2025 has been an amazing year for me and my book, MAYA BLUE A MEMOIR OF SURVIVAL. I’m excited to say MAYA BLUE was nominated for the prestigious 2025 Kirkus Prize. It was chosen as one of Maria Shriver’s 2025 Best Summer Reads, received the 2025 Readers’ Favorite Bronze Award, and was named one of Kirkus’s 100 Best Books of 2025. “One of the year’s most thrilling reads.” “A page-turner.” “Brenda Coffee’s harrowing story of survival took my breath away.” “This is one you won’t forget.” 

If that’s not exciting enough, we’re talking with Hollywood about making MAYA BLUE into a film or a bingeworthy TV series. 

If you’ve read, or listened to the audiobook of MAYA BLUE, and perhaps posted a review on Amazon and/or GoodReads, I send you a heartfelt Thank You! If you haven’t read MAYA BLUE, it’s WORKING GIRL meets TAKEN, a memoir that reads like a thriller, and in the end, I’m the last one standing. A true story of love, cocaine, Big Tobacco, abduction, and survival. It’s a book that resonates with men as much as women, and I’m honored to say, I’ve heard from hundreds of you. 

My year has been a whirlwind with a book tour, TV and media interviews, podcasts, speaking engagements at galas, retreats, bookstores, private homes in Beverly Hills, and a hotel suite so big I got lost in it. Glamorous, you ask? LOL! No, but I wouldn’t trade the journey for anything.

The best thing to come out of MAYA BLUE is the wide range of people I’ve met and spent time with—some I’ve wanted to meet for a long time, and many of whom I’ll never forget, especially the people who traveled long distances to come to my book signings. But the truth is, the actual journey to a finished book, a literary agent, and a publisher, is filled with doubt and long, solitary hours in front of a computer, the input of trusted, first-rate book editors, followed by multiple rewrites, and the support of friends and fellow writers who encourage you to keep writing. And that’s not half the journey! Not by a long shot.

If you’re a library, looking for a great book to buy, a bookclub who’d like me to visit your group via Zoom, or you’d like to order a copy of MAYA BLUE A MEMOIR OF SURVIVAL, here’s a link to my author website.

And to everyone who’s thought about writing a book. . . It’s one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do, but it’s worth it. Without a doubt, go for it!