We were lucky to catch up with Maria Anderson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maria , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I guess it would make sense for me to say my latest book, A Mother’s Love, but I have to be honest and say all of my books and journal have been meaningful.

Let me explain, my journal, “Learning to Love Yourself: 10-Day Commitment to You” was my first baby. I found myself depleted of energy by all of the hats that I wear. So I created the journal for myself and thought it could be beneficial to others. But I was so green! I had no idea what I was doing. I was literally having the journal printed at a local big box store and mailing it off to the kind friends and family who placed an order. So Learning to Love was my first experience putting my ideas to paper.

The Other Side of Fear Series, now this is meaningful because it was birthed during COVID. Time slowed down, we were shut in and I had no excuse to not write. You see, writing has been something I always wanted to do but didn’t know how. So I just started typing one day and I sent it to my (now) editor, Amanda at Haint Blue Creative and the series was born. There’s a lot of Maria in the first book of that series. The others are where I really started to branch out and learn to really create the story.

And finally, here comes A Mother’s Love; this one gives me chills. This is a story for everyone; age, gender, race, etc. A Mother’s love tells the story of women at their most vulnerable state. There’s controversial topics, ideas and concepts that are gracefully handled to help the reader fall in love with the character(s).

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m just a girl born and raised in the amazing city of Boston but who loves the sun far more than the snow. I’ve been blessed with the gift to tell a story. I can engage an audience at the drop of a dime. I have always been able to write; sometimes I have to get in the mood but most times even when I don’t want to, I can still write something pretty decent.

Through my writing, I am able to give a voice to important topics, scenarios that are familiar to millions of people around the globe. I create stories that are relatable, and make you quickly fall in love with the characters. Not always the main characters either, which is pretty special within itself.

My readers know that I am going to keep them on my toes. I am going to provide stories that make them laugh, cry and maybe even yell out in anger. My readers trust that I am going to keep them entertained and made when the story comes to an end because they aren’t ready to say goodbye yet. I give my readers what they never knew they were missing.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I have an amazing son; and he is my mission in all of my endeavors. I want my son to know that you can do anything that you put your mind to. I want my son to know that his creativity, his passion, his dreams are attainable. With some work. And it doesn’t come easy and without hard, persistent, work, but it does come.

My goal, my big (and I mean BIG) dream, is to be a NY Times Best Seller. My other big dream is to walk through a bookstore and to see my book on the shelves.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Okay, to answer this you have to know a little about me. I am a giver; I like to pay for dinner when we go out in big groups. I like to gift people with the “thing” they looked at a little longer. I get this from my daddy. He was the same exact way. He once paid for the engagement dinner for a colleague of mine.

So when I started writing, I assumed my family and friends would be my biggest supporters, largest buyers and loudest cheerleaders. But that wasn’t necessary the case. In fact, sometimes I felt defeated the those closest to me couldn’t support me in the way I would have supported them. At first, I was hurt; I felt like the least they could do was share a social media post. I mean, if the shoe was on the other foot, I would totally be leading the parade to celebrate and telling everyone about the opportunity.

I had to unlearn to not focus on the people closest to me; but to embrace the support of “strangers” whom have found me through social media or random Amazon searches.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mariaandersonauthor