If you read “Everything Will Be Okay” and felt inspired and reassured, read “Purple State.”

Over the years, I’ve been driven to write my mentoring books because I wanted all of my best advice to be in one place. As I set out to draft my new novel, “Purple State,” I wanted to help my characters — three women: Dot, Mary and Harper — live out those lessons in the story. They confront and address their quarter-life crises in a way that has the potential to set them up for career success and personal fulfillment.

In my nonfiction books, I talked about living with principles that make decision-making easier. And now in “Purple State,” I show what it costs to live by those principles — to have them tested, and to live with the consequences of your decisions.

That’s how I’ve bridged the two books.

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“Everything Will Be Okay” made it plain that life isn’t easy. It basically said, yes, there’s uncertainty in life, and you can manage that by being more resilient and trusting yourself — sticking to your values even when the path ahead isn’t clear. Especially then! It was a guidebook for navigating chaos with grace.

And that’s where I began with “Purple State.” The story takes place over a single year. Dot, Mary and Harper are each at a quarter-life crossroads. They have great ambition, but they’re being bruised by experience. They’re trying to reconcile what they thought they would be doing at this point in their lives with the lives that they’re actually living.

When given a chance to shake things up, Dot leaves behind the certainty of New York for a relationship and a career change she can’t fully control. Mary, grounded and pragmatic, must confront the limits of playing it safe. Harper, sharp but lacking confidence, discovers that independence without vulnerability can become its own kind of isolation.

Does that sound like you — or someone you know and love? That’s because I didn’t pull their problems out of thin air. These are the challenges I see young people dealing with all the time. And because I dealt with them myself. If there’s one thing you learn from both books, it’s that you aren’t alone in feeling this way. That you can find a way to navigate the daily back-and-forth between fear and faith, control and surrender, and ambition and connection.

Another truism of both books is that character matters more than circumstance. Who are you when no one is looking? “Purple State” takes that idea and tests it as the three friends figure out how to live for a year away from Manhattan while they’re in Wisconsin.

They’re deeply involved in a political campaign, and they all end up testing the limits of what is too confining, too comfortable and too far outside their plans. Along the way, they learn that love requires risk — just like their careers. And perhaps the safe choice isn’t the right one.

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The answer unfolds not in sweeping declarations, but in small, consequential decisions — the kind that shape a life more than any single dramatic moment ever could.

And at the center of it all is a simple but profound conclusion: love wins — if you let it.

“Everything Will Be Okay” teaches the power of staying grounded, showing up for your friends and protecting your integrity. Dot, Mary and Harper learn the same lessons.

In a cultural moment that often rewards cynicism and division, “Purple State” offers something both refreshing and necessary: the idea that we are not as far apart as we think, and that the most important decisions we make are not political, but personal. Who do we trust? Who do we stand by? Who do we choose to love?

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The setting — Wisconsin, a true “purple state” — is as symbolic as it is geographic. It reflects the emotional and ideological middle ground where most people live, even if the loudest voices suggest otherwise. It’s in that space that compromise, understanding and, ultimately, connection become possible.

For readers who appreciated the optimism of “Everything Will Be Okay,” “Purple State” offers a deeper, richer experience. It doesn’t just tell you what matters — it lets you feel it.

Make good decisions in your life. And then you’ll see — everything truly will be okay.

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Trick Williams has been one of WWE’s biggest rising stars since he was elevated to the main roster earlier this year.

Williams’ presentation – from his mink coat to his “lemon-pepper steppers” to his entrance music – has been able to capture pro wrestling fans’ attention for all the right reasons. He was able to earn his way into the United States Championship picture and will be going up against Sami Zayn for the title at WrestleMania 42 on Sunday.

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It will be Williams’ debut at WrestleMania, but he’s feeling at ease going into the match.

“I’m feeling good man, I’m on cloud nine,” he told Fox News Digital. “My family is coming to see me at my first WrestleMania. I’m facing Sami Zayn – the ‘gingerbread man.’

“It’s personal. No disrespect to Sami Zayn, a lotta disrespect, but no disrespect because he’s great in his own right. He’s definitely a future Hall of Famer, multiple championship runs and everything like that. But on Sunday night, Night 2, all that goes out the window. It’s Trick Willy time.”

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Williams said that his quick trajectory on the SmackDown roster and his appetite to be the best is why he has the edge going into the match.

“I’m hungry,” he said. “I haven’t been here before. Sami’s done this for a very, very long time. He still has things he wants to accomplish. But look, I’m hungrier than ever. I’ve fought my way to get into this position.

“They’re saying, ‘Oh this is a five-year thing for Trick, he ain’t that experienced.’ No, this is a 31-year thing. I’ve been training my whole life for this moment right here, for everybody to see on Sunday night. He doesn’t want it the way I want it. Everybody’s gonna see that.”

Zayn is one of the best pro wrestlers in the industry. While the crowd has turned on him in recent weeks, Zayn may be the favorite going into the match because he’s a veteran in the game.

WrestleMania Night 2 is set for Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium at 6 p.m. ET.

A life jacket worn by a Titanic survivor sold for more than $900,000 at auction Saturday, far exceeding expectations and highlighting the enduring fascination with the doomed ship.

The flotation device — believed to be one of only a handful of Titanic life jackets still in existence — was used by first-class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli during the ship’s 1912 sinking and was the only one of its kind ever offered at auction.

It sold for 670,000 pounds, or roughly $906,000, including fees, at Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in Devizes, England, to an unidentified telephone bidder.

The final price far surpassed its estimated range of about $339,000 to $475,000.

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Other items sold at the auction included a seat cushion from a Titanic lifeboat, which fetched about $527,000 and was purchased by the owners of Titanic museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri.

“These record-breaking prices illustrate the continuing interest in the Titanic story, and the respect for the passengers and crew whose stories are immortalized by these items of memorabilia,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.

Francatelli wore the life jacket as she boarded Lifeboat No. 1 with 11 others after the Titanic — described at the time as “practically unsinkable” — struck an iceberg just before midnight on April 14, 1912, off Newfoundland during its maiden voyage from England to New York.

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She and seven other survivors from the same lifeboat later signed the item.

Francatelli, then 22, had boarded the Titanic in France while working as a secretary to fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon and her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon.

She later recalled being helped into a life preserver and directed to the deck as lifeboats were lowered. Lifeboat No. 1, which had a capacity of 40, became controversial for failing to return to pick up additional survivors from the freezing Atlantic waters.

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The cream-colored life jacket, made of canvas with cork-filled sections, has been displayed at museums in the United States and Europe.

While the item fetched a high price, it fell short of the record for Titanic memorabilia. In 2024, a gold pocket watch given to the captain of the RMS Carpathia — the ship that rescued more than 700 survivors — sold for 1.56 million pounds, or nearly $2 million at the time.

Saturday’s auction took place 114 years after the Carpathia arrived in New York with Titanic survivors on April 18, 1912.

Fox News Digital’s Kelly McGreal and The Associated Press contributed to this report.