Jessica M. Ayala interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

2020 brought me to the brink of death; 2021 brought me back to life.  I knew what I was destined to do, I just had to learn to get out of my own way in order to do it.

I am a single mother of three girls and one granddaughter, and I am a California girl, born and raised in East Los Angeles now native to Orange County, I spend my days working for the man, and my nights being the WO-man.

After over twenty years in the corporate, non-profit, and startup world in both Criminal Justice and Healthcare, I am now immersed in my own personal journey living to live in my truth and in my purpose.

In April 2021, I published my first two books. In May, I launched my own company My Beautiful Mistakes, LLC. In June, I became a certified life coach specializing in Happiness, PTSD, Emotional Intelligence, and Cognitive Behavior and in December I published my third book, God’s Gift; Becoming.

Before the end of 2022, I have plans to release a humorous tale about dating today based on my personal experiences and a second book filled with nothing but new poetry.  Stay tuned.

When did your love of books begin?

When I was younger, I was into poetry, and I enjoyed reading for school, I adored Shakespeare; but it wasn’t until my late 20’s that I begin to read for pleasure.  It wasn’t until these past couple of years that I begin to read for my soul as I became hungry for knowledge.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

When I was thirteen, I published a poem on Poetry.com but that was the end of my passion for wanting to publish, until 2016.  I was standing in my room after coming home from work and I had an epiphany if you will. I was shown my purpose and was given a little nudge from the man above directing me to write what I thought would be my only book.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

The process of becoming an author has been a little stressful, because I have no idea what I am doing past the actual writing of the books.  I have been extremely hopeful that one day I will wake up and my eBooks on Kindle Unlimited will just take off, but I know the suffering must come first.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

I say, if it's your passion, go for it.  Stay with it and believe in yourself. I wasn’t sure if anyone would read my books, but I have gotten some great feedback and met some of my awesome readers.

Tell us about your book/books:

I worked on writing My Beautiful Mistakes for five years; this is a tale of who I was, what I survived and who I ended up becoming.  It shows how much I had to learn the hard way, that the happily ever after I chased for years, was always within.  Although this was supposed to be my one and only book, this became my second published book and the beginning of an unintended trilogy.

I worked on writing I WAS THE SIDECHICK IN MY OWN RELATIONSHIP for five hours.  This story was never supposed to be written but it was all sort of dropped on my lap.  I had fallen in love with a man who hid not just a wife from me the first time around but hid a girlfriend the second time around and while he was in California meeting my mom and kids and planning our wedding and his relocation.

I worked on writing God’s Gift; Becoming. for five weeks.  This story was decided after I looked back at my past and realized that I wanted my readers to read me and have hope that I would eventually see life for what it was, mine.  I thought this book complimented the others as the perfect ending to a trilogy that was never even meant to be.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

I am new to the writing / reading community, but I do like that I am surrounded by other creators, and I am introduced to new works I may not have found on my own just wandering through Barnes and Noble.  

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

If there was one thing I want readers to know, it would be that these books are written based on the life I have not only lived, but the life I have survived.  I categorize my books as Fictional nonfiction for precautionary (legal) reasons only, and they are completely written from my own point of view from experiences that I myself have gone through.   I want to be the voice for those who suffer in silence, and I want those who have gone through some of what I have gone through… to know that they are not alone.

Where can people connect with you?

People can find me everywhere in the social media world.  I have a temporary website at www.mybeautifulmistakes.org (official one coming soon) I run a Facebook page called On the Couch with Best Believe; I am on Twitter and Instagram at best_believe_26 and I have a podcast at anchor.fm/best-believe called On the Couch with Best Believe (also streams on Spotify)

My books are available on Amazon.com and I have an Author profile on Good Reads and All Author.com