Stay-at-home mum of two and new author Audie Lewis has recently moved with her family to the Algarve from Georgia in the US. Audie relayed her personal story from childhood to motherhood and budding writer to, in 2023, a published author.
Being an avid and voracious reader from childhood, and with a passion for writing, Audie always dreamt of being an author. Her initial career as a kindergarten teacher allowed her creativity to flow as a storyteller. As a mother, she continued to invent bedtime stories for her son and daughter. “My life was filled with more stories than ever as I constantly created them to entertain the kids,” she explained.
Once her own two children were at school, Audie was inspired to write her own book. So she set to work, snatching odd times between the school run, cooking, housework and the general demands of raising a young family. She says this process of writing books was not ideal as they were “revised periodically, all in dribs and drabs”.
Determined to succeed as a published author, in 2021 Audie submitted her final manuscripts to various agents and played the long waiting game while they waded through their huge submissions piles. Fed up with “agent limbo”, Audie decided to explore self-publishing as she felt her “stories were good and would be successful”.
She published her first book Christmas Elvez on Amazon Kindle in January 2023. The romantic novel centres around Lucy Weathers, a journalist who has lost her job, finds alternative work and completes a daily festive task that she selects from the post of a mysterious, handsome stranger. A journey of self-discovery is at the heart of this novella.
Audie released two further books on Amazon in 2023. Just Add Water and This Isn’t Working Out are also romantic novels. Her current novel, Love Letters, is being circulated to traditional publishers, after Audie was approached by an agent from Gold Dust Literary.
Audie and her family decided to move to Portugal after first buying a holiday home in Burgau, which they frequently visited. “We finally decided that life was short and we were ready for something new, so we sold our house and moved here permanently.”
Hopefully, Audie’s story will inspire other mothers to find the headspace in their busy lives to pursue their dreams.
