Your Literary Travel Guide: Musical Awakening ✈️🌵🌴🇬🇧

Some books are set in one place. Musical Awakening is set in a feeling — and that feeling lives in a lot of places.

When I started writing June Snow's story, I wasn't consciously building a travel itinerary. I was writing from memory, from real places I had been, real corners I had sat in, real cities that had changed me. But looking back at the finished novel, I realize I had quietly mapped out an entire world — one that stretches from the high desert of New Mexico to the cobblestone streets of Oxford, from the California coast to the banks of the River Thames, and finally to Florence at golden hour.

If you've read Musical Awakening, this post is for you. And if you haven't — consider this your invitation to a world worth visiting. 🎶

What I Learned From My First Week of Book Sales (And Why You Should Do a Pre-Order) 📖💰

I want to talk about something debut authors don't discuss enough: the first week of sales.

Not to brag. Not to complain. But because when I was preparing to launch Musical Awakening, I couldn't find honest, specific information about what to expect — and I wish I had.

So here's my honest first week debrief. 📖

Who Is Richmond Adams? Meet the British Musician at the Heart of Musical Awakening 🎹🇬🇧

If you picked up a button at San Diego Comic Con, found your way here from Instagram, or stumbled onto this blog through a late night search — welcome. You're probably here because of two words on a small round button:

Richmond Adams.

So let's talk about him!

It Took Me Ten Years to Write Musical Awakening — Here's the Timeline 📖💖🎶

Musical Awakening didn't start as a novel.

It started as a letter I never sent.

14 Years of Blogging — To Whom It May Concern 💖

On July 27, 2012, I published my first blog post on The Nerdy Girlie.

I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew I had things to share and nowhere to share them.

Fourteen years later I'm sitting here with a stack of 30 signed copies of my debut novel on my kitchen counter, heading to San Diego Comic Con in less than two weeks, and I genuinely cannot believe the road that got me here.

So let's talk about it.

SDCC Photo Hunt 2026: We're Back Baby! 📸🚀

Happy San Diego Comic Con week! After a 10-year hiatus, the SDCC Photo Hunt is BACK BABY! 📸🎉

From 2013–2016, hundreds of you played along as we explored San Diego Comic-Con one photo at a time. Looking back at those photos now feels like opening a time capsule, so it only felt right to bring it back for SDCC 2026 after ten years!

 

Here's how to play:
📸 Snap as many photos from the list as you can throughout Comic-Con.
📲 Share them on Instagram using #SDCCPhotoHunt26.
🏷️ Tag @meganelvrum so I can see your adventures!

Whether you're attending for the first time, a returning veteran, or — like me — coming back after a decade away, I would love to see Comic Con through your eyes!

✨ Bonus challenge: Can you find Musical Awakening somewhere at the convention? (Hint... you just might. 😉📖)

Who's heading to Comic Con this year? Let me know in the comments! I'll see you nerds there on Friday 7/24! I'll be walking the floor all day!👾

PS. check out pasts years: 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016

The Book Review That Shook Me To The Core 📖😱

I have been writing on this blog since 2012.

Fourteen years of blog posts, concert recaps, dating stories, coffee shop confessions, Five Fandom Friday lists, and late night tweets about music that meant so much to me. Fourteen years of putting words out into the world and hoping someone somewhere felt less alone because of them.

What I didn't always know was who was reading.

10 Things Readers Might Not Notice in Musical Awakening 📖🎶💖

Musical Awakening was written in layers.

The story on the surface — June Snow, Richmond Adams, years of near-misses and music and longing — is the one you read. But underneath it, woven through every chapter and tweet and blog post, there's a whole other layer of detail that rewards the readers who are paying close attention.

Consider this your decoder ring. 🎶

Spoiler warning: this post discusses details from throughout the novel.

San Diego Comic Con Friday 7/24/2026 - Where I'll Be! 🙋🏻‍♀️📖🎶💖

I am so excited to be back at San Diego Comic Con after 11 years! I started in 2009 and went out with a bang in 2015 appearing on my first panel!

Then life got in the way, I moved to Denver, CO and my life completely changed. But that doesn't mean that SDCC wasn't still in my heart. I made so many friends and memories I cannot wait to catch back up!

11 years of 100 Cups of Coffee ✌🏼💖☕

Eleven years ago today, I started something called 100 Cups of Coffee as a fun Futurama fan project…#futuramaforever 🚀

At the time, I didn't know it would change my life.

I was standing at the beginning of a chapter I never planned for. 

Everything felt uncertain, and I could have chosen to hide and cry (there was a lot of that). Instead, I decided to start a beginning. Knowing that my life wasn't over...it was just changing.

One cup became another.

And somewhere along the way, this project became a place where I could write honestly about rebuilding, growing, and figuring out who I was becoming.

Eleven years later, 100 Cups of Coffee has grown into so much more than I ever imagined!

Musical Awakening The Paperback Is Here, I Can't Believe I Get To Say That! 📖🎶💖

Today is the day!

The Musical Awakening paperback is officially out in the world, and I have been sitting here trying to figure out how to write this post — the one I have been imagining for longer than I care to admit — and I keep coming back to the same feeling.

I can't believe this is real! But ten years later...here we are.

I'm Going Back to San Diego Comic Con After 11 Years & This Time I'm Bringing My Debut Novel 📖🎶💖

There are certain places that stay with you.

San Diego Comic Con is one of those places for me.

I attended SDCC for the first time in 2009, back when I was deep in my era as a blogger and photographer. I made friendships that will last a lifetime. The kind of experience that embeds itself in your memory and doesn't let go.

And then life happened, the way it does, and eleven years passed since my last con.

This July, I'm going back.

But this time? I'm not just going as a fan or a photographer or a blogger. I'm going as a debut author — and I'm bringing my book with me!

The San Diego Trolley, Dan Croll, & A Scene That Became Fiction 🚃

On May 3, 2014, I tagged along with the team from A Trolley Show for an intimate acoustic performance with Dan Croll and his band on board the San Diego Trolley. Squeezed into a trolley car, sun pouring through the windows, Dan and the band played "Maway" — and it's a morning I've never forgotten.

I didn't know it at the time, but that morning — the sunlight, the trolley packed with fans, an artist playing songs just for the people in that car — became one of my favorite scenes in Musical Awakening.

You were my Lamplight: Saying Goodbye to A Silent Film 💖🕯️

2026 Update: When I walked out of Larimer Lounge that night after seeing A Silent Film for the final time, I knew I was ready to move forward into a new chapter of life. But I had no idea I was carrying a novel with me. Musical Awakening — the story I didn't know I was already living — is available now on Amazon.

Exactly 5 years ago I heard the music that would change my life forever.

For my 30th birthday, I decided to go see a new band I had been obsessing over for a few months: A Silent Film. I lived in San Diego at the time and they came only a few days after my birthday, so I grabbed my girlfriends and we rocked out.

Exactly five years and a complete life 360 I'm saying goodbye.

Places That Inspired Musical Awakening ✈️

While the novel itself is fiction, many of the locations, feelings, and moments in Musical Awakening were inspired by places that left a lasting impression on me. Some I have called home. Some I have visited. 

These are the ones that found their way into June Snow's story.

Songs That Inspired Musical Awakening #ListenForYourself 🎶

All my life music has made imprints on my heart. From the very first song I remember hearing, Need You Tonight by INXS to boy bands, emo and then indie. Music is forever changing my soul and sometimes the direction of my life.

It is why I wrote Musical Awakening and here are the songs that inspired the book and the musician Richmond Adams.

The Story Behind June Snow 📖🎶💖

 

One question I've been asked since releasing Musical Awakening is...

"How much of June Snow is based on you?"

The answer is both simple and complicated...😂

My Self Publishing Journey Starts Here 📖

📖🎶 PURCHASE MUSICAL AWAKENING HERE! 📖🎶

I just finished, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and it completely inspired me to go back to one of my old manuscripts.

100 Cups of Coffee is done and I’m feeling pulled back into a project I started in late 2014: Musical Awakening

I stopped working on it in 2015 when 100 Cups of Coffee took over and honestly, that made it really easy to walk away.

But this past week I opened it again and…

I don’t hate it. LOL.

And like Elizabeth Gilbert says:

"Done is better than good."

So that’s the plan, finish it. My goal is two weeks. To re-read, re-edit and add to it.

Because let’s be real:

a lot of people start things…

very few actually finish them.

So I’m finishing this one and self publishing it. Click here to read a sneak peak!

How I Built a Morning Routine That Actually Sticks ☕️

Post Daylight Savings Time each year, I find it difficult to keep up with my routine. Two months in and this is how I finally got it back.

If you’re trying to rebuild your mornings too… this is for you ☕

Start small. Your Gentle Reset Guide was created by me to help you build routines that actually stick without overwhelming.

✨ journaling prompts
✨ simple routines
✨ mindset shifts

👉 start here and read more below!

What You REALLY Need When You Bring A Puppy Home 🐶

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share things I truly love and use in my own routines. ☕

Molly just hit six months old and I've been through all the feels these past three months.

😍 Heart eyes

😴 Tired

😔 Regret

🤯 Frustrated

🥰 Love

After all that and a LOT of training we are finally all getting our footing. When I look back we didn't need too much, just each other. Here are the things that I really helped get us through and that Molly loves and still use today.