Kelly Gilfiran, from Brentwood, Tennessee, is taking a year-long travel vacation to write her first book. Released under the pseudonym CK Collins, The Swipe Right Effect: The Power to Get Unstuck is a non-fiction creative memoir that highlights great advice from friends around the world.
Collins, who identifies herself as Kelly in the book, not only shares stories of her life before and after her divorce, but also shares interviews with nine other women who faced major life challenges.
“This book is an up-front effort to share with readers all the great advice I was given after a major life change,” Collins said.
“Hearing first-hand from friends in interviews allows readers to connect with them, read their stories, and absorb my life-changing advice.”
Collins and her friends hope to provide readers with ideas for returning to their own happiness. She describes the book as the moon reflecting the love light of others.
Interviews include stories of pain and rebirth from many forms of loss, including loss of friendships, children, spouses, and marriages. Their unified hope is that readers will find their way, their power, and their joy as they read their stories.
Collins settled temporarily in Middletown, Rhode Island, where she wrote the first part of a four-part series, and her next book focused on the impact of solo travel in her life. She shares stories about her own adventures, the people she met along the way, and what she learned from each culture.
“It has been a lifelong dream of mine to live by the sea, and walking the beach every day was the perfect setting to outline my book.
“But Tennessee has always been my home and I’m excited to be back in town to publish my book.”
Collins was an award-winning publisher and owner of Home Page Media Group, a hyperlocal news publisher in the Williamson County area. She sold her company and retired from the industry in 2021.
Believing that travel nourishes the soul and nurtures the mind and spirit, Collins embarked on a two-year travel sabbatical that included trips to Utah, Arizona’s Grand Canyon, Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and was 30. I sailed for days. Rally from Los Angeles to La Paz, Mexico.
In 2018 Collins hiked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in France and Spain, in 2019 he hiked part of the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire, and in 2022 he will be on his second Camino (or spiritual hike) in Portugal. I hiked
