I never expected this.

Today my Substack reached #97 in Best Selling Fiction and #5 on Rising, and it feels surreal to even type those words. When I started writing this series, it came from a place of holding on to a story I was not ready to let go of.

When The Summer I Turned Pretty ended, I felt that ache of wanting more. More depth, more perspective, more time inside the characters, especially Conrad. I was not ready to close that chapter, so I did the only thing that felt right. I wrote my own version. I wrote the story I wanted to keep living in. I wrote the fanfiction that became Conrad’s Version.

I thought a few people might read it. I never imagined a whole community would gather around it, talk about it, feel it, and follow along as it grew into something bigger than a rewrite. It has become a world of its own.

Seeing this story break into the top 100 is more than a chart placement. It is proof that something I created from pure love and longing reached people who felt that same pull.

If you are new here, welcome. This space is where I explore the emotional spine of TSITP through Conrad’s eyes. It is thoughtful, slow, cinematic, and character driven, and it has become one of the most meaningful creative projects of my life.

Thank you to everyone who reads, subscribes, comments, shares, and holds this story with me. You have turned something I once wrote in quiet into something I now get to share with thousands of you.

I am grateful for every one of you who let me keep living inside this world a little longer.

Cyndy