We recently connected with Alicia Fadgen and have shared our conversation below.

Alicia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

The writing industry is not for the faint of heart. The challenges and failures seemed to pile high in the beginning as well as throughout my author journey. As passionate as I was to get my stories into the hands of many children, it wasn’t going to be an easy ride. I had everyone from publishers to agents that returned my stories with denial letters. I quickly came to realize that this was a competitive career. At first, I considered giving up. After facing so many rejections, you start to question your work and if it is good enough. I reached out to many other authors and realized I wasn’t alone. It gave me motivation to keep pushing forward and go after my dream. Within 4 months, I not only received a contract from one publishing company, but I also received 2 contracts from another publisher. I would now have 3 books published within the year and I couldn’t have felt more humbled and excited. My determination and love for writing exceeded all of the doubts. I was now an official author about to spread kindness through my stories.

Alicia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hello everyone! My name is Alicia Fadgen and I am a children’s book author. My love for writing started at a young age. I won awards all the way back in elementary school for my writing. Although I loved to write, I never imagined it becoming a career. That all changed when I had my 3 children. One night, I forgot to grab a book off the shelf for bedtime. I asked my kids if they minded me making up a story. They quickly agreed as they told me to make it about a rainbow and a bubble. I giggled and told a story called The Rainbow Bubble. This story ended up becoming my first ever picture book to be published. They helped inspire the story and my son’s name is the main character. After writing this story, I couldn’t stop there. I wrote and wrote and wrote. My children helped with naming the characters of my next book, Twinkle Shines. I also had a book published that I wrote for my middle child. She was struggling with her clumsiness, so this story was to help her embrace her flaws and treat others with kindness. I fell so in love with writing that I extended the length of one of my stories and it became my first ever chapter book. This middle grade book is called Sky Of Bliss and will be releasing in October 2022. My main purpose is to spread love and kindness through my children stories. I feel so passionate about children reading and learning and I am so excited to be able to be a part of that and bring joy to their hearts.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My biggest goal in my author journey is to spread positive messages to the younger generation but also spark their imagination. I tend to have Peter Pan syndrome and would love to always have the heart of a child. I think it is so important to break free from reality sometimes and drift off into your own imagination. I also feel kids need to be reminded of how special they are and help inspire them to continue spreading kindness throughout the world.

Have you ever had to pivot?

As I mentioned earlier in my interview, the writing industry is not for the faint of heart. I was working with a publisher who signed on 4 of my books! I had one story published through them and 3 on the way. It felt like a dream come true and I was so excited for the future with this company. Only 3 short months after the release of my first book, all of us authors received a devastating email. Our publisher decided to close the doors to the company and basically vanished with no explanation. We did thankfully get the rights back to our work, but I felt so discouraged. I was confused, upset, and did not know where to go from there. After a month of being in my emotions, I was actually reminded by one of my books, to find the light even in the darkest of times. I knew I couldn’t give up on these stories and I owed it to my children and all kids, to push forward with getting these stories out into the world. I sent my middle grade book over to my other publisher and they loved it and offered me a contract. I once again felt so humbled. I felt it was important to share this story for others that may be experiencing some difficult times in the writing world or even for those feeling let down in their careers. Do not give up on your passion even if things don’t go the way you anticipated. You can do anything you have a love for and you can’t let others stand in the way of that.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.mom-writes.com
• Instagram: alicia_fadgen
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/alicia.burkett
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/aburkett5