A series of thoughts, memories, struggles, and celebrations. _ All photos are private property, shot by myself. All words are my own, typed out in whatever state I may be in. These words do not always reflect my true feelings, but just momentary ones. Do not let your thread break. You will be happy again.

Two strangers in their mid-sixties come together to turn their dreams into reality. Their three-year adventure takes them through extreme sailing in some of the wildest and most remote waters on the planet, and they do it in comfort and style. Many parts of this book read like Action/Adventure novels and, at times, Thrillers. Some of the experiences, both afloat and ashore, are so incredible that some might consider them Fantasies. But it all happened, and as the adventure unfolded, I wrote a blog that gained over 3,000 daily views and grew beyond a million words and over 2,500 images. This is a condensed rewrite of that blog, but with Wattpad's limit of twenty images per chapter, I've included only 2,450 here.

|PRE-PUBLICATION| |8X FEATURED · SPOLIGHT STORY| Saddened by her lonely life, a little girl named Victoria Christie uses her inventive imagination to write stories. Now that she's older, she must find a way to share her tale with the world. *** Victoria Christie never expected to be a writer, but everything changed in 4th grade when she annoyed her mother at a barber shop. She told Victoria to write in her school notebook, which sparked her daughter's life-long passion for writing. Now, many years later, Victoria is eager to share her story through an interactive novel that showcases how her writing has changed over time and what hardships she faced to keep her island of personality-especially after her brother's unfortunate death in 2021. With the power of writing and her brother's legacy about her becoming a successful author, will Victoria's old stories spark the interest of an audience? Will they interact with her and tell her how her incomplete pieces should end, or will Victoria remain an undiscovered author? This is an anthology of my old stories. Most are incomplete, so it's up to my audience to decide how they should end. This is the story of how I became Viktoria Fyodorova. Let the cringe begin! *** *Amazing cover by @Shreya_VA!* Word Count: 200,000-250,000

This book is about my experiences battling depression and anxiety in my every day life. It's my story of how I fell apart at the beginning of 2020 with no idea of what was happening, then I got diagnosed with severe depression and I had to start taking antidepressants and going for therapy. I share my experiences with therapy, how it helped me put things into perspective and connect the dots. I'm not in anyway an expert in Mental health nor do I try to give answers or advice on anything. This is just to inspire and create awareness on mental health and its issues.

All deaf people are the same, right? Absolutely, not! I believe I am one of a kind. This is the true story of a small town girl from Louisiana who has a very original life and you can decide for yourself if she should be labeled deaf, hearing, or nothing at all and just a person. She's different than the rest and is a little lost. All is true except for the names. Use the information if you want to write a story with a deaf backstory, or contact me if you have any questions.

Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road is a hilarious and heartfelt ride around the world, wherein the author eats dog, obsesses about chewing gum, gets stranded on an island, does dirty things, reveres rock n roll and muses about everything from death to Star Trek to the President Obama to jail time. Now available on Wattpad, Wayward has been a surprise hit at both iTunes and Amazon, reaching #1 on both retailers' travel charts. It chronicles a year in the life of the author, who lived in 12 countries over 12 months, one month at a time. It's kind of funny, kind of sad and kind of weird. Forbes describes the book: "Wayward isn’t strictly a travelogue or a guide by any means. The book reads like a diary, with chapters dedicated to everything from watching Obama’s inauguration in an Argentinian bar, to viewing a dubbed version of the newest Star Trek film in France and trying to understand the plot despite not speaking French, to remembering the ecstasy and pain of his first love just before breaking up with his then-boyfriend in Berlin, to eating dog in Vietnam, to his experience working with Patti Smith in New York. Gates’ lively, conversational writing style bring all the disparate pieces together for an engaging, enjoyable read."

|5X FEATURED · SPOTLIGHT STORY| Learning to cope with death is one of the most challenging obstacles any of us have to face, especially if that death is unexpected. When your whole world has changed, what do you do to overcome grief and keep your loved one's memory alive? *** I never knew how much trauma can affect a person until after my older brother died unexpectedly on August 17th, 2021. I came out of the experience as not the Victoria I was used to, but the Victoria who now had a massive hole in her heart. I come from a long line of fighters. My family and I pulled off different strategies to help us move on from such a devastating death-strategies that I am going to share in this book. Sometimes, the best way to overcome grief is to write about it. After all, writing is an escape to a different world where I still have my Green Guardian. These pieces and pictures I'm going to share with you are not meant to depress anybody but to illustrate just how wonderful a person Matthew was. His story is sad, but it's a story of hope. His legacy remains in my heart today, and I want to share it because I know I'm not the only person who has lost somebody so unexpectedly. *** Ovid (on when his brother died): "iamque decem vitae frater geminaverat annos, cum perit, et coepi parte carere mei." ("And he had just doubled ten years of his life when he died, and with him, a part of me.") ⭐ Featured on @StoriesUndiscovered || Change in Reality Reading List. ⭐ Featured on @nonfiction || Personal Struggles, Essays, and Coping Reading Lists. ⭐ Featured on @nonfiction || Our #NonFicSpotlight (May Spotlight) Reading List. ⭐ Featured on @nonfiction || Past Spotlights Reading List. ⭐ Featured on @nonfiction || Memoir Reading List.