So, I am at the office chatting with a colleague, who congratulates me on my book and tells me that he has purchased a copy online in anticipation of my Book Release event.

“Thank you,” I smile, “I would give you a copy right now if I had a spare, but I only have the one I am about to give to Annalisa”

“Ah, yes” he replies, “Because she is a writer too”

“She is?”

“Well, unless her Facebook page is lying, she already has two books to her name?”

“She does?” I am in total shock, mouth hanging open.

This lady has been extremely excited and supportive about my book, so to think that all along she was a published writer already, has me completely astonished.

As soon as the other colleague leaves, I log into Amazon.com and look up her name.

There she is in a delightful photo, Hey, I don’t have a photo on my Amazon profile page yet, I scroll further…this girl has THREE novels and a ten part super hero e-book series. WHAT???

I am excited. I am jealous. I am annoyed. Why did she not tell me??? There I was, talking about my self-publishing experience and inviting her to my book release. I felt like a right idiot.

I bought her book on my kindle immediately.

The next morning, I sent her an email – “I have discovered a writer I think you might like. Let me know when I can come over to chat”. She indicates that she is available, so I walk into her office bubbling with excitement, “I just read this really awesome e-book by a lady writer, I really enjoyed this book. I think you might like it too. Look, isn’t this a cool cover picture? Do you know this writer???” I show her the book.

We share a good laugh!

And so began a new side to our relationship. We are no longer just corporate colleagues, no longer just fellow moms to young children, no longer just immigrants loving our New York experience, we have discovered much more in common – we are passionate about stories, we are passionate about Women’s Stories, we are passionate about telling these stories in writing…even as we show up as our “usual” selves daily at the office.

We are Secret Writers!