UnStuck: A Guest Post by Natalia Hooker
- Kali Kuzma
- Sep 15
- 4 min read
Writing From Inspiration
I've had many posts on the blog encouraging writers to use inspiration as their main source when it comes to writing their story.
I've always found the writing to come easy because you already know what happened and the emotion behind it is real and raw.
So it's great to see when other writers do just that when it comes to their storytelling. Today we have on Natalia Hooker who took true events and wrote a novel. Let's see what she has to say about her book and her writing process.
UnStuck
By Natalia Hooker
UnStuck is a light-hearted and inspirational story based on true events. A must-read for anyone who dreams of leaving their day job for a creative career.
UnStuck will be released on Amazon in February 2025.
Luna is a banker in New York with a lucrative position and all the perks, however, her impending thirtieth birthday makes her reevaluate her life. Fueled by a romance, Luna defies her previous do-good-for-my-resume attitude and leaves it all behind to follow her passion to learn languages and have a creative career.
Before long she starts a new life in the fashion capital, Milan. With Prosecco corks flying, Italy delivers plenty of excitement. One night out she poses the question to two exotic acquaintances: Wanna start a girl-band? Luna is finally living her dream, but getting the band into motion involves trapeze-like antics.
"Natalia, thank you for writing this fun, adventurous and romantic book which demonstrates that when we follow our heart and soul, and live life fearlessly, anything and everything is possible."
Marina Miletic, New Mexico, USA
An avid traveller, Natalia was born in Australia but since then has lived and worked in Warsaw, London, New York, Paris and Milan. Finally settling in Barcelona, she enjoys the beach life and the vibrance of the Spanish culture. Since she was twelve years old it was her dream to travel, learn languages and be a published author.
Natalia was inspired to write UnStuck because she hopes to give other women motivation to follow their dreams, no matter how crazy those dreams might seem. The book is a fun read for women aged 15-40.
UnStuck is based on real events in her life. Natalia finished the first draft of the book years ago but then work, other books, having a baby and ‘life’ happened. Natalia says, “A certain distance from the manuscript is good. Going back to it years later with fresh eyes, I managed to edit it down significantly, and I am extremely happy with the result. Because it is all based on a true story, it was hard to leap to share it with the world.”
Natalia is the kind of writer who writes in bursts. She writes a lot consistently for a certain period of time to get a book written, but then usually leaves it for a while before coming back to it. “I am not the type of writer that does a minimum of an hour of day,” she says. “When I am on a roll, I like to have many hours in a day to devote to writing.”
Natalia has worked in publishing for nearly twenty years, and has published eighteen of her own books, both adult and children’s titles. She is also a writing consultant, so she helps other authors edit and publish their books.
When her first book, LJ Hooker The Man: The Untold Story of an Australian Icon, was written in 2010, she chose to self-publish. “I wanted control of the project and to publish the book in my way. My agent and publisher had a different idea for my book, so I went solo to create and publish the book how I envisioned it. I have no regrets! I enjoyed the process so much, that I continued to publish my own books.
“The first book I self-published in the ‘old-school’ way, printing 5,000 copies in China. Thank goodness they all sold! But logistics with printed copies can be tough, so I am a huge advocate of print-on-demand. At first, I used Ingram Spark, but it was a bit fiddly. I will continue to use it, however, but I am now mainly devoted to using Amazon, and I am enjoying it. They allow free promotions and offer a lot of tools to help authors get their books out there.
“Self-publishing is basically free and you have liberty to change the books at a later date, if you wish to. I have added some fun-fact pages to my children’s books, Misha the Travelling Puppy series, and it’s great to be able to improve your book without republishing it.”
In Natalia’s book UnStuck, life for Luna, the main character, turns on its head when she leaves her corporate life in pursuit of a creative career. The story starts in New York but then takes the reader on a tour through Europe in Paris, Milan and Barcelona.
Natalia says, “My next project will be to refine and edit UnBlock, the sequel to UnStuck, which is set in Barcelona. In the next book, Luna, the girl band party girl, goes spiritual. It’s a light-hearted look at changing our life habits!
“I am constantly writing new books. I have a gorgeous series about puppies who travel the world, to teach children about different countries – Misha the Travelling Puppy. Another recent book I published is Flower Book: a children’s fable about the importance of rain.”
Natalia’s favorite genre to read is memoir, but she says she also gets completely hooked by a good novel. She is a huge advocate of living the life of our dreams. She doesn’t promise it’s easy but says you will have no regrets.
Please follow Natalia!
@alayabooks
Guest Post Wrap Up
What a great post by Natalia! It's amazing to see her succeed as well as helping others in the publishing industry. Seeing someone do both self publishing and traditional publishing is definitely an inspiration.
Like she mentioned in her post go check her out and see what other books she had published over the years.
You can also check out some of the latest guest posts including self-publishing authors Amanda Kute or Nadja Bullis. If you would like to be featured on the blog, please feel free to reach out at kalikuzma@gmail.com.
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