Jennifer Gold

Jennifer Gold is the pen name of Washington writer Nicole J. Persun, whose novels examine second chances, family secrets, and the distance people create within relationships. Halfway to You follows ambitious podcaster Maggie Whitaker as she seeks an interview with reclusive novelist Ann Fawkes. Ann agrees only if her story remains off the record, but the account of a long-ago love affair, travel, and literary success begins to intersect with Maggie's own life. The novel moves across four decades and settings that include Italy, Greece, Thailand, New York, and Washington's San Juan Islands. Lake Union Publishing released Halfway to You in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats in April 2023. It was Gold's third novel, after The Ingredients of Us and Keep Me Afloat. By placing an interviewer opposite a writer who resists public explanation, Gold turns storytelling itself into part of the conflict: trust depends not only on uncovering a secret, but on deciding who has the right to share it.