Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Abbie Johnson Taylor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Abbie Johnson, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later?

I took an interest in writing as a teenager. Two things stopped me from pursuing this as a career.

First of all, my mother rewrote all my assignments. At the time, being visually impaired, I was typing everything, and she was my proofreader. But many times, she took matters into her own hands, and what I turned in wasn’t what I wrote, but most of the time, these pieces received good grades. I finally just let her write papers for me and didn’t even try to do a rough draft, knowing she’d change it anyway.

Because I was a typical teenager, having my mother do my homework for me while I just sat there and watched her do it didn’t bother me. But I think when I went away to college, she and I both realized the error of her ways when she wasn’t there to write my papers for me. But I managed to turn in a couple of kick-ass papers and get good grades on them. So, I must have learned something from the experience.

The second thing that kept me from pursuing a career as a writer was a creative writing teacher I had in high school. He picked apart just about every piece I brought into class — or should I say every piece my mother wrote. Most of the time, he did this in front of everybody, which was, needless to say, humiliating.

If not for these factors, instead of a career in music therapy, I could have chosen to be a writer. I might have gotten an MFA in creative writing and supported my endeavors by teaching.

But I have no regrets. I found music therapy rewarding, and after doing that for fifteen years, I started writing full-time and published seven books. Besides, my mother writing my papers inspired one of the stories in my collection, Living Vicariously in Wyoming. These things must happen for a reason.

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

I was born in New York City on June 1, 1961. After about a year, my family moved to Boulder, Colorado. When I was about four years old, we moved to Tucson, Arizona, where we lived for about eight years.

I attended the state school for the deaf and blind for about five and a half years before being mainstreamed into a public school. In 1973, we moved to Sheridan, Wyoming, and I continued to attend public schools.

After graduating from Sheridan High School in 1980, I went to Sheridan College for two years and received an AA degree in music. I then transferred to Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana, where I received a BA in music two and a half years later. After that, I studied music therapy at Montana State University in Billings for two years but received no degree. I then completed a six-month internship at a nursing home in Fargo, North Dakota, and returned to Sheridan in 1988. Soon after that, I became registered as a music therapist.

About six months later, I started working at a nursing home and was employed there for fifteen years. During that time, I volunteered at other senior facilities, led a support group for blind and visually impaired adults, taught Braille, and served on the advisory board to a trust fund that allowed blind and visually impaired people to purchase adaptive equipment. I joined the YMCA and a choir. In 2005 when I married my late husband Bill, I quit my job and other volunteer obligations to write full time.

My work has appeared in various publications including The Weekly Avocet and Magnets and Ladders. I’m the author of three novels, two poetry collections, a memoir, and a short story collection. All my books are available from Amazon and other online sources.

Bill and I made our home here in Sheridan. After we were married, Bill suffered two strokes: one in 2006 and one in 2007, leaving him unable to use his left arm and leg, and I cared for him at home for six years. In September of 2012, I was forced to move him to a nursing home because he was losing strength and getting harder to lift. A month later, he passed. Please visit my website at: https://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com .

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

As an author, I have a website, blog, and Facebook presence as well as Amazon, Goodreads, and Smashwords pages. People can email me through my blog and website and message me through Facebook. I also have a monthly email newsletter to which people can subscribe by sending a blank email to: newsfrommycorner+subscribe@groups.io .

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My late husband Bill wasn’t exactly my business partner, but he was one of the biggest fans of my writing. He offered ideas and feedback and paid one of his friends to help me develop my website. So, I’ll tell you how we met, and you can read more of our story in my memoir, My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds.

In 2003, I was living here in Sheridan, Wyoming, and Bill in Fowler, Colorado. We met through Newsreel, an audio magazine where blind and visually impaired adults could share ideas and ask questions. I posed a computer question, and having done programming and run a computer store, Bill answered. I emailed him back, and we started a two-year long-distance relationship, meeting in-person twice, until 2005, when we married.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Abbies-Corner-of-the-World-988391584616528/

Image Credits

My friend and fellow poet, Christine Valentine, took the photo of a pair of pants she found on a clothesline for the front cover of That’s Life. An aide from the local senior center’s Help at Home program used my phone to take a picture of my robotic cat Joy. I don’t remember who took our wedding photo displayed on the front cover of My Ideal Partner. Leonore Dvorkin, my editor at DLD Books, found front cover images online for Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me and Living Vicariously in Wyoming.