Today we’d like to introduce you to F. Wallers.
Hi F., so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’m F. Wallers and I’m what’s called a baby author. I published my very first book in October 2024 and I had the idea for my book several years ago when I was driving down a street one day. I noticed that the street signs had some unique names and I remember thinking back then how cool it would be if I wrote a story about a street that had the name of the street within the design. So for example, if there was a street called Firetree Lane then my imagination would come up with a bunch of trees on fire on a street. That’s not what the story is about–I just took inspiration from that and ended up with the book I have today. I started writing this story around the beginning of 2020 and it took a couple of years to write the story and two different editors before I published the book in 2024. After I published it, I didn’t really know what to do because I had no experience in marketing. I took a marketing class a year after it was published, but I didn’t have that knowledge of marketing my book when it came out. Luckily, I was connected to someone who knew someone else whose family helped run a nonprofit organization called KC Bookbeat which holds events for local Kansas City authors and the person who helps run those events helped me get in to my very first book event in November 2024. In the year that followed that book event I attended other events they did, plus a couple opportunities I found on my own. This year I have quite a few book events lined up as I am working on a couple other writing projects, so there’s quite a bit going on this year within my author/writing realm that I’m excited about.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road. Writing the book in itself was a major project. I loved writing it, but there were so many things I had to figure out as I was writing the story. Then on top of it my editors made some suggestions and I had to change multiple parts of the story which was difficult for me to accept because I wanted it to stay as the original. However, in the end their suggestions ended up making the story even better than I originally thought it would and I really like the end product.
I think that a lot of people have this misconception that writing a book is an easy project to do, but that is not the case. Writing a book is a huge undertaking. There’s so much time that has to be taken out of one’s day to work on this kind of project. The story has to be outlined, characters have to be created, and you have to decide where the plot goes and what goes into it, so it’s a lot harder than it seems. It’s easy coming up with a story idea, but the challenging part is actually writing the whole story. However, the reward of having an actual copy of the story is so worth the challenge.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The book that I wrote is a time travel middle grade adventure which is geared towards kids between 10 and 14, but I like to write all kinds of stories. As of right now I am working on two different projects that are for young adult readers, but I like to write fictional stories which is what I like to focus on with my writing. I’m not a full time author, yet–that’s the goal eventually, but until then I have another job that I love doing on the side which is teaching Pilates. So, technically the people in my life know me as a writer and Pilates instructor.
I’d say I’m most proud of writing and publishing a book, since that’s not an easy project to take on and finish. What sets me apart from others is that I’m very dedicated to my writing and I don’t give up until I’m finished with a writing project, no matter how challenging it is. I also don’t want to box myself into a specific group or type of readers; I just want to write whatever my heart desires and trust that by the time I’ve finished writing the story it’s the story that I’m ready to share with the world.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up I was pretty shy and introverted. I read a lot of books because I felt seen and felt like I could relate to the characters in those stories. It was around the fourth grade that I started writing in my free time and writing has been something that I’ve been doing ever since then. It’s always been my favorite way of expressing myself and I’m just so happy and grateful for any free time that I get to work on any writing projects.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.authorfwallers.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorfwallers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.f.wallers/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorfwallers
