Waltzing Through Chaos

A raw, unflinching memoir of survival, identity, and defiance.

Waltzing Through Chaos is the autobiography of a trans woman tracing her journey from a turbulent childhood in Houston through a chaotic young adulthood in rural Virginia. Written with dark humor and deliberate irreverence, the book moves through a life shaped by an alcoholic, violent father; an emotionally manipulative mother; and a family perpetually teetering on financial collapse.

Amid the chaos, the narrator emerges as a prodigious technical mind—writing her first licensed video game at nine, hacking school systems by seventh grade, and building ISP infrastructure as a teenager—while simultaneously navigating early signs of gender nonconformity she couldn’t yet name, sexual abuse, and an escalating relationship with drugs, reckless driving, and danger.

The memoir chronicles car crashes, FBI investigations, near-treason, LSD trips, poverty, betrayal, unexpected kindnesses, and the slow accumulation of scars both visible and invisible. It’s a story about learning to survive parents who were your worst bullies, discovering who you are when no one taught you that was allowed, and finding moments of joy and connection even when everything seems designed to break you.

Equal parts confession, reckoning, and dark comedy, Waltzing Through Chaos refuses to sanitize the messiness of a life lived at full volume—mistakes and all.