Peters Township grad’s second book explores love against backdrop of pandemic
A year after having her first book published, Nicole Spindler is well on her way to completing another.
The Peters Township High School graduate’s “Beyond Life’s Moments,” a memoir influenced by her father’s journey through battling cancer, shares the stories of others who have overcome adversity.
For the follow-up, “The Reason Why,” Spindler explores a similar theme.
“It builds off this idea of really trying to bring life’s challenging chapters to light,” she said. “With my writing, that’s what I want to do. I really want to highlight different stages, different moments in our lives that are universal. They’re all common among us, but some people just don’t have the courage to talk about them.”
Copies of “The Reason Why” by Nicole Spindler are displayed.
Her approach this time around takes a turn away from nonfiction, as protagonist Emma Cantor balances a full-time job and her songwriting talent to find fulfillment in her life.
“I think this book is definitely a challenge for me,” Spindler said. “I was ready to write a fiction novel, completely third-person, create these characters and their backstories.”
As for Emma, she bears more than a passing resemblance to her creator: In addition to writing books, Spindler has a career working in human resources.
“I’m pulling inspiration from my life, other people’s lives, and really kind of answering this question of, can you ever really fall in love with someone else before you fall in love with your own life first?” she said. “Love – in terms of friendships, family, even relationships – is something universal. It’s something we all have.
“And obviously, love is usually talked about in romance novels and typical love stories,” the South Hills resident continued. “But I wanted to kind of take a different approach to the topic of love and focus on really the most important form of love: love for yourself, for your own life.”
“The Reason Why” is set in the Pittsburgh area against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on dating and dealing with various other pressures.
“I really just want to hit home with a lot of people, and I feel like especially with the pandemic, with people craving human interaction and connection, there’s no better time than right now to talk about this topic,” Spindler said.
“A lot of my friends have come to me sharing during COVID: ‘I’ve struggled with maintaining family relationships and friendships, and trying to date in COVID. And it sucks.’ These are some of the conversations my demographic is talking about, and I feel it’s a really great idea to start writing about this.”
Among the pressures she addresses are those stemming from social media and its tendency to make users “feel like we’re not good enough.”
“A lot of people post weddings. They post engagements and all these amazing, exciting updates, which is wonderful, because that’s all good news,” she said. “But, honestly, that’s all you see.”
Reading such material, though, can produce a negative effect.
“People feel like they’re alone. They’re left out. They’re missing out. And that has a really huge impact on people’s mental health,” Spindler said. “We look at social media and think that’s everyone else in the world. But in fact, there are actually more people who are single. There are more people who are looking for someone.”
Her recommendation is to try looking within.
“We’re putting all these crazy expectations on ourselves, that we have to mold ourselves to be a certain way, but not really recognizing that the way you are is amazing,” she said. “Embrace your imperfections. Embrace your quirks and qualities, because once you do that, you will be able to open up love for your family, for your friends and obviously for a future soulmate or partner.”
Plans call for New Degree Press of Potomac, Md., which published “Beyond Life’s Moments,” to do the same with “The Reason Why” in late May. In the meantime, the publisher is working with the author to develop an interactive preorder effort.
“You actually get a behind-the-scenes look, for three or four months, about what it’s like to publish a book. What’s it like to revise?” Spindler said. “You get to help me pick out my cover. You get to read sneak peaks of my book, a couple of early chapters.”
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