Jennifer Love Hewitt is ready to heal.

The 9-1-1 actress published her first memoir, Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration and Making Every Day Magical, on Dec. 10. It’s an intimate collection of memories of her late mother, Patricia, who died of cancer in 2012. Writing the book was a therapeutic experience for Hewitt, who spent nearly three years putting it together.

“I was ready to honor her in some way,” she told Yahoo Entertainment. The memoir includes rare family photographs, recipes and ways for people to add “magic” to their daily routines.

It also is the basis for the Lifetime Christmas movie The Holiday Junkie, which Hewitt directed and stars in alongside her real-life husband Brian Hallisay. (Their three children — Autumn, 11; Atticus, 9; and Aidan, 3 — also make appearances.) A fictionalized adaptation of the book, the film follows Andie (Hewitt), the owner of a decorating and planning service company with her mother. When her mom unexpectedly dies, she is faced with spending her first Christmas alone.

Hewitt spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about navigating grief, the catharsis of writing the memoir and making the Lifetime movie, which airs Dec. 14. She also gave an update on her involvement in the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

December is a big month for you with the holidays, your book release and the movie premiere.

It’s been really exciting. The lead-up has been a long time coming. It’s been over two years with the book; it’s been a year and a half with the movie between pitching it, getting the script and [filming it]. There’s a part of me that’s ready for people to see [the movie] and to read the [book] and know if they like it. Then there’s a vulnerable part of me that’s like, oh my gosh, I wish I could wait a little bit longer. I’m trying to stay present in the moment. I’m a big manifester, and sometimes we don’t always get to enjoy what we put out there. I’m feeling very grateful.

When you sat down to write Inheriting Magic, did you envision that this would be turned into a television movie too?

I sat down just to write, just to be with my mom. I had just had our baby, Aidan; I was in postpartum. I felt grief in different ways with all three of my pregnancies and births, just because your mom is supposed to be there and mine hadn’t been. It was a period of time where I needed to say something from my heart and be with her in a new way, and that was pen to paper. I would read things to Brian and cry, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this.” He’d say, “I don’t know if you’re supposed to know. Just keep writing and putting your thoughts down.”

I remember thinking after my mom passed that all the magic I had ever experienced was gone because she was that magic for me. That’s where the title came from because I realized very quickly having children that I couldn’t sit in grief. My mom wouldn’t have wanted me to be sad. She would want me to do something magical and beautiful with the holiday season, and so I did. Learning to create my own magic for myself without her, I realized I had inherited it. I figured out that that could be a story that has a beginning, a middle and an end for people, and gets to who I am now. Then the book really took shape.

Is there a core memory that you have with your mother that you look at differently now after going through the process of writing the memoir and making the movie?

Yeah. I was able to ask myself, “Did my mom’s magic come out of something for her that was painful?” My parents got divorced when I was very young, and my mom always had everything together. I was able to, now as an adult, go back and realize anytime there was something that hurt her heart, she would use magic — doing things for other people, creating a fantastic day or whatever it was to push through that feeling. I realized that I wanted to inspire people to have magical intent in their own lives. What I was hoping to do with this book is probably similar to what my mom had done in her life, which was using magic and joy to not sit in heavy feelings — and I don’t know that I ever thought about that before writing this.

Was it cathartic for you?

Very much so. I’ll be 13 years into my grief journey in June. It ebbs and flows, and it changes, and it hits you harder than you’re expecting. I started writing [the book] because I was ready to say something about her. I was ready to explain who she was to me so that I could leave it behind for my children because they haven’t had the opportunity to meet her.

Segueing to the Lifetime movie, The Holiday Junkie, you’re all over it creatively. It’s adapted from your book, you directed it, you star in it and your husband is also in it. How crucial was it for you to have your creative fingerprints all over this film?

It was very important for me to be as hands-on with it as possible. It was not my initial intent to direct it. Pre-production went very quickly while I was finishing the season of 9-1-1. Then the day after I finished 9-1-1, I was in pre-production for the movie and then we had to film it. I was trying to laser-focus on, are we telling the right story? Are we protecting what’s mine in the story? Are we telling the best version of this possible in the short amount of time [we have]?

I think I had to direct it. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to explain to somebody to care about this as much as I did. This felt like an opportunity for this to be mine, and I wanted to be able to say to people: What you’re seeing is me. If you don’t like it, you only have me to blame. Having Brian in it was special, not only because we got to fall in love with each other every day, but we got to do our normal jobs as actors, and we got to honor my mom together as a family. The kids are in it. It’s a love letter to her, but it’s also a love letter to our family — and [we have] this forever now.

You mentioned your kids — Autumn, Atticus and Aidan — are in the movie. Did you have to do a little persuading?

No, they were psyched. They were like, “Where are our parts, and what are we doing?” So they were in it before I even asked them. Autumn and Attius are in three scenes — two scenes they were supposed to be in and one we threw them in the background of, just for fun. Aidan, we actually got in at the very last minute on the last day of filming. He’s in it for five seconds in a little snow moment. Our joke was if we don’t put him in this movie, he’s going to be 30, watching the movie with everyone else, and be like, “Wait, you guys put the whole family in the movie and I’m not in there? I’m calling my therapist!” They loved it. They had a great time. Autumn actually got her SAG card on this movie at 10, the same age I was when I got mine.

Will this become a new family tradition where everyone gets together for a holiday movie every couple of years?

I hope so. I hope there are more Christmas movies in my future. If there are, they are welcome to be in them, of course. If not, this one is about as great of a love letter to our little family as you can possibly get.

You’re also incredibly busy with 9-1-1. Anything you’re excited about when it returns?

I just did some of the craziest stuff I’ve ever done on the show. That’s a big statement since the show is bananas, but it’s airing in March, and I’m really excited for the 9-1-1-ers to see it. They’re going to love it.

Last we heard about the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot, you were in negotiations to possibly return. Have conversations continued?

Yes, the conversations have continued. The biggest thing is scheduling, honestly, with when I can film the movie and 9-1-1, which is my biggest priority. We are in the midst of still figuring all that stuff out, but hoping to have good news for the fans soon. I do want to be in it. I’ve always wanted to be in it. It’s a franchise that I love and was so lucky to be a part of, and I’m hoping I will get to announce that I’m a part of it again really soon.

What do you want people to know when they pick up your book, Inheriting Magic, and when they sit down to watch The Holiday Junkie?

You can live a life missing your person, whoever that is, but you can [also] live a good, joyful, bright and happy life. I want them to know the magic that I talk about doesn’t always happen easily every single day — and I don’t want people to think that I’m being precious about that. I get it, life happens. But it is an intention that I hope people will set for themselves in whatever little time we have on the planet.

I had the opportunity to know somebody like that [with my mom], who brought that into my life, and I hope I can bring that into other people’s lives with the book. I hope I’ve done that for my kids the way my mom has done that for me. I hope [viewers] leave the movie feeling all the Christmas movie things that they’re supposed to feel. I hope when they read the book they feel like they know me better, not the actress me but the human me and my family. And hopefully we’ve inspired one person to live a little bit more of a magical existence, whatever that means for them.

The Holiday Junkie premieres Saturday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime. Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration and Making Every Day Magical is out now.