Taking time and space to step away from the day-to-day has always been where my soul breathes deepest—and where my biggest ideas find me. India, you’ve done just that. Many of you know that after writing 40 non-fiction books, I spent much of last year trying to crack the fiction code. I honestly thought it might be the one creative challenge I couldn’t conquer. But after months of training myself, testing, trying, and rewriting, I finally completed the first draft of my very first novel a little over a month ago—and I’m beyond proud. What I didn’t expect was how much I’d fall in love with one of the side characters from that book. So much so, that here in India, I started writing her very own spin-off novel. And now, almost 20,000 words in, I’m more creatively lit up than I’ve felt in years. Fiction has surprised me in the best way. I used to hear writers talk about characters “coming to them,” and I never really understood it—until now. There’s such joy in escaping into other worl...