Hope Alcocer was pretty much a writer from the time she figured out how to put pen to paper. What began as journaling at the wise age of five turned into a career at the continued instance of a professor. So Hope, who wasn’t one for the typical 9-to-5, began her literary career doing freelance work.
While Hope was successful, even branching out into marketing and PR, she found herself examining her life and her impact on the world around a year after graduating. “I was living within myself … focusing on the wrong things.” It was a low point that led Hope to scribble the idea for KHLOE magazine, written for women by women, on the back of a napkin. The entirely reader-contributed magazine was a global success, which is how we at I Want Her Job first met Hope. But then, more reflection (via her original IWHJ interview!) brought Hope to a new point, where she wanted to build something else entirely—a fictional chick lit book based on her real life.
The book, Where Hope Lies, was inspired by the popular Tumblr account Hope ran from 2010 to 2012 called Diary of an Army Girlfriend. (The Tumblog had to shutter when her now-ex-fiancee went on a secret mission.) Fast forward a few years, and there came a point where Hope was feeling broken—battling with PTSD—and feeling like her power was taken away. It was at this point that Hope fulfilled a lifelong dream and moved to New York City for a fresh start.
Read on to find out how Hope, “Took the bricks from the rubble my broken engagement left behind [and] built my own damn castle.”