We were lucky to catch up with Andrea Ezerins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Andrea thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I just finished my second book and still consider myself an accidental author. Let me explain why. When I was young, I was a voracious reader with no burning passion or desire to be a writer. If some grown-up asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I replied, “Astronaut, teacher, track star,” but never author. I was living my ordinary life as an insurance executive, mother, wife, etc. when inspiration struck and changed all that.
I was flying home from a business trip some twenty years ago and as I sank into my seat on the plane, I was tired and glad to be heading home. Too tired to read or do much of anything, I let my mind decompress and wander. A picture that would be the fully formed ending of my future book popped into my head. It was an image of an old man walking down the corridor of an assisted living facility and entering a woman’s room. He asked where she wanted to go today and then they traveled back to when she was much younger, and she was reunited with her soulmate.

I never had something like this happen before, so I took out a notebook and wrote a couple of pages describing the scene. I was worried this image would be like a dream that is so vivid when you first wake up but as the day goes on, fades to nothingness. I worked to capture the sense of loss and sadness but also the happiness that came with reuniting with her young love. Overall, the feeling was bittersweet.

A few days later, I reread what I had written and was moved to tears. Not because the writing was great (because it wasn’t) but because the emotion of the scene and the culmination of their love story was heart-wrenching. I knew I had a wonderful ending to a story, and I began to try to write a beginning and middle. I can’t count the number of times I picked it up and put it down over the ensuing years. Through those many years, my goal was to finish. The story became a part of me. Writing is what I did whenever I had a spare moment or some extra motivation which happened every new year as I made my New Year’s resolution. I never made any announcement that I was now a writer, instead I slowly, little by little became one without meaning to.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a newly retired insurance executive who retired to give my “baby” the best chance for success by allowing me to focus on getting my debut book Again and Again Back To You out into the world. I published with a small independent publisher last year and they have been the difference between a scary, lonely road and one that is collaborative, supportive, and energizing. I continue to learn and have found the experience of engaging with my readers extremely gratifying. I connect through a bimonthly Substack newsletter, book clubs, and speaking and signing engagements.

It has been a thrilling, nerve-wracking, bumpy, interesting, and fantastic journey getting my book out to readers. With this experience, I’m energized and prepared to do it again with my next book. I’m working on a modern retelling of The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery. A friend shared that the second book is like having a second child: where you know what to expect and everything is that much easier. I’m counting on that being true.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Well, it was 2020 and I had finally finished my story. Honestly, I couldn’t reread it and edit it one more time. I could have stopped there. And I would be able to tell people at cocktail parties, “I wrote a book!” But as luck or divine intervention would have it, it was the start of COVID and I had extra time on my hands. So, I started doing a little research and toying with the idea of hiring a professional editor. This was the scariest step of all the many scary steps I’ve taken on this journey. This meant I was admitting I wanted something more for my story than it to end up a pile of loose pages in a Staples box tucked away in the back of my closet.

I interviewed three editors through Zoom (because of COVID). And like Goldilocks, the first was too hard. She went on a ten-minute rant about the Oxford comma. The second one was too soft. She explained she could copyedit but wasn’t ready for the big leagues of developmental editing. The third was just right. She had the gentlest touch and went through five or six rounds of developmental editing suggesting changes that tightened and refined the story further. It was only after a professional reviewed my story and said it was good that I was able to continue on and ultimately apply and be accepted by She Writes Press, an independent, hybrid publisher.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The book that helped me the most at the beginning of my publishing journey was Anne Lamott’s book on writing and life called Bird by Bird. It is funny, and relatable and helped me find myself as a writer. Her book has a Magpie with a quill on the cover and that is why I call my Substack newsletter The Magpie’s Quill. The other resource that helped me is Jeannine Ouellette’s Substack called Writing in the Dark. She has a similarly marvelous approach to learning the craft of writing that is joyful and fulfilling and isn’t intimidating for those of us who suffer from a well-known malady of Imposter Syndrome.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://andreaezerins.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akezerins
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/andreaezerinsauthor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-ezerins-2880665/
• Other: Substack: https://andreae.substack.com/