Brooke E. Rye is a retired software project manager who spent most of her adult life living in Long Beach, California, after growing up in the foothills of Northern California. She now lives with her husband Scott outside Boulder, Colorado, drawn to the Rocky Mountains for hiking, camping, cycling, and skiing. After decades managing timelines, expectations, and other people’s priorities, retirement arrived without a singular passion—or a clear script for what came next.
Her memoir grew out of that uncertainty. When she went looking for books about retirement, she found that most were written by men, for men, and focused narrowly on finances, aging, and estate planning. They left little room for lived experience in midlife or change, whether in the form of a move, an empty nest, or the end of a career.
When she is not writing, Brooke walks ready-to-be-adopted shelter dogs, practices piano, tries to grow tomatoes, and bakes bread. These ordinary pursuits—often awkward, imperfect, and ongoing—shape both her days and the perspective of her work. They reflect a central idea of her memoir: that reinvention does not require expertise or mastery, only a willingness to participate.
