What if You Could Take a Midlife Gap Year (or just act like it)? (Ep 138)

What happens when the life you carefully built suddenly no longer fits? This week on Surfing the Quicksand, Kathy talks with novelist Lindsey Goldstein about reinvention, creativity, and the courage to start over in midlife. Lindsey’s debut novel, The Gap Year, follows Jane, a 46-year-old woman whose life unravels almost overnight: her daughter leaves for a traditional gap year abroad, her husband announces he’s leaving the marriage, and her career reaches a breaking point. In response, Jane does something wildly out of character: she boards a plane to Ecuador to pursue a decades-old dream of climbing Cotopaxi, one uncertain step at a time. But Lindsey’s own story mirrors many of the themes in the novel. An established physical therapist, Lindsey explored her hobby of writing seriously at 39, publishing essays in outlets including The New York Times Modern Love. Along the way, she wrote two unpublished novels before finally finding success with her third manuscript. In this conversation, she opens up about persistence, rejection, self-doubt, creative identity, and what it means to pursue a dream later in life. Kathy and Lindsey also explore: Why reinvention often requires action before confidence  The hidden business side of becoming a published author  Balancing creativity, motherhood, work, and ambition  The growing demand for stories centered on women in their 40s and 50s  How Ecuador became both the setting and emotional heartbeat of The Gap Year  Productivity, deadlines, and learning how you work best  The challenge of claiming a new identity, even after success  Whether you’re contemplating a leap, rediscovering yourself after years of caregiving, or wondering if it’s “too late” to try something new, this conversation is a reminder that reinvention rarely arrives fully planned. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is begin before you feel ready.  Resources and Mentions Buy Gap Year on Amazon (paid link): https://amzn.to/4dooYE4   Follow Lindsey:  Website: https://www.lindseygoldsteinauthor.com Instagram: @goldsteinlindsey Substack: lindseygoldstein.substack.com TikTok: @lindseygoldsteinauthor  About Lindsey Goldstein Lindsey Goldstein is a writer who started with essays on love and parenting, published in The New York Times, Sunlight Press, Chicago Story Press, and more. Her debut novel Gap Year, published in 2026 by Egret Lake Books, a story of self-discovery, reinvention, and courage.  Writing the book was inspired in many ways by her own life when the pandemic impact ground her career as a physical therapist to a halt, and as motherhood became her primary focus, and she faced questions about who she was and wanted to become. Lindsey lives with her family in Southern California.