We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stacey Wilk. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stacey below.

Stacey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

I always wanted to be a writer. From the age of six, I wrote stories. When I was twelve, I wrote my first novel on a typewriter! I still have the book. I even wrote rock star romances in high school biology instead of paying attention. But, it wasn’t until many years later that I took my writing seriously. My two children were pre-school age, and I had read an article about Mary Higgins Clark. She is one of my favorite authors. Before MHC was published, she would wake at 5 a.m. to write before her children went to school and she went to her full-time job. She had five children and her husband had passed. I thought, if she could do that, so could I. I only had two kids, I was a stay-at-home mom and I had a husband to support me. I also wanted my children to see me go after my dreams so they would have the courage to chase theirs. I began writing at 5 am before my children woke up. It took me three years to write that first book.

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.

As I said prior, I always wanted to be an author. I published my first book in 2013 and have published another 30 since then. I am an Amazon and Barnes & Noble best-selling author. My book Taking Root won the New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Award for best mid-length contemporary. Readers enjoy the connection they feel to my characters and settings. I grab them on page one and don’t let go until the end of the emotional journey.

Because I’m committed to my readers, I have built a community of people who come together to read books and support one another. They started out as strangers. Some have become lifetime friends.

I’m most proud of myself for following my dreams and making them come true. I think everyone deserves to follow their bliss. I’m also proud of the amount of content I’ve created for my readers to enjoy. It’s an honor to have people read my work. I make sure to show them my appreciation.

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

Every part of the publishing journey requires resilience. The first book I wrote as an adult took me three years to complete. During that time my children were little and we had moved. Resilience. I’ve been rejected by agents and editors so many times that I’ve lost count. Resilience. I was working on my second book in my Heritage River series, The Bridge Between Love and Lies, and 30K words in I realized my plot had significant problems. I scrapped the entire work and started over. Resilience.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I published my first women’s fiction novel with my traditional publisher, I began a Facebook reader group. That was 2018. In the beginning, I showed up on that group every single day. I made my posts questions that allowed my readers to talk about what they liked and what they were doing. We played games. I shared my writing journey. Every time someone commented I wrote back. I still do that today. My Facebook group is very interactive. If you’re just starting out, make the posts about your customers. What are you doing or offering for them? It’s always about them. Show up when they comment. Your followers want to hear from you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.staceywilk.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/_staceywilk
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/staceysnovelfamily