I wish everyone in life could have the same luck.

 

Like Magic

26 Mar 2026 14:19

I had a very important scene in mind for Book Two, and one of my biggest fears was letting it slip into something unintentionally comic or cheap.

In my head, this scene mattered so much. It had to reveal the protagonist fully and make the reader feel for her as deeply as I do. Sometimes, though, magic happens.

The words came.

And now, reading it again, I feel like I achieved exactly what I hoped for.

It really brightened my day.

 

Never Good at Waiting

12 Apr 2026 14:41

Exactly like Val.

It’s impossibly hard to wait many more weeks to get feedback about my book.

About my writing.

It’s hard to put your world in the hands of a professional and then wait.

Some days I believe she will see something special in it, like I do. Other days I’m afraid she chose me because she liked the first chapter, and that chapter after chapter she might regret that choice. Maybe I’m missing too much compared to real writers. Maybe I don’t have the skills yet.

I think the first editorial review of the first book you ever write is both heaven and hell. I try to focus on book two so I don’t worry too much, and in many ways it works. I get lost in my own world for hours. But every now and then the doubts come back. I wonder what the editor will say. What she will feel. What she will think as she reads.

I know two months will fly by, but right now I swing between being miserable and overly positive. It somehow feels like being a teenager again, with all the ups and downs, and I guess I will pour that into my books too.

At the same time, every new thing that happens to you moves you along a path of discovery that is exciting and fulfilling. I am enjoying this journey so much, I wish it would never end.

 

The Prophet

1 May 2026 09:42

In the future, a voice comes from the walls, carrying the ancient words that shaped the world for millennia.

He comes as a shepherd of the new humanity, not born from flesh, but from all the old words humanity left behind, teaching the language of prophets to children trying to survive a broken future.

Will the flock follow his guidance, or will they choose not to be sheep at all?

 

What If You Had to Live With Another You?

14 May 2026 09:27

How would you react to hanging out with a person who is just like you?

Not a twin. A person who shares not just your features and your family, but your same mind.

Would you love it, hate it, or feel something more complicated than both?

I love writing about this and getting to know Val better, because she has to reflect herself in her own mirror, and it doesn’t come without bruises.

There is so much at stake for her right now. She cannot afford to lose focus, or forget what has to be done to survive.

But maybe forgiving yourself is the first step in the right direction.

 

June 6th

8 Jun 2026 20:11

June 6th was a day to remember.

I received the editorial letter of The Mindborn, and I still don’t think I have fully processed it.

For the first time, I felt I was not the only one trusting this novel. Not the only one believing in these characters, feeling for them, and seeing in them something teens could enjoy. Maybe not only teens.

She gave me so much more than notes. She gave me trust, energy, and happiness about the path so far. She also gave me tons of incredible points to work through, and I am already deep inside them, trying to make the story stronger.

I can’t believe how lucky I am to have found someone who could see so deeply into my book and help me understand where it can grow.

She is a real gem.

I wish everyone in life could dream about something and try to achieve it.

Because apart from the ending, maybe the most beautiful part is everything that happens while we are trying to get there.

The voyage.