Jessica Salina of Seattle on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Jessica Salina. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What do you think others are secretly struggling with—but never say?
I think a lot of people struggle with mental health challenges, especially things like anxiety at the very least. It can be hard to even admit something is wrong to yourself, never mind to others, and so many people are conditioned to push it aside so they don’t seem weak, or struggle to ask for help. For me, I’ve had people tell me they forget I have complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) or fibromyalgia because I so often “seem fine.” How many people who aren’t as open with their struggles as I am are out there that “seem fine?”

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Jessica Salina, a romance author based out of the Seattle area in Washington state. STUCK ON THE SLOPES, my most recent release, is a romantic comedy where a former Olympic athlete and a burned out corporate girly team up to save a failing ski lodge (and fight tabloid rumors along the way). My debut novel, NOT MY TIME, is an award-nominated superhero romance novel and start of a completed four-book series. Next summer, my fantasy romance EYES OF MOLTEN SILVER hits shelves with my publisher, Conquest Publishing. It’s inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons campaign I recently was the Dungeon Master for.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I didn’t have a great childhood, and most of my friends were in online fandom communities. When I was in college, I wrote a lot of Star Wars fanfiction with some online friends. When my cat developed glaucoma and needed surgery for his eye removal that I couldn’t afford, one of my fanfiction friends put the call out to the community on the website we wrote fanfic on. So many fellow Star Wars fans who enjoyed our fanfiction donated to the GoFundMe that I couldn’t believe it, and was able to pay for the surgery. After a rough childhood and then being stalked in college, I was pretty jaded, but this helped me see the good that’s still in humanity and restored some of my faith.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
Being stalked in college was a big defining wound and a factor in my complex post-traumatic stress disorder developing. My family encouraged me to keep what happened to me a secret, like it was some big shame that I’d been abused by someone in that manner. After breaking ties with my toxic family members, though, I took my healing to the next level. I wrote it out. Writing it out allowed me to feel like I was taking my power back, and the end result was my debut novel, NOT MY TIME.

In that story, the protagonist Rory is saved by a superhero from a stalker, and then partners up with him to say thank you – not realizing that the hero is her best friend in disguise. I didn’t have a great support system when I was stalked, so there was something cathartic both about telling my story (even through a fictitious lens) after being encouraged to keep it under wraps, writing the support system I wished I’d had, and also writing the conclusion of Rory’s character arc.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
Carrie Fisher. She was the only celebrity death that really gutted me and that I cried over. As much as I love Star Wars, I really admired Carrie for Carrie, not Leia. Her tenacity, wit, and humor shine in her works and in interviews with her, and I’ve always appreciated her advocacy for mental health awareness. You’ve got to respect how open she was, and how much she worked to remove the stigma around these issues. If we all followed her example in being open about what we struggle with, I think we’d all be happier as a society. While my issues never stemmed from drug addiction, I felt surprisingly seen in her novel Postcards From The Edge.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
Sometimes, people misunderstand talking openly about mental health or disability struggles as “being negative” or having a “victim complex.” When the reality is, I don’t see myself as a victim, nor do I discuss those things through a negative lens necessarily. I think it’s important to be open about our struggles so people don’t feel like they’re alone. That’s my biggest goal. A lot of my romance novels have some form of mental health or disability representation because I don’t want people to feel alone and/or unworthy of love like I did during some of the lowest parts of my life.

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