I am very excited to be getting closer to the release of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.

I don’t have an exact release date just yet but the manuscript is in the editing stage with corrections being made.

From there it will go through another round of edits and another round of corrections and read throughs by beta readers, formatting, etc. etc.

It is all very exciting and overwhelming at the same time but I’m leaning more toward exciting at the time of writing this post.

Maybe you’re new to the blog and don’t know that I write books and self-publish them. Sometimes I share chapters on here, but I haven’t been doing that recently.

Instead, my books are available on Kindle Unlimited and for reasonable prices on Amazon at this time.

Self-publishing books is not a lucrative business for me.

I am also not a famous author (not that was ever my goal).

Sometimes people complain I have a typo or suggest that I am endorsing something I am not endorsing and that gets weird and makes writing books not so fun.

Most of the time, though, writing books is fun.

I like sharing stories that I have crafted in my own brain.

I like when people like my creations.

I have especially been blown away by the support of my Gladwynn Grant Mystery books.

If you don’t know, Gladwynn Grant is the main character of the series and she’s loosely based on my grandmother, whose middle and maiden name she bears.

Gladwynn’s grandmother, Lucinda, who she lives with, is based on a combination of both of my grandmothers.

Gladwynn is a reporter at a small town newspaper, which is a job I did for 14 years at four different newspapers. Gladwynn, however, is not me.

She is very different from me.

She is tall, brunette, beautiful, loves fashion and makeup, and full of confidence.

I am none of those things. I like to look at fashion but I never really worried much about how I look. How I ever landed my husband I have no idea. I guess he’s attracted to troll-like women wearing baggy clothes who don’t know how to brush or fix her hair.

So Gladwynn is based loosely on me but only on the part that she works at a small town newspaper.

A lot of people think that the reviews on a self-published/indie book are from friends and family of the author. This was actually said one time in a reading group I used to be a part of.

My family and friends have not reviewed my books. Actually, most of my family and friends have not even read my books. That hurts a little but people are busy. I’m not going to say that none of the reviews I have on the Gladwynn books are from friends because that would not be true. There are two or three reviews from friends I’ve connected with online.

There are also reviews from people I have never met or even heard of in my life and those are the reviews that have blown me away.

People really like my book? Wow. That’s super mind-blowing to me.

My books are simple stories, sometimes cheesy. They are not award winning. They are not the best written and even when they are edited I somehow seem to mess up on making the corrections and eliminating the typos.

Yet people have supported them and have said they look forward to more.

I would love to write books and just share them on Amazon for 99 cents since I don’t know how to share them for free, so people can read them and just have fun reading them or not reading them. After all, they only spent 99 cents on it so if they don’t like the book then they aren’t out much.

Charging only a dollar for a book makes a book look cheap, though, so I’ve been told, so I charge a little more.

If I make money from the sale of the books it does help my family. I’m able to put a little money toward groceries or a bill and that helps.

But people reading my book and saying they like it is like getting paid in a different way. It’s paying me back for all the long hours of writing, the nights laying awake with ideas prodding my subconscious, begging to be written down. The time I asked my children if I could have some time to finish the story I’d started because I wanted to see how it finished. The time I took suggestions from early readers on  how to fix a plot hole. The time I took to fix all the edits my editor (ahem..husband) and Mom suggested.

When readers tell me they liked my book it’s like someone saying, “Your ideas weren’t stupid. Your love of writing is something I’m glad you have because I’ve benefited from it too by reading a story I enjoyed.”

If you’re one of those people who have enjoyed my little stories – thank you for taking the time to read them! If you’re one of those who left me a review on Amazon or Goodreads or sent me a note to tell me you liked them – thank you!

If you want to read my books, you can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lisa-Howeler/author/B07Y3W52FD

I can’t wait to keep sharing more of my creations with my readers – whether they be friends, family, or strangers.