Kelly Louise Marshall is a generous spirit who works in the service of poetry, making sure to share both her own work and the work of others with the world. She tagged me in a note to expand on who I am and why I’m here.

I’m Lisa Fransson, a bilingual author and literary translator as well as a trained yoga instructor. I work through what I hesitate to call health challenges, but basically, if I can have naps in the day I’m fine. I came to Substack after my debut novel was launched in October 2023. I wanted to promote my books and my writing, but found so much more - a community ready to share challenges and to engage on a level I’ve not experienced on any other platform.

My aim on here is to show This Writing Life of mine from all angles, to share the ups and downs, even when I hesitate to do so. It’s not always easy. I recently received the royalty statement for my Swedish children’s books. It was depressing to say the least, and I will share it with you eventually, because that’s why I’m here. Authoring is a lonely profession, rejection is the norm, and when we receive that rejection, or our books don’t sell it’s easy to take it personally. Which is why it’s tough for me to share exactly how many books I didn’t sell from January to June this year.

But writing on Substack has helped me comb through my thoughts around writing, what it means to me, what role I want it to play in my life, and after two years of writing posts on here these are my conclusions:

• Writing is a job.

• The job consists of writing stories.

• A presence on social media is essential to be noticed, but it means nothing if it interferes with you writing stories.

• Because writing stories is the job.

Now I nominate these lovely people to share their stories:

CG Karas

Francesca Bossert

Elina Haverinen

Kay Stratton

Mairi Bontorno