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.
“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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