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Second-Chance Stories

February 3, 2026 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

by Lindsey Goldstein

I became a reader at the age of four. Books accompanied me everywhere—to the dinner table, into the bath, to my bed with a flashlight under the covers, and in the car when I accompanied my mother on her many errands. But I never considered myself a writer.

In college, I willed myself to find the courage to apply for creative writing courses, but assuming I’d be rejected, I never tried. The urge to tell stories followed me after college, when I pursued a career in the film industry. Eventually, I landed a job in film development, where I listened to others pitch me stories and helped them develop their ideas into viable screenplays. A creative friend and I took a chance and wrote one of our own. Inventing a story entirely from our minds and jotting the words onto paper fueled my desire to write, but after some interest in our screenplay amounted to nothing, my confidence waned.

It was only years later, after I left the film industry, completed a doctorate in physical therapy, and approached the age of forty, that the notion of writing crossed my mind again. What did I have to lose? I had self-rejected for so many years by not writing that the idea of writing something and having it rejected no longer scared me. And I’d lived enough years to know that having someone say “no” to me wasn’t necessarily a deterrent, but more of a fork in the road. I’d changed careers twice, I’d briefly married only to divorce, and I’d eventually married again after going on far too many bad dates. I was no stranger to deviations from the plan.

Initially, I wrote essays and submitted them to various places. A few were published, so I kept going. It was when the editor of the Modern Love column at The New York Times emailed me to say, “I like this,” that I decided to try my hand at a novel. Finally feeling validated enough to believe I could string some words together, I submitted that novel to agents. Granted, I had no idea what I was doing. I was rejected about fifty times before I took the initiative to figure out what I was doing wrong.

As it turned out, everything. I wrote another novel, but instead of relying only on myself, I found readers to offer feedback. Based on their critique, I revised, and I revised again. I joined writing groups and online forums, and I took classes. Unlike my first novel, agents requested to read the second one but ultimately passed. I wrote a third novel. I revised that one roughly eighty times (only a slight exaggeration) and found an agent to submit it to publishers. Sixteen editors passed, and the agent and I parted ways—a story best saved for another time. After committing to some research, I submitted the novel to a small press. It only took eleven years, but I finally got my yes. That novel, Gap Year, will be released on February 3, 2026.

As anyone could imagine, I enjoy writing second-chance stories. When I started writing, I gave myself carte blanche to embark on something I loved, no matter the outcome. My inspiration for writing my protagonist, Jane Greenberg, stemmed from my belief in the ability to reinvent oneself at any juncture in our lives. Seizing a second chance is not a unique story, but the way we reinvent ourselves is.

My character, Jane, embarks on an adult version of a gap year in Ecuador to climb a volcano she’d long wanted to climb and finally visit the Galápagos Islands. Once a budding ecologist, she’d let her dreams go when she married and had her child, committing herself to motherhood and a more practical path as a CPA to help support the family. When her daughter leaves home and her husband confesses to an affair, Jane sees nothing stopping her from realizing her own dream and reinventing herself in the second chapter of her life.

Suffice it to say, Jane encounters obstacles in her quest to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. But no one ever said second chances come easily. Jane must navigate the end of a marriage, the natural evolution of a parental relationship with a child seeking more independence, and the path to the top of a nearly twenty-thousand-foot volcano.

Early readers have asked me whether Gap Year is autobiographical. The answer is no. Though I lived in Ecuador many years ago and loved revisiting the country, even if only in my imagination, I am not Jane. That said, I believe her experience is relatable because so many (particularly women) face the same questions as Jane when our children no longer need us in the same way, or when our relationships either falter or dissolve. Jane’s volcano is a metaphor for getting through an experience that may seem insurmountable and for knowing that we are strong enough to reach the other side and live the next stage of our lives. Though Jane’s and my journeys are disparate, the quest has always been the same—to figure out or even rediscover who we really are when life takes a sudden turn.

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Lindsey Goldstein is the author of GAP YEAR. Her essays about love and parenting have appeared in The New York Times, The Chicago Story Press, Kveller, and The Sunlight Press. She lives in Irvine, CA with her husband, kids, and rescue mutt.

Find out more about Lindsey on her website https://www.lindseygoldsteinauthor.com/

Insta: @goldsteinlindsey

TikTok: @lindseygoldsteinauthor

GAP YEAR

Escape with Jane in a heartfelt and hilarious women’s fiction book about a woman redefining herself. 💖💫

It’s her turn to have the adventure of a lifetime…

Jane’s life is turned upside down within forty-eight hours: her only child leaves for a year abroad, her husband abandons her for another woman, and her boss issues her an ultimatum. She makes a bold, impulsive choice—she’s leaving it all behind for an adult version of her daughter’s “gap year.”

Once a hopeful young ecologist, Jane dreams of climbing a volcano and working in the Galapagos—but life got in the way. Now, nothing stands between her and the adventure she abandoned years ago.

Sleeping in a hostel bunk bed surrounded by people at least twenty years younger, she befriends Laura, a fellow traveler determined to scale the volcano. Together, they doggedly train for the summit. Jane also meets Mark, a charming tour guide whose quick wit and sparkling eyes threaten to derail her identity quest.

As Jane pushes her physical and emotional limits, she seeks answers to the burning question: “What the hell should I do with the rest of my life?”