A few weekends ago, my husband and I were curled up on the couch while watching a movie when he started a conversation with… “I completely forgot to tell you….”

The story he goes into telling me has me feeling elated as well as flabbergasted. You see, while he was doing his regular weekly delivery for the company he works for, he noticed one of the security guards reading a book. My husband, the social butterfly that he is and one of my biggest supporters, strikes up a conversation with the man.

The man tells him that since he can get bored waiting for trucks to come in, he has started to read some of the books that his wife likes.

And the one he happened to reading at that moment was one of mine!!!!

My husband even double-checked, showing him a picture of my book covers that he keeps on his phone to show people when he talks about my books. The man pointed to the third one, saying, “My wife loves this series.”

I really couldn’t believe this. I asked him several times if he was sure the man had been reading one of my books. My husband just kept nodding his head.

It isn’t like I don’t know people are reading my books. I know they are. Whenever I check my Amazon page, I see that books are bought and pages read. Yet, even seeing someone read ten pages of one of my books baffles me.

Or…. if someone comments on one of my social media posts about enjoying my book or asking when the next one is coming out, I always double-check if I am looking at one of my posts. Just today, before writing this, I got a notification on one of my sales Facebook posts that someone wrote how she loves the series. The warmth that spread across my heart…. is something that proves that I am doing what I should be doing.

In high school, I would joke that one-day people would be reading my books. Even then, I wanted nothing more than to be an author. But to be completely honest, I never actually thought it would happen. I might find a career in journalism, but would never get the guts to send out any of the fiction I wrote.

The closest I had gotten before a few years ago was when I submitted a short story into an anthology, which got accepted. One of my coworkers had heard about it and purchased the book. One day, she asked me to sign the copy. I was out of my element. Fear that someone I knew was actually going to read something I wrote overcame me.

I continued to write, yet never planned to share it. My only goal had been to get the ideas and images that would constantly float around my head onto paper. One published short story was not proof that I could make a career out of my writing.

And then Covid hit.

Not having anything to do other than stream another television show, I dived into my writing. I found that I could get a novel written reasonably quickly, but I knew it would need a lot of work to make it publishable.

I slowly started to realize this may be the perfect chance to finally take the leap and see if I could possibly do this full-time. Everything seemed to have fallen into place. The printing company I worked at was closing. My husband was making enough money to support us. Because of the pandemic, more people were reading books.

When I spoke to my husband about it, I was shocked when he agreed that it was my time to follow my dreams since he had gotten that opportunity a few years before.

I dived into learning everything I could about becoming an indie author, all the while writing the first book I planned to release into the world. I won a free eBook cover, which led to my first cover, and I even worked with a writing coach.

It was a complicated process but also so exhilarating. I was actually following my dreams and able to do it full-time.

Finally, the big day arrived, and I published my first novel, Party, Potions & Peril.

I never expected anyone other than friends and family to even look at my book. Yet, I slowly started to get sales. And reviews started to come in. People actually liked what I was writing.

Even now, having published my sixth book and working on my seventh (the start of a new series), I wonder if anyone will read it. As I write, I constantly question if this book will be the one where people decide they don’t think I’m any good. And every time a new book is published, I am baffled by how many people read it and like it.

This has been my dream for as long as I can remember. I don’t ever expect to be a household name like Stephen King or Nora Roberts, but every reader that I get is important to me. It shows me that not only do people enjoy what I create, but I have the ability to take a dream and make it come true. Anything is possible.

To each reader who has ever read any of my books, thank you! You are helping someone to achieve something they never thought was possible.