If you’ve trusted me this far, we’re three stories in now.

You’ve met the characters. You know their rhythms. You probably already have favorites—people you recognize, people you worry about, people who make you laugh when you didn’t expect to.

I want you to know something important: I’m serious about this project.

These characters didn’t come from nowhere. Most of them came from love. Some came from loss. Some came from friendships that ended without warning or explanation.

David is real. I worked with him. Every strange, endearing, unhinged thing I write about him is true—or so close to true that I can’t separate it anymore. I don’t know how to reach him now, and I miss him. Writing him is how I remember him.

Stephanie is real too. We don’t speak anymore. It was one of those friendships that was incredible when it worked, and painful when it didn’t. I chose to remember the good version—the brilliant, resourceful, magnetic person she was when the world made sense. You met her in Episode Three.

Alta is also real. She’s my mother—reimagined. I’m going to say this once and then we’ll leave it in the story where it belongs: my mother disowned me. So I wrote a mother who believes her child is extraordinary. You can hear it every time she talks about Felix.

Pumpernickel was family. He’s gone now. Every day I used to ask him, “Are we friends today?” Sometimes he answered. Sometimes he didn’t. Until I stop missing him, I’m going to keep writing him alive.

I have plans for other characters. That’s all I’m saying for now.

If you’re enjoying Found Family 365, likes and hearts matter more than you think.

Next episode drops Monday, January 26: “The Best Birthday Call.”

And occasionally—just occasionally—I’ll break the wall like this and let you see where the stories come from.