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!

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!

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!

What Musical Awakening is About? 🎶

June is a concert photographer building her career, her identity, and a global music community on her blog.

Her musical awakening begins the moment she hears an up-and-coming British artist—Richmond Adams—for the first time.

What follows is a will-they-won’t-they story told through:

• blog posts

• social media

• and music

It’s about timing, creativity, and taking chances. For readers who miss tumblr-era music blogs and late-night playlists!

🌙 PREFACE

Hey Music Nerds!

I didn’t mean to turn my life into a record.

It just happened.

It started in fragments, blog posts I wrote too late at night, concert photographs I poured my life into, text messages I almost sent and then didn’t.

And then he entered. 

Which is where things begin to get complicated.

So instead of living in the unknown, I wrote it all down instead.

Not because I knew how it would end. 

But because I didn’t want to forget how it started. 

I told myself it was just music.

Until it wasn’t.

#ListenForYourself

💬 If You Made It This Far…

Thank you. Seriously.

I know this was a lot but I’m really excited about this project again and wanted to share it with you.

Let me know what you think in the comments 💛

And most importantly:

Don’t let a spark of inspiration slip away.

Keep creating.

x Meg

Enjoyed this post?

My debut novel Musical Awakening is now available on Kindle.

If you love:

🎶 Music-inspired stories
🎶 Slow-burn romance
🎶 Travel and creative ambition
🎶 Daisy Jones vibes
Check it out here → Musical Awakening

An American Anglophile Tries to Brew a Proper Cuppa! 🇬🇧🫖

✨ Author's note, July 2026: I wrote this post during my LA era, deep into my Anglophile obsession — the same era that inspired my debut novel Musical Awakening. June Snow, my protagonist, learns to drink proper British tea throughout the book (but gets blank stares from her love interest Richmond Adams' parents when she orders coffee instead during their first meeting 😂). If you love all things British and a slow burn music romance, this book was made for you. 📖

[Grab Musical Awakening on Amazon] | [Learn more at here]

Thanks to my obsession with everything British, my trip to the UK and my great online community, today I tried a lil experiment!  A WHILE ago my good friend my friend Lenny told me about Douglas Adams' proper tea making essay and today I FINALLY tried it!  Thank you unemployment! I didn't have time to be nervous because of all the photos I was taking...and I think I passed...see for yourself!!