The Book I Didn’t Plan to Write

The next book I plan to self-publish is one I didn’t intend to write. My main purpose for beginning my writing journey was to record the stories that I had uncovered while doing family history research. I have been researching my family history for close to 20 years and during that time, I have gathered a vast amount of information. Like many family historians and genealogists, I wondered what was to become of all this information that had taken up many hours of my time. I eventually settled on writing historical fiction inspired by my ancestors' stories. However, in deciding to write them as fiction, I was determined to stick as close to the facts as possible. Now seven years later, I have three stories completed and published, with many more ideas still swimming around in my head and another two half-finished manuscripts.

When I began writing in 2019, I started journaling about the experience of learning to write and to self-publish. There was so much to learn and journaling helped me to understand all the processes. Then, a couple of years ago, I had a thought. Perhaps others would be interested in reading about my quest to become an author. So I embarked on writing the book that has taken the longest to write so far. It is the story of my lived experience, rather than one that evolved from some grand plan. Becoming an Indie Author was born. My hope for the book is that it inspires other aspiring authors to keep going, because, in the end, persistence does pay off.

Becoming an Indie Author will be out soon!

Are you an aspiring writer? I would love to hear about your experiences so far.