In 2016, I had just self-published a personal essay about getting sober when I heard a podcast interview with Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild: “If you write a novel, readers will love or hate your main character,” she said. “If you write a memoir, they will love or hate you.” I had self-published the essay after many, many rejections, which was par for the course for me at the time. So while Strayed’s words made sense, it was hard to imagine them applying to me.