Author Updates
The latest updates from SJ Hodges—covering new projects, upcoming releases, and life moments along the way
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Join Me March 25 – A Conversation About Life After Loss, A Note From SJ Hodges
March 18th, 2026
Hello Friends,
Life continues to twist and turn in surprising, and often beautiful, ways.
Over the next couple of months, you’ll be hearing more from me, beginning on March 25, when I’ll be sitting down with Jennifer Newberg from HopeHub for a conversation called Beautifully Real: His End Isn’t Your Ending.
We’ll be talking about the question so many widows face but rarely say out loud:
What do you do when the future you imagined has been obliterated?
How do you endure when you realize you still have days, months, and years ahead to fill?
Do you rebuild from the ashes or leave it all behind?
I’m really grateful to begin collaborating with HopeHub. Jennifer has created a protected online community where widows can gather and speak honestly - without the strange phenomenon many of us experience on social media: the DMs from “aspiring white knights,” otherwise known as the online widow-chasers.
So yes, this time, our conversation is only open to ladies.
You can learn more about HopeHub here:[link]
I hope you’ll join us on the 25th. I’ll be interviewed for the first 20 minutes, and then Jennifer will open the conversation for questions. It would mean a lot to see some familiar faces there.
With love,
Susan
How to Join the Conversation
To attend the event on March 25th, you’ll need to join HopeHub.
You can sign up here: https://itslifey.com/hopehub
They’ve generously offered my readers 30% off membership with the code: SJ30
Once you’re a member, you’ll be able to join us for the live conversation in the community. I’ll be interviewed for the first 20 minutes, and then Jennifer will open the conversation for questions and discussion.
Unfortunately, the conversation will not be streamed on Instagram, so HopeHub membership is the only way to attend.
I hope you’ll join us on the 25th. It would mean a lot to see some familiar names and faces in the conversation.
Jen Newberg,
Founder
Is a communications and partnerships executive, working in both the for-profit and non-profit spaces, with experience leading mission-driven campaigns for brands such as T-Mobile, Purina, Dove, Planet Fitness, and more. Her superpower is connecting people, and she specializes in building authentic, value-based connections. Drawing from her own journey through life transitions, and more specifically the loss of her husband in 2024, Jen founded It’s Lifey - to ensure that no widow ever has to feel alone. She believes there’s no playbook for life – but with community and shared experience, we can find our way through.
Find out more about It’s Lifey
55 Years, A Note From SJ Hodges
January 28th, 2026
Aloha Friends!
I often joke that I am on my 5th upgrade - that my operating system gets completely rewritten every ten (or so) years - and I become the “less glitchy” version of myself.
1.0 Susan was a little girl singing at church and dreaming of a life beyond WV.
2.0 Soozan was an actress/singer drinking and drugging her way through NYC.
3.0 Susan was an NYU grad hustling to launch her playwriting career.
4.0 SJ was a wife, new mom and TV showrunner in Los Angeles.
5.0 Susan was a widow in Hawaii, hiking and traveling the world with her daughter.
But since it’s my birthday today - I’m announcing the release of an unexpected 5.5 upgrade.
For my 55th year in this body, on this spinning rock, hurling through an infinite Universe, I will be revisiting my life in theater - not just as a playwright but as a performer.
(Eeek. Even typing those words makes my stomach swirl with fear.)
In August, I’ll be returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this time with my new play, ALREADY HERE.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Fringe, it is the largest gathering of all us theater-weirdos in the world. We all converge on Scotland for an entire month and run around like chickens to see the 4,000 productions happening from 10 am to 2 am every day. It is utter chaos and it is fantastic.
I will still be writing and sharing Uneven Ground with you. Book Two is nearly done and Book Three is on the whiteboard, ready to move from concept to page.
But I also invite you to join me on this journey back to Scotland, to share with you the new (and totally unplanned) ways that grief and healing express themselves in my life - and in Cecilia’s.
Cecilia turned 14 in November and this is a pivotal year. The year when she lives more of her life without Clayton than she had with him - and that’s been hard for me to accept. I see her growing (so tall and beautiful) and getting her portfolios together for high school admissions - it seems impossible seven years have passed without him, but here’s the proof: Ceci at 14. Time doing what time does.
She is determined to go away to boarding school, to an arts conservatory program where she will focus on animation and storytelling. I am ill-prepared for life as an empty nester. I wasn’t expecting Ceci to launch at 15. I’m doing my best to convince her to apply to LACHSA (LA’s high school for the arts) which would keep us together for four more years.
But Ceci is her mama’s daughter.
And I know that means she’s a dream-chaser.
She will soon be on her way.
Seems, maybe, we both are.
I appreciate your unwavering support and love as Cecilia and I continue to grow and evolve as artists and humans. I hope your 2026 brings you unexpected, somewhat terrifying, opportunities for magic as well.
Much Love,
Susan
