Earlier this year Author Ericka Johnson-Settles released her first book, 7 Step Jumpstart To Becoming Your Best Self. I have self-published for years and this is the first book that I published for another author.
I was honored and excited to work with Ericka on her debut book. She has a passion for pouring into others and she is seeing amazing transformations in people’s lives since her book was released.
7 Step Jumpstart is an incredible tool to have on your journey to becoming your best self.
Purchase your copy today. Congratulations Ericka!!!!!!!
I have come to find that my writings tell a story. It is one of resiliency and gratitude. For a while I thought my writings were not connected. I’ve written poetry, fiction, a journal and a non-fiction book. Honestly, I thought “My collection is random and it doesn’t make sense.” Then one day I was on ClubHouse and the moderator, Teresa Hairston, told me that my writings tell the story of my resiliency.
Not only had I never considered that idea, I never would have on my own.
Today I got on Canva and created this video. In days to come I will expound on each book and tell why I wrote it and how I created it.
After a failed marriage Lindar enters into a situationship with a love interest from her past. Cajun infuses and inspires Lindar to become a writer.
Lindar has to learn many difficult lessons, including how to love herself. Once the relationship ends she goes on a quest of redemption to prove to the world and to herself that she is truly something special.
This week has been super exciting!!! On June 30 Ghetto Chick was released in eBook format on Amazon. It tells the story of the point in my life where after a failed marriage I entered into a relationship that resulted in even more heartache. Through that brokenness, in 2008, I began to write and journal. During that time http://www.lindarinsights.blogspot.com and Ghetto Chick were birthed.
I’m so humbled by the response to it. When I finished writing Ghetto Chick, I had no idea what to do with it. I put it on a site to sale with a stock book cover and I just left it there. As I learned more about graphics I created the current cover and I knew that I was getting closer to what I wanted to achieve for my first book. A chance scroll on Instagram in May landed me in a two day course about making eBooks. After the first class I was already formatting the book. The interior reflects the beauty of the writings and the beauty of the cover.
I hope that when you receive your copy that you experience words of heartache, love and the desire of a woman, who after a failed marriage, while raising two incredible sons desired more and kept pressing despite the obstacles.
If I’ve learned nothing else in this process, I’ve learned that I was created for more. Check it out!!!!
Ghetto Chick is a book of poetry and writings that I wrote in 2009, after my failed marriage and entering into a relationship way too soon after my separation.
In that relationship, I was encouraged to learn about the business of self-publishing. Eventually the relationship took different turns which prompted me to grab a notebook to begin writing about my experiences.
The title, Ghetto Chick, actually came out of a heated discussion where I responded, “You don’t want a nice girl. You want a ghetto chick.” Hence the title was birthed.
Ghetto Chick is some of my most honest thoughts of a woman, who was left by her husband, while raising two beautiful brown boys, taken for granted by her lover and yet she still sought after God through the hurt, the pain and the discouragement.
So, why now? Why release Ghetto Chick in 2020, eleven years after it was written? The most honest answer is, because it’s time. Ghetto Chick representsso much. It’s my first self-published book. It’s the soundtrack to my book Infused. It will be my first book that I create in digital format. In essence, Ghetto Chick is my baby, it’s my heart. It was the beginning of me having the courage to speak my truth. I didn’t know that then. I truly realize it now.
I’m looking forward to sharing a part of me that was so broken over a decade ago that it led me to writing and to following my dreams. I can’t wait to share the beautiful digital Ghetto Chick eBook with you.
One year ago today I made one of the biggest decisions of my life, to choose joy. I remember discussing it afterwards in therapy. We discussed the number 8 and how that number means new beginnings and that the day was International Women’s Day.
Today is International Women’s Day and I’m feeling so honored to be a woman empowered to say no to those things that no longer serve me and to choose joy over being comfortable. God didn’t call us to blend in but to stand out. You have to have faith to step out of the boxes that have confined you, without faith it is impossible to please God.
It’s been an amazing journey of hurt, depression, not knowing what’s next and if I could do it all over on March 8, 2019 I’d still choose joy. This above all to thine ownself be true.
On March 8th, I woke up and prepared for my day. As with every payday, I checked my checking account. However, on this day, I didn’t get paid by my employer. I decided that in that moment I wasn’t going to get upset. God had been good to me thus far and there was no reason to think that He didn’t have that under control either. Weeks prior, my parents purchased new furniture and I asked if I could have my grandmother’s recliner. My grandmother had passed several years ago, and I couldn’t let them get rid of her chair.
When the chair arrived at our home, we had no idea where we would put it. Alex’s idea was to place it next to our ottoman that sat in the middle of the room. I told him that it didn’t make sense, although to this day that is where I sit to watch Sports Center in the morning with my Greek yogurt or steel-cut oatmeal. I was sitting in that chair upon realizing that I had no pay and a therapy appointment in an hour.
God spoke to me as I sat there.“If you had to go back to where you were reassigned in order to get paid today, would you go?”
A friend of mine recently self-published his first novel, The Lover’s Game. He’s worked so hard in this process; from writing, to editing, to getting it release ready. I’m so excited for him and I know the lessons he’s learned will prep him for his next novel.
Today I sat and read Chapter 1 and thought, “Hmmmm. Let me find time for some more chapters.” I know if someone called me before four in the morning and we discussed why they left…… Brandon, I just need to know more. Lol.
Congratulations on your release Brandon. The best is yet to come.
LindarInsights Publishing 