This is a true story about an author from London, The Uff Da Sisters (that’s us - Teresa and Lavonne), and the magic of the Eurostar train.

In 2022, Teresa and I were in Norway with our two sisters when we decided to tack a few days in London onto the end of our trip. Why not, right? And since we were going to be in London, we figured we might as well take the train to Paris for the day. Just because we could.

On the morning of our Parisian escapade, we got up at an uncivilized hour and made our way to St. Pancras Station. We joined hundreds of equally sleepy travelers, all hovering like caffeine-starved zombies, waiting for the restaurants to open so we could get coffee and breakfast. The wait felt eternal.

Eventually, we boarded the Eurostar and settled into our four-seat table setup, hopeful that we might get the entire space to ourselves. No such luck. Just before the train doors closed, a woman hurried onboard and slid into the seat across from us.

We exchanged introductions and learned it was her birthday and that she was heading to Paris to celebrate with friends. The train ride takes about two hours and fifteen minutes, and we ended up chatting for nearly the entire journey. Conversations flowed easily (travel, life, London) but oddly, we didn’t touch on books until we were about 30 minutes from Paris.

Why that didn’t come up earlier is still a mystery.

As fate would have it, our new friend, Kirstin, is a children’s picture book author. Not only that, she had samples with her. We dove in. She told us about her publishing journey, showed us her books, explained how she found her illustrator, and answered every question we could think of.

It was like having our very own publishing mentor delivered straight to our train car. Being newbies in our author journey, we soaked up every word.

Before parting ways in Paris, we exchanged contact information (a rare burst of wisdom on our part). Once I got home, I emailed her a thank-you note for the conversation, the inspiration, and just for being delightful.

She replied right away. As it turned out, she was about to give a presentation on Kickstarter to her group of indie authors. In ten minutes. Would I like to join?

Yes, yes I would.

I jumped on the call and met her group, including a highly recommended editor named Bobbie. We hired Bobbie to review our first manuscript. When she finished, we asked, “Now what?” We really had no idea what we were doing.

She referred us to another knowledgeable woman, April, who coaches authors, teaches self-publishing, and runs a mastermind group. And as if that weren’t enough, she had a curated contact list of illustrators, designers, formatters, printers. Basically the holy grail for indie authors.

We were off to the races. Before long, our first book was up on Amazon.

If we hadn’t met Kirstin on the train… if I hadn’t joined that Zoom call… if Bobbie hadn’t referred us to April… where would we be now?

Kirstin started it all.

Today, Bobbie is still our editor, we’re active members in April’s author group, and we use her illustrator and designer referrals. Best of all, Kirstin is now a friend.

That, dear reader, is what you call serendipity.

P.S. Keep an eye out for Kirstin as our featured author this month!