Today, a New Book is Born

Please pick up a copy of Forest Walk on a Friday!!

It never gets old.

Every time a book of mine releases, my stomach flutters and my heart races. Will anyone like it? Will anyone read it? After all my hard work, approval from my early readers and my editor, I still second-guess whether what I’ve created is worthy of being out in the world.

And then, there it is. On book sales sites, in libraries, on the shelves of bookstores. My name on the gorgeous cover (thanks, Paddy and Su, for another winner!), my words on the soft pages.

Today, Forest Walk on a Friday: Essays on love, home and finding my voice at midlife, is out in the world, and I’d love it if you would pick up a copy and let me know what you think. This book is available in paperback, e-book and audiobook (my first! narrated by yours truly), and it’s available wherever books are found.

While I’m mostly writing novels these days, I decided to collect 28 of my creative nonfiction essays into one tome to make these stories available more easily for readers. I’ve always straddled genres, and I figured readers of my fiction might enjoy learning something about the person behind the storytelling. I know when I fall in love with an author, I want to read all about them and their process. Are you like that, too?

These stories take readers through my first marriage and its subsequent end, my years as a single mother and then my second chance at lifelong love and blending families. There are walks through nature, explorations of self while hiking mountains, journeys to far-flung corners of the earth, moments of reckoning at times of great importance in world history.

I’m brutally honest, naked on the page, vulnerable and open, so go easy on me when you read these essays! Confession time: as I recorded the audiobook, my stomach fluttered with nerves. These essays are honest, I bare all, and coming face-to-face with stories of already published in various literary journals and magazines, I realized how much I laid out for all to see.

I’ve always been an open book, though. I don’t believe in hiding. What I’ve experienced might help you or someone you know and vice versa. Why not share my mishaps and stumbles? I’m only human.

There is a raw honesty in this book that doesn’t come in fiction. In my novels, I create worlds not my own, go places I might not dare in real life. In my essays, it’s all me, for all to see, and though I am mostly confident, no one likes scrutiny.

But I did it, and today’s the day—my 11th book is out in the world!! I hope you like it. And if you do, I’d so love to hear.

Pick up a copy at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Indigo, Kobo, Spotify, Booktopia, or wherever else you buy books. Or request it at your library!!

And join me this Thursday for the virtual launch at 11 a.m. ET. Register here. I’ll be joined by several writer-friends who endorsed the book, and giving away free copies of several books to those who attend. I hope to see you there!

By the way, there are just three days left to become a yearly paid subscriber to this Substack and with your subscription, get a free copy of my new book! Subscribe below. Thanks for reading!

All love, Lynne