Revisiting Lisa Haden (previously Thomas)

 

I last chatted to Lisa Haden (who was Lisa Thomas at the time) in July 22 (click here to read) and loved her book, Unprecedented times. A lot has happened since then, including a name change, so I was keen to catch up!

'In our chat, we talked about my debut novel “Unprecedented Times”, the first book in the “Alternative History Trilogy”. Since our chat, I’ve had a lot of personal-life issues to contend with, including the loss of two very close family members. As a result, I haven’t released the second book in the trilogy (and the follow-up book to “Unprecedented Times”) as I had planned. 

I have, however, started to write the second instalment and now have a book title and a cover. So far, I haven’t shared this with anyone, but I would love to give your readers a sneak preview of book two, so I’ve attached a copy of the book cover for “New Normal”, which I hope to release this year (2024, time permitting). Oh, and you can now read “Unprecedented Times” free on Kindle Unlimited!
 

Although I haven’t finished writing book two, I have expanded my creativity in other ways. In October 2022 I released my first music single “Rainbow After The Storm”, available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon Music, to name a few. Over the last 15 months, I have released a total of 7 music singles and I have another song coming out in February, which I am very excited about. I have gained a massive 1901 followers on Spotify, where I have between 600 and 700 monthly listeners. Across the 7 songs I have had almost 40,000 streams on Spotify alone, which I am both shocked and thrilled by. 

 

I have also featured on songs from another artist, loaning my vocals to their tracks. This has been a massive step for me in building my confidence, releasing music was something I had always wanted to do, but never had the confidence to see through, until more recently. I have included a graphic of my songs and the songs I have released… feel free to stream my music, which (FYI), you can also use as background music for reels and ads on social media. 

 

In other news, my GIF range (which we discussed in my previous interview) has now reached over 70 million views, which is just completely amazing and totally baffling to me! I now have over 50k followers on X (formerly Twitter), over 8000 followers on IG and I almost have 1000 followers on TikTok, which is incredible given I don’t use TikTok much. 

Also, since our last interview, my divorce has been finalised, I am officially a single mom of three. As a result, I recently changed my surname, back to my maiden name of Lisa Haden. I’ll be honest, I was nervous about rebranding myself from Lisa Thomas, back to Lisa Haden, but I’m thrilled to say so far, it’s going well. My music moved over pretty quickly on Spotify (Apple Music still has half of my songs under the name Lisa Thomas, although the artwork has been updated to my maiden name), and my book “Unprecedented Times” is now showing as Lisa Haden on Amazon, I had the cover edited, so I’ll share that with you here too. Of course, I still need to get my name out there (my new name that is), but so far, so good. 

 

I’ll be honest, it’s been a difficult 18 months since we last spoke, but I finally feel like I’m regaining my life.'

Oh wow, what an 18 months, but I'm so glad to hear things are starting to get better! What does Lisa have planned going forward?

'I have lots of exciting things in the pipeline. As I mentioned in my last answer, I am currently working on book two in the “Alternative History” trilogy, this is going to be called “New Normal”. And book three in the trilogy is thoroughly planned out so I intend to start writing this up as soon as I’ve released the second book. However, I do need a title for this final instalment in the trilogy, so if anyone has any suggestions, please pop your ideas in the comments in this blog… I’d love to hear them!
 

I also have another song coming out in February called “Masquerade Ball”, I believe this song will be available to stream by the time this interview has been published. “Masquerade Ball” is a song about being in a relationship with someone but not really knowing who they were. When you fall for the idea that they loved you, then realise you are in a toxic relationship and you’re being taken for a fool. 

 

After this song has been released, I’m then working on the vocals for someone else’s song, which I’ll add into my “Featured On” playlist (this is pinned to my Spotify profile). I’m constantly writing new lyrics and adding these to my website… so take a look and tell me which lyric you’d like me to turn into a song next!
 

As well as my book and my music, I also have some work to do behind the scenes. Changing my surname has resulted in me having to change my domain name to www.lisamariehaden.com (was lisathomasauthor.com). I’m in the process of updating my website, adding new lyrics (which I’ve written over the last few months), and adding some more personal information about me and my journey. 

 

I’m also (along with my children) creating new GIFs for my GIPHY brand, because all my old GIFs have my old website displayed, therefore, I need to replace these. 

So yes, it’s a busy time, a lot to do, but it’s very exciting and I can’t wait to share this new work with you.'

 

I love this, Lisa's energy seems boundless! To finish up, I asked if there was anything else she'd like to share:

As well as losing family members and getting divorced, I’ve had a lot of other personal issues over the last couple of years, including fighting for support for my son (who is now on the waiting list for an autism assessment), financial problems and almost becoming homeless (due to my landlord not paying his mortgage payments). 

 

Until recently, I’ve kept all of my personal problems pretty much to myself. But the support I have received from people on social media and my ‘fans’ for my music etc. has really helped me through the darkest time of my life. 

 

I recently shared and pinned a new post to my X (Twitter) account, and I’d love to share that here with you, so I can thank all of YOU for the support you have given me throughout these last couple of years, you genuinely don’t know how much you have helped me:

Dear all, please note my new surname and handle!

I’m now using my maiden name Lisa Haden, following my divorce (was Lisa Thomas). My handle is now @lisamariehaden (was lisathomasbooks). http://Linktr.ee has also been updated: https://linktr.ee/lisahaden

Here you can find links to my #website, #book, #songs and my #GIPHY profile (among others). Most of my work has been moved across to my maiden name-some old #bookreviews and #Apple music still use my old name of Thomas.

These last 3 years have been the hardest years of my life, I could not have gotten through it all without the love and support I’ve received from YOU. Over the last decade+ I’ve had my confidence completely stripped away and I’ve been made to feel utterly worthless and entirely useless. I saw nothing good in myself. But I’ve managed to regain some confidence, rediscover myself and have learned to love myself (somewhat). I now value and have more belief in myself than I ever have done before, and that is thanks to my supporters here.

I am forever thankful to each and every one of you. I can’t thank you all enough, but I will continue to show my gratitude by giving back to this wonderful community as much as I can, and by supporting and loving you all 😘 You’re the best #family a girl could ask for. 

Ps) in case you’re wondering how to pronounce my surname: Ha-y-den. And yes, my middle is Marie, I was raised on #Elvis.'

What a wonderful, inspiring lady - I wish her all the best in her new endeavours and I hope you will support her too. To find out more, please click on the links in the post above and below:

Website: https://lisamariehaden.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisamariehaden

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisamariehaden/

 

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Amazing dystopian and fantasy worlds...

I hope you're enjoying this look back in time as much as I am! Now I've a selection of books that inhabit different worlds from our own - the authors' creativity is amazing 🤯 I love these all equally, but do take a look for yourself.

Shane writes stories featuring Gods, Devils, Dragons, Werewolves, Demons, Titans, Vampires and Mortals and they are set in the ALL world. This is his second book in the series and I asked for a tweetable synopsis of Faith (press to tweet)

The world burns and humanity teeters on the edge of annihilation. Heather fights for survival. After she rescues 8 year old Sarah, everything changes A dystopian, postapocalyptic novella.

I'm also delighted to announce that the first book in this series, entitled 'God of Nothing', has just won a bronze medal in the 2022 International Book Awards. 🥳🎉🥳 

Congratulations Shane - it's well deserved!

Take a look at his full interview and book review of 'Faith' here

 

Or how about a different take on the pandemic? 

I absolutely loved this idea and Lisa really delivers in Unprecedented Times - it's another stunner of a novel. A great story is backed up with a huge amount of research, and part of the sale proceeds are going to charity too - exceptional!  

I asked Lisa for a tweetable synopsis of her book (click here):

‘An alternate history where a fragile balance holds tragedy at bay. In a world far darker than it once was, will we risk losing our humanity, for the sake of humanity? Either way, millions will die in these unprecedented times…’

Read the full article here 

Or perhaps you enjoy a fantasy world that's embedded into our own reality:

Mythical creatures are everywhere, we just don't see them!  So if you like Dragons, Weres, Faes, Immortals, Mother Nature, Sorcerers and Shamans then you need to read more here

 

I asked Zel for a tweetable synopsis of Unveiling and she gave me this (press to tweet)

'Failing to compel Nina to forget their encounter, Dan, an ancient vampire, suspects she's no ordinary human, but a being of extraordinary power, all of the Mythical Creatures have been looking for. Unveiling (Mythical Creatures Series Book 1)'

And my final choice is this eerie tale by Liz, which I have a soft spot for as she was my first interviewee (and the most patient!):

I asked Liz for a tweet-sized quote from the book, tweet here

‘A cappuccino.’ He spoke clearly but slowly, as if he was a stranger here.
‘One shot or two?’ He looked like a two-shot kind of guy.
He gazed at me with thinly veiled contempt. ‘Oh, you only get one shot.’

 

This is one of the opening lines and, for me, set the scene, as I had no idea what was going on, and I do love that in a book! Read the full post here

 

The celebrations will continue throughout the week, so watch out for other books you might have missed!

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Author interview Lisa Thomas/ Book review 'Unprecedented Times' (2023 Lisa Haden)

 🥳📚I’m in a party mood - woohoo!🥳📚 

This is my tenth author interview and book review and it’s been an amazing but mad, crazy-busy five months! I’m so grateful to all the wonderful authors who have given me their time. Thank you!

To celebrate I’m thrilled to welcome Lisa Thomas to Tweetables, a debut novelist whose donating part of her book proceeds to charity. So, let's meet her!

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

UPDATE MARCH 2023 - this post won a Most Popular Authors Award

UPDATE OCTOBER 2023 - Lisa has since changed her name to Lisa Haden

I started by asking Lisa to introduce herself.

‘I live in Birmingham, UK with my three children and two cats, because I am clearly a sucker for punishment!  I’m a single mom (separated from my ex-husband in 2020) and a self-employed content writer and digital marketer, so life is pretty busy. 

My two childhood dreams were to write a story I could be proud of and write a song that made people happy.  I was told these were pipedreams and I needed to be more serious, I also suffer from a lack of confidence and a fear of performing, so I didn’t try to do either. I stopped playing and performing music at 18 (and missed it every day) and everything I wrote thereafter I kept to myself.

Then, when I was 35 years old (and feeling like I was barely living half a life), I saw my lack of confidence rubbing off on my kids and decided I needed to start leading by example.  So, I started to push myself out of my comfort zone.  Now I have a self-published novel which I am incredibly proud of, I am playing music again (I even have a YouTube channel), I’ve started lyric writing, and I’ve created my own GIF range which has over 25 million views in less than 12 months. 

I still shy away from the attention and the first time I performed I was shaking like a leaf… but I am not letting my fear (or the opinions of others) hold me back anymore.  While the last few years have been very difficult for me, I am finally seeing the rainbow after the storm and am actually (finally) living a full life, as me (and feeling like I am good enough for a change).’

Aww, it’s nice to hear that she’s coming out the other side now🤗 So now to her book, ‘Unprecedented Times’, which is book one of a trilogy. She describes it as a dystopian Sci-Fi and it was published in 2020. She also has some unpublished children’s stories too but I asked what inspired her to write this book?

‘I had the story idea as soon as COVID first broke out in China (not expecting it to have THIS kind of impact in real life).  I started writing it up (with the intention of keeping it to myself), but later decided to publish.  Partly to lead by example for my children, but also because I wanted to help during the pandemic (I couldn’t due to having 3 young children, home-schooling, working from home and being high-risk myself).  I decided to sell the book to raise funds for charity, my way of giving back when I couldn’t help the world physically.’ 

Oh wow, that’s so lovely! In her book, she makes a point of mentioning how some characters were named but I wondered how she chose them?

‘The female characters were named after strong women throughout history. They are named after Rosa Parks (the black woman who started a civil rights movement when she refused to give her seat on the bus to a white man) and Clara Barton (the founder of the Red Cross). Dr Antonio Vicente’s name and Ben’s name just came to me and fitted perfectly. As there is a lot of cultural diversity in the characters, I have used Google to find names that suit the heritage of the character. If I’m really stuck, I ask my children (and get terrible answers).’

😁😂I’m laughing as I imagine what her kids might suggest! So, what does she enjoy the most and least about writing?

‘I enjoy the freedom it gives me to be who I want, create a world of my own design, and to share my view of the world we live in.  I’m a hopeful, optimistic person with a lot of love in my heart and this is reflected in my writing.  I get the chance to put ME into my work and until recently I’ve never felt like me is enough, unless I was writing.

The hardest part for me is marketing myself and my book, I worry about annoying people too much. I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone, but I am far from being confident, so approaching literary agents etc, is a little overwhelming.  Getting my book ‘to the next level’, is proving most the biggest challenge for me.’  

This is such a common theme with the authors I’ve interviewed and I wish I could wave a magic wand and make talented authors like Lisa realise how brilliant they are (and tease her out from behind that book cover!).

So, knowing that she’s not too confident of her work, I wondered if she reads the reviews of her work and how she deals with both the bad and good ones?

‘I do read them, I can’t help it.  So far, I’ve only had good reviews, so I guess when I get my first bad one I’ll sob a little… In all honesty, I expect a bad review at some point.  This story won’t be for everyone, the same way my favourite show won’t be for everyone, or my famous spicy curry, won’t be for everyone.  The beauty of life is that we are all different, so when I do get that bad review I intend to chalk it up to that person just being different to me and liking different things.  That is, of course, unless the reviewer were to be very negative about my writing capabilities, in that case, I think my confidence would take a little knock back… but it can be built back up again.’

Aww, that’s understandable but I have noticed that more experienced writers, such Amanda Sterczyk in April (read here) or Helen Sedgwick last month (read here) have found great coping mechanisms for negative reviews, so I think that comes with time.

So what’s her favourite book?

‘Jane Eyre.  I have lots of favourite stories, but this was my first favourite.  I love the era and I related to the character, I loved her defiance, her strong will and her desire to always do the right thing even though that’s rarely the easiest thing. She embodies the person I wanted to become, a strong person with a good heart.’ 

I wondered, if Lisa could go back in time and chat to herself, what advice would she give her younger writing self?

‘Don’t stop writing and DON’T throw away what you have written (I used to always throw my work away). Be brave enough to share your work and put yourself out there, perfection isn’t important and what people think isn’t important, if you be true to you and do what you enjoy.’

Ouch to throwing the work away (don’t ever do that!) but I’m cheering her positive outlook. I asked her, if she could say something directly to you, her potential reader, what she would say?

‘My story is in part devastating and heart breaking, but it also inspires hope and love, it encourages you to reflect on yourself and question yourself, most of all it reminds us that we are all equals and we are better together.  My message to my readers, “please look after each other, help those less fortunate than you, never forget that we are better together and always remember that I think you are amazing!”.’

I feel so fortunate that my 10^th interview is with such a wonderful author – I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking she’s amazing (and that she deserves to know that too!). She told me that she has a fabulous mantra too, ‘Live a full life. Learn with no constraints. Laugh with no control. Love with no conditions.’

I think that’s something we should all aim for! To finish up, I asked Lisa for a tweetable synopsis of her book (click here):

‘An alternate history where a fragile balance holds tragedy at bay. In a world far darker than it once was, will we risk losing our humanity, for the sake of humanity? Either way, millions will die in these unprecedented times…’

And I also asked for a tweetable-sized favourite extract from the book too (tweet here):

‘…the mind is ever-evolving and learning.  While the heart on the other hand, feels what it feels, no amount of reasoning or data can change it.  As such our hearts can change our minds, but the mind is powerless against the heart.’

BOOK REVIEW

I was attracted to ‘Unprecedented Times’ because I wondered how an alternate take on the pandemic would work. It seemed a clever idea, weaving real facts through a dystopian story, but is Covid still too raw? I didn’t know but as this was a debut indie novel and the author was donating some of the sale proceeds to charity, I had to give it a try!

I liked the concept of the novel from the start. Using a phone screen image with messages to begin the story felt fresh and modern. This is how we meet Clara, an interesting protagonist who I instantly connected with:

‘Settling into an oversized armchair for one, Clara opened her book and found her place. It was a book she had selected from the reading list of the master’s degree she desperately wanted to study, but was still a year from being able to afford.’

Lisa embeds real facts in the action, rather than giving you pages of dense information, which was great. As readers, we have a unique perspective on the unfolding events, one the characters don’t enjoy and it makes for an interesting dynamic. Here’s an extract from when Clara’s boss at the WHO calls her into work but she doesn’t know why, and she ponders it over on her journey in:

‘She had no way of guessing what the problem was...but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try. Was it another humanitarian crisis? Perhaps the civil war in Yemen had suddenly escalated causing more people to need humanitarian aid? Or perhaps it was another emergency, like last year, when Cyclone Idai seriously damaged over 50 healthcare facilities in Mozambique and the WHO stepped in to help.’

The story is told through multiple points of view and I loved the unusual way it unfolds - we follow Clara moving forwards in time, whilst her twin Rosa’s tale is told backwards. This means the first chapter is with Clara at the start of the pandemic, but the second is Rosa’s story a year later, then we bounce back to Clara at the start again and so it continues. It’s very interesting and Lisa minimises confusion by signposting whose point-of-view we’re following, along with a date-stamp, and it was very satisfying to see how the timelines merged at the end.

You can feel the characters’ angst as events unfurl, much like the horror we’ve all experienced, and Lisa paints it extremely well. The pace is great and I flew through the book (more late nights as I read another chapter, and then another!) although I was slightly frustrated that it’s series because I wanted to know what happened next! Being super-impatient (yes, really!), I asked how long I would have to wait and was relieved to find out she hopes to have the second book out before Christmas, the final being published in 2023. However, she’s a busy mom so there are no promises but I’ve got everything crossed - I’m ready!

I can highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sci-fi /dystopian fiction but as we’ve all lived through the pandemic, I think this could engage a far wider audience. I can see it making a great TV drama! This is a fabulous debut novel from an exciting new author and I’ll certainly be following Lisa’s career with interest.

Why not find out more by visiting the link to all of Lisa’s sites at: https://linktr.ee/lisathomasauthor.

Or visit:

Website: https://lisamariehaden.com/ (updated 2024)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisamariehaden (new handle Oct 23)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLisaThomas

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisamariehaden/ (updated 2024)

You can also find her on YouTube, TikTok, Amazon Author profile, Goodreads author profile, GIPHY, links to her media mentions and lyrics.

Feel free to pop a comment below - I'd love to hear from you😁

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