We were lucky to catch up with Sandra Modena recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sandra, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I hope to leave a legacy of love and devotion to Jesus, and my family and friends. I think I will be remembered as a devoted mother and grandmother, a hard worker, and someone dedicated to helping people see who they were created to be. I hope to be remembered as someone who took the things seriously that needed to be taken seriously, but never lost her sense of humor and wit. I hope to be remembered as someone who understood that life can be messy, and beautiful at the same time. That thankfulness is a powerful tool to help us out of the darkest moments, and that tomorrow is a new day just waiting to be discovered.

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

I got into writing my first children’s stories many years ago when my children were young. I just never took the time to get them published. Instead, I stashed them away thinking that one day maybe I would take a look at them again and either decide to toss them out or give them to my adult children for a fun thing to know about their mom. It wasn’t until my grandson (firstborn grandchild) was about a year and a half old that I woke up with a couple cute stories in my head. I woke up wrote them down and mulled on it a few days before presenting them to my daughters. It was with their encouragement that I pursued how to go about getting the books illustrated and published. I asked a close friend of mine who had published a children’s book where to begin, and she assisted me many times with questions. Since then, I have been able to in turn assist a few friends who were also writing books. For me, this has been a longtime dream come true. As a teenager I used to write poetry and I made up a magazine that I thought was funny and called it “Twinkle”.  It was supposed to be a take on what was once the popular Mad Magazine! I would tell my best friend who co-wrote “Twinkle” with me, that one day I would write a book. She encouraged me to write even then. I wasn’t imagining at that time that I would write a children’s book, I was thinking more like a novel, but who knows – that could still happen. I truly hope that my family and friends and hopefully many others will enjoy the book I wrote as I intend to write a couple more in the series. They are short and sweet and fun for parents and grandparents to enjoy with the little ones.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I shared the initial launch of my book “Favorite Things To Do” rather late in the evening on a Friday night on my Facebook page. To my surprise, so many of my family and friends were engaged in the post and excited to learn more about it. I found it very exciting and encouraging to say the least. My daughter Amber, set up a webpage for me and we started a countdown to the publishing date. It generated a lot of excitement and to my surprise many found out the book was available before the countdown had even posted its availability! I feel so much of this happened due to the love and support of family and friends, and that it also gave us all something to look forward to. The webpage has really helped, and so is having an update periodically on how things are progressing. People like to see the follow up!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have made many adjustments in life and in my career. I have learned that although school was not always my favorite thing, I am a lifelong learner. I like to continue to challenge myself to learn new things and I am not ashamed to say that many times I have made a change in my career as I felt led to do something new. I left a banking career to go in to the staffing industry, which was one of the most difficult changes I have ever made. However, in the staffing industry I felt it was more my niche and I learned and experienced many different things along the way. I was able to assist people in life with their jobs and careers and that was much more rewarding to me at that time. I then went from staffing into ministry and more office management, and now am doing a bit of office work and mentoring students as they navigate moving away from life controlling issues. Whew! I have seen how much of what we learn in the past only prepares us for what we will be doing in the future, and that we don’t always know what that might turn out to be.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: sandramo.1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandramodenabooks/
• Other: Favorite Things To Do book by Sandra Modena (thriftbooks.com) Favorite Things To Do by Sandra Modena, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)Amazon.com: Favorite Things To Do: 9798218246167: Modena, Sandra