One year ago today, Tiger in a Lifeboat officially entered the world.
That sentence still feels surreal to write.
This debut spiritual memoir began as scattered notes, journal entries, late-night realizations, and questions I wasn’t sure I even wanted answered. Somewhere along the way, it became a story. Then somehow, through grace and grit teeth, it became a real book sitting on real shelves in real homes.
Over the last year, I’ve received messages from readers who felt seen in its pages. People navigating grief, faith, doubt, trauma, reconstruction, hope, healing, and all the strange terrain in between. Some of you highlighted passages. Some of you argued with parts of it. Some of you cried through chapters I almost didn’t include.
Every response has meant more to me than I can say.
I’ve also realized something unexpected this year: once a book leaves your hands, it no longer belongs only to you. Readers carry it into their own stories, and it becomes something larger, stranger, and more alive than you, the author, could have planned.
Looking back at these photos from launch night feels emotional in the best way. That evening was full of celebration and a realization that the story was no longer “mine.”
It belonged to the world, and I was honored to open my hands and release it.
And because this anniversary feels like the right moment to revisit the journey, I’m excited to announce something new:
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting a Tiger in a Lifeboat read-along series here on Substack.
I’ll be breaking the book into three sections and sharing behind-the-scenes reflections, deleted thoughts, additional context, photos and videos from the actual events in the memoir, writing insights, and even a reading soundtrack that shaped the atmosphere of the book while I was drafting it. I shared a lot of these fun extras with my launch team, and now I’m excited to share them with you.
👉 The first one drops Saturday, May 9th.
If you’ve already read the book, I hope the read-along posts give you a deeper window into the story behind the story.
If you’ve been meaning to read it, this might be the perfect time to jump in with us.
Thank you for carrying this book with me over the last year. Truly. 🧡
Hey y’all, I’m Lauren: a doubtful-yet-hopeful Jesus person writing through the messy middle of faith, hope, and humanity. My debut memoir, Tiger in a Lifeboat, about trauma recovery and faith deconstruction set against the backdrop of my time in India, is out now wherever you buy books.
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