John Hulsey, Author

  About the Author John Hulsey is an author, essayist, and lifelong storyteller whose work blends emotional honesty with a deep curiosity about the hidden corners of the human experience. By day, he serves as a Union Leader and a staunch advocate for the importance of mental health, fighting for dignity, support, and visibility for the people he represents. By night, he writes in response to whatever inspiration finds him, shaping stories that explore identity, advocacy, and the fragile threads that connect us across time. His blog, SanDiegoJohn , is home to his candid reflections on life, resilience, and the world around him. His previous book, Mindful Living: Nurturing Positive Mental Health , established him as a compassionate and accessible voice in the conversation around emotional well‑being. A Century to Forget is his debut work of fiction, a novel he spent three years crafting with equal parts obsession and love. He lives in San Diego with Ric, his husband of nearly thr...

Three years. That is how long I have been wrestling with this book. Three years of late nights, early mornings, breakthroughs, setbacks, and moments when I almost walked away from it entirely. But I did not. I kept going. And now I finally get to say the words I have been dreaming of. My book, A Century to Forget , will be published through Amazon and available on Kindle and in paperback on June 1, 2026. This story has been a labor of love from the very beginning. I am proud of it. I am proud of the work. And I am finally ready to share it with the world. Thank you to every author who shared their own work. You all inspired me to take this chance.

I’ve spent most of my life being harder on myself than anyone else ever could be. And let’s be real: that’s saying something, because the world isn’t exactly gentle with people like us. But somewhere along the way - between the chaos of my twenties, the grief of the 80s, the slow burn of adulthood, and the ongoing wrestling match with depression and anxiety - I realized something I wish I’d learned decades earlier. Being kind to yourself isn’t indulgent. It isn’t selfish. It isn’t weakness. It’s survival. And yet, it’s one of the hardest damn things to do. We’re taught from a young age to push, to strive, to hustle, to “be strong,” to “shake it off,” to “get over it.” We’re told that rest is laziness, that vulnerability is embarrassing, that asking for help is some kind of moral failure. And if you grow up queer in the era I did, you learn to armor up even more. You learn to anticipate judgment before it arrives. You learn to apologize for taking up space. You learn to turn the kn...