“There’s a story in everything. If you just look in your environment or the people you’re around, or you listen to other people talking, there’s a story, and if there’s a story, you have a vision. Just start writing.”
Nurse Turned Author: How Avalon Brown Self-Published
Becoming a nurse turned author rarely happens on purpose. For Avalon Brown, a registered nurse with 43 years of healthcare experience, it started with a habit: writing down small thoughts on paper whenever they came to her.
Those scattered notes eventually became her first book, written while she was still working as a nurse and processing the difficulties of her career. A mentor at her church finally told her to stop talking about writing a book and just write it — advice that launched a body of work spanning nursing memoirs, children’s books, educational anthologies, and poetry.
From Nursing Career to Published Author
After retiring in 2023, Avalon shifted into full-time writing. She didn’t just write her own story — she created a platform for others. Her nursing anthology series invited working nurses from different specialties to each contribute a chapter, covering topics like burnout, nurse bullying, and mentorship in the profession.
Where Her Children’s Books Come From
Avalon’s children’s books aren’t invented from scratch. They come from real moments: a granddaughter who kept catching colds, a squirrel digging up a church garden, a car seat safety event at a local firehouse. Each observation became a picture book, often starring her own grandchildren as the characters.
The Real Challenge Wasn’t Writing
Ask Avalon what’s hardest about being an author, and she won’t say writing. It’s marketing. Without a big publishing budget, she sells books directly at book fairs and festivals, and has learned to self-publish after starting out with a traditional publisher.
Her advice for anyone sitting on an idea: start writing it down, even if it’s just fragments on paper. Given enough time, those fragments become a manuscript.
Want the full conversation, including how her nursing series grew into a planned seven-book collection? Listen to the full episode. https://tinyurl.com/Progress-and-Purpose-Podcast
Episode Highlights:
03:23 Meet Avalon Brown: From Nursing Career to Author
05:57 Her Biggest Obstacle: Marketing a Self-Published Book
08:17 How a Book Festival Sparked Her Children’s Books
10:51 Finding Story Ideas in Everyday Life
12:42 Inside Her 7-Book Nursing “How to Flourish” Series
13:46 Where to Find Avalon Brown’s Books
17:13 Her #1 Advice for Aspiring Authors
18:29 From Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing
19:54 Key Takeaways and Final Words of Encouragement
Resources:
🚙A Trip to the Park: https://bit.ly/40Lvv6h
🤝🏽Friends Like Different Things: https://bit.ly/4ocAQxq
🍟 Fun Time Lunch Time: https://bit.ly/4odUCJ1
😤 When I Feel So Annoyed: https://bit.ly/4l6WSPt
Meet Avalon:
Avalon Soulette Brown is a passionate author, storyteller, and educator whose mission is to inspire, encourage, and empower readers through the written word. Since publishing her first book, It Was the Devil All Along, in 2021, she has built a growing collection of books that span children’s literature, Christian inspiration, memoirs, nursing education, poetry, and collaborative anthologies.
Whether she is writing heartwarming stories for children, faith-filled books that strengthen the spirit, or practical guides that encourage professional growth, Avalon writes with authenticity, compassion, and purpose. Her children’s books celebrate family, imagination, kindness, and life lessons, often featuring her grandchildren as beloved characters. Her memoirs and inspirational works reflect resilience, faith, and the power of overcoming life’s challenges, while her nursing publications draw upon decades of experience to mentor and inspire healthcare professionals.
Avalon believes every book should leave a lasting impression. Her goal is not simply to tell stories, but to create books that educate, encourage meaningful conversations, strengthen faith, and inspire readers to pursue their own purpose with courage and confidence.
Before becoming a full-time author, Avalon devoted 43 years to the nursing profession, where she served with excellence in clinical practice, leadership, and mentorship. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), and her extensive healthcare experience continues to shape many of her non-fiction works.
Quotes:
02:46 “Whatever you work on, you put prayer behind.” —Dr. Jim Price
05:12 “Sometimes you never know where your path is going to bring you in terms of the things that you do.” —Dr. Jim Price
14:34 “When you enjoy what you’re doing, it makes a difference. It makes you really want to push harder and push further to do whatever you’re doing and do it holistically, where you’re putting all the great effort behind everything.” —Dr. Jim Price
14:59 “Nursing became my passion. But I’m 69; it’s time for me to rest, so that’s why I can put my experience in books.” —Avalon Brown
16:10 “At that moment, God put that on my heart, and I put those words out.” —Avalon Brown
17:16 “There’s a story in everything. If you just look in your environment or the people you’re around, or you listen to other people talking, there’s a story, and if there’s a story, you have a vision. Just start writing.” —Avalon Brown
19:37 “You commit to positive change by going on these paths of growth and understanding, and want to help your community to be better and do better.” —Dr. Jim Price
transcript:
Avalon Brown: What I have found over the years in writing, there’s a story in everything. If you just look in your environment or the people you’re around, or you listen to other people talking, there’s a story. And if there’s a story, or you have a vision, or you have a thought that yeah, I would like to write about that, just start writing. When I first started out, I was writing on paper. I was writing everything out on paper. I was writing on the paper. Then I started writing on the computer. But I was jotting little things down here and there every day. Something came to my head. I jot it down again. Jot it down again. So by then, you have a whole book. You just need to sit and put it together.
Dr. Jim Price: Hello, I’m Dr. Jim Price, and welcome to The Purpose and Progress Podcast. This is the place where we explore how purpose can guide our actions, and how growth can become a part of our everyday lives. On the show, I talk with amazing guests, from educators and creators to everyday people with extraordinary stories about the challenges they face, the lessons they’ve learned, and how to keep moving forward. My goal is to share conversations that inspire you to live intentionally, embrace growth, and take meaningful steps to your own purpose. Let’s get started.
Hello, everyone. Once again, welcome to The Purpose and Progress Podcast Show. I’m your host, Dr. Jim Price. And here on this show, we share inspirational stories from inspirational people who are doing great things to help others, inspire others, uplift others, motivate others. And today is no different. We have a wonderful guest with us. She’s a registered nurse, healthcare leader, author, speaker, and mentor with more than 43 years of experience serving patients and developing healthcare professionals. After retiring from nursing in 2023, she began a new chapter as an author writing children’s books, memoirs, inspirational works, nursing educational resources, and contributing to 10 anthologies. Drawing on her Christian faith and decades of leadership experience, she shares practical lessons on resilience, purpose, perseverance, and overcoming adversity to inspire others to grow through life challenges. Here today, we have Avalon Brown as our guest. How are you doing, Avalon?
Avalon Brown: I’m doing so good. So great today.
Dr. Jim Price: It’s so great to have you on the show today, and being to motivate and inspire is what we do. I always say, whatever you work behind, you put prayer behind it so you could push that. And big things happen. I definitely put prayer in everything I do, and I always say that openly a lot. Prayer changes things and stuff like that. It’s such a great thing to have you on the show today so you can share your story, your journey and stuff like that, and how things have transpired with you. I think the first thing we want to get into is, when do you feel that your journey kind of started? What influenced you to start your journey to where you are today?
Avalon Brown: Are we talking about nursing? Or are we talking about as an author?
Dr. Jim Price: From nursing to the author.
Avalon Brown: For nursing, I was still doing nursing. Around 2012 is when the writing started. While I was still in nursing, I had been going through so many adversities in my nursing career. I kept saying, I’m gonna write a book. I’m gonna put the things that’s going on in the book. I’m gonna put the things that’s going on in the book. And I kept saying that. In 2012, I went out with my knee, and I was at church, and the mother said, you keep talking about that book. Go and write it. So that was my very first book where I wrote about my nursing career. Every time I had time, I continued writing. So after retiring, I decided that I’m gonna be a full time author. So I just continued writing, and I was going to redo the nursing book that I did in 2012. But then I had the idea that, let me bring some other nurses. And maybe other nurses would like to tell a story. And that was the first anthology that I was actually the visionary in. It was called, So from there, I got 10 other nurses to come and tell their story. The things that they went through in nursing. And why it did not make them quit the profession. Because I know a lot of nurses are starting to leave the profession, but I found 10 nurses that are still working. They were from different specialties, and they all wrote their story. They all have a chapter in the book.
Dr. Jim Price: Wow, that’s amazing! Sometimes, you never know where your path is going to bring you to in terms of the things that you do. Nursing field, and now all of a sudden, you move forward. Now, you’re writing books and memoirs in terms of helping the healthcare industry in that way. That’s such a blessing and fabulous that you were able to turn your passion into something that can be tangible and helpful to other healthcare providers. That’s fabulous. If you were to say the obstacles that you might have faced in terms of not just in the healthcare industry, but when as you became getting into the industry where you were doing children’s books and stuff, and maybe some of the obstacles or challenges that you faced as you were going through those aspects of growing yourself in that way.
Avalon Brown: I think the biggest obstacle for my children’s book, for any of my books, is the marketing. I don’t have an issue with writing. I can just write, write, write. But when it comes to marketing, that’s the issue because you need funds, you need strategies to market and sell your books. I do try to go to book fairs or book festivals, get a table and sell my books there. This is what’s helping me get the word out, and even volunteer and donate books just so the word gets out there, especially the nursing books. Because I’m the visionary of at least three anthologies where I brought other nurses to talk about. We did one on nurse bullying, because people don’t realize how much nurse bullying goes on in the profession. And then I did one for the educators. I have six educators to write their experience and just something for the next generation to how they can help the next generation. I gave them some pointers because they are either nursing instructors or they’re nursing educators in the hospital. So they wrote their story. They each have a chapter in the book. I was a certified preceptor. So when new nurses came to the floor, I was that nurse that was assigned to the new nurse to train them.
Dr. Jim Price: And I think we definitely share that experience. Me being a children’s author too, I didn’t know anything about promoting, marketing. I got to the point where I published one book, and it’s like, okay, now I have a book. Now what? I had no clue to figure it out. Just fall into things, I guess, and just figure things out as I go along. And learn as I go along. I can totally relate to how that could be. And a lot of the times, when you’re trying to promote stuff, you’re investing in yourself. People see a lot of things, but you’re investing in yourself. Talking about your children’s books a little bit, and we’re both children book authors also. Tell us a little bit about your children’s books and what the focus is.
Avalon Brown: Well, what started my children’s books was I was at a book festival, and I met a teacher that’s from my town. And she said, why don’t you start writing? Do you write children’s books in your profession? And I was like, no. I never even thought about doing children’s books. Because back then, I was just writing. I had written one book, so then I sat down and I thought about it. And I said, you know what? I do have a granddaughter that’s always having a cold. So that was my first children’s book, Mommy, why do I have a cold?. And because at the time, I was working as an infection control nurse, and we were training the staff on hand washing. And so I said, I’ll show something about having a cold, the germs. So that was my first children’s book. And it was pictures, because I always do a picture book. And it started from there. Then what happened? I have seven grands and three great grands. Of course, I used the first grand, and her name was on the book, which made me have to do a book for each grand. So all my children’ books, my grandchildren are the characters. Except for a couple of books or just stories that I heard, and I decided to make it a children’s book. My grandchildren are all the characters in the book.
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Dr. Jim Price: That’s amazing. How people are inspired with their characters in the book is something like, you have all your grandkids. For me it was more based on me with the glasses. And when I was in high school, of course, I had a little high top fade and everything like that. My main character embodies elements of myself. I totally can relate to that. Connecting it to family and things like that, and having to be something that’s created that’s also helpful and inspiring to kids, families and communities, which is much needed these days in that sense. That is fabulous.
Avalon Brown: My last two children’s books have nothing to do with my granddaughter. It was just a story that I heard in church when one of the mothers, and the church has a beautiful garden. But then there’s a squirrel that’s tearing up her flowers, tearing up garden, digging up her grass, and I just took and made a story out of that. And then the firehouse down the corner every first of the month, they have what they call car seat safety day. So you can drive up to the firehouse and they’ll check the car seats. And I happen to be walking by and stop, and start talking to the firemen. And then I end up doing a story, doing a children’s book on that, like a car seat adventure, and just made up a child in the story.
Dr. Jim Price: Wow, that’s what ended up happening. Places inspire the stories. Most of my stuff comes from when I’m looking at the kids at recess because I’m an educator at recess and watching. Oh yes, yes, absolutely. Do you have the other ones with you too that you could tell?
Avalon Brown: The squirrel, the Lady and The Squirrel.
Dr. Jim Price: Yes. Oh, my goodness. That’s wonderful. That’s a blessing. A lot of people don’t understand, they aspire to be authors. But sometimes, that journey is so tough and difficult just to get over the hump to even get to that point where you actually can have a tangible piece in your hand to say, I’ve done this. I’ve overcome the challenges. I’ve overcome the obstacles to be able to create something that’s whole holistically good and helpful to families and communities. Oh, my goodness, that is wonderful. I’m sure you have future projects that are probably in the work, what would you say for the future projects? Let’s talk about future projects a little bit.
Avalon Brown: What I am working on now is a nursing series. I have three books so far. I’m working on number four. What I’m doing is like a how-to book, so how to flourish. And what I’m doing is taking my experience, because I’ve held different titles, a charge nurse, clinical manager, a kidney transplant designee, a vascular nurse. So it’s like how to become a charge nurse, how to become a clinical manager, how to flourish in your profession. So I have three books so far on the series on Amazon. It’s going to end up being seven books once I finish. I’m working on book number four now.
Dr. Jim Price: Wow, that’s amazing. Once again, could you tell the audience where they can purchase all the books, and maybe a website. The work is so wonderful, and I definitely want the audience to purchase all your work and things like that. Where could they purchase some of your work, or all of your work if they want to?
Avalon Brown: So my website, if you go to my website, it’s authoravalonsbrown.com, and you just click on the books. The book’s going to take you straight to Amazon. Yes. So that’s the best way to see all of my books, I have so many. It’s about four pages, but I have quite a few books. Because I’ve been retired for three years now, so I’m just sitting down writing.
Dr. Jim Price: Hey, bad to do that. I always think about retirement. I’m like, oh, I still have a little ways to go. But I’m also not trying to work till I’m like 85. You know what I mean? So it’s almost like you plan and things like that. But when you have the opportunity to do things and do things that you’re passionate about, do things that you really enjoy doing, it makes a difference. When people go to work, some people love their job, some people don’t. But when you can go to a job and enjoy what you’re doing, it makes a difference. It makes you really want to push harder and further to do whatever you’re doing, and do it holistically where you’re putting all the great effort behind everything.
Avalon Brown: All of your effort. Because for me, nursing became my passion. I really miss nursing, but I’m tired. I put it like that. I’m 69. It’s time for me to rest, so that’s why I can put my experience in books.
Dr. Jim Price: Absolutely. That’s such a blessing. I’m so happy that you bring your talents to the world. That’s what you’re doing when you’re publishing and making books. You’re bringing your talents to the world to help, and then motivate, and inspire others to be the best versions of themselves. To see things from a different perspective that they may not have ever seen before in that way, or thought of it in that way. That’s an inspirational message just in itself that you’re sharing, and how you’re doing the children’s books and the memoirs. I mean, you’re definitely a busy person. You’re definitely busy.
Avalon Brown: Yes. Because I actually have a poetry book. That’s just something that came out of the air. I have a spiritual poetry book. I was sitting down one day, and I just decided, when you go to church and the pastor has his thoughts for the day, and you write it down. And I was just sitting, and I was like, you know what? All these thoughts I have in my tablet, I turned them into poems. But they’re really real life things that a person goes through. So that’s where the poetry book. Now, I may not ever write another poetry book. But at that moment, God put that on my heart, and I put those words out.
Dr. Jim Price: Yeah. Wow. Some people are in a niche of things, but you’re just multitalented. Like your poetry, healthcare, children. You’re really multifaceted in the way that you’re able to just be very forthgoing with your talent and stuff like that. Yeah, wonderful. That’s all a blessing. People, talent is a blessing. You’re blessed with talent. And sometimes, people are able to utilize those talents for the good. And some people just don’t tap into their talent at all. Or they’re blessed with their talents, and lose out on that opportunity to grow and expand themselves in that way. Wow, that’s amazing story. If you were to give an advice to people who are the audience that is watching this, maybe haven’t published it, they’re trying to get to where you are or do the things, some of the things you’re doing, the success that you’ve already have now, what advice would you give to the audiences watching that wants to maybe go on that path and say, hey, you know what? I want to do that. What would you say to the audience in that in that regard? That’s my advice.
Avalon Brown: What I have found over the years in writing, there’s a story in everything. If you just look in your environment or the people you’re around, or you listen to other people talking. There’s a story. And if there’s a story, or you have a vision, or you have a thought that, yeah, I would like to write about that. Just start writing. When I first started out, I was writing on paper. I was writing everything out on paper. I was writing on the paper. Then I started writing on the computer. But I was jotting little things down here and there every day. Something comes to my head, I jot it down again. Jot it down again. So by then, you have a whole book. You just need to sit and put it together, and get it published. Now, when I first was told to go write the book, I didn’t know how. How do I write a book? How am I gonna find out how to publish it? Go to the library. At the time, I went to the library, and they had a whole section on how to get your books published. So I did start out with traditional publishing, but as I went down the road and started going to book fairs, and started networking with other authors. I found out how to self-publish, so I now self-publish my own books.
Dr. Jim Price: Wow, that’s amazing. People could have just transformed. Because a lot of people, I also have to understand that you also write books, but it’s still a business, and you’re advertising. You’re promoting your business and stuff like that. Writing these books, you’re being helpful to others, but it’s still part of that business aspect of things where you’re trying to promote a market and other things of that nature. That’s such great advice. I know our artist definitely appreciates that you share honest advice about how to maybe go on that path and where they want to go on into. If there’s someone who wants to go on that path and do those kinds of things, and that’s so inspiring, could you share just your website again for the audience. And the books.
Avalon Brown: authoravalonsbrown.com.
Dr. Jim Price: Excellent. I want the audience to definitely support Avalon and her purpose of helping in the healthcare industry, and helping the children’s, families and community. And those are how you commit to change, to positive change. That’s not in your local communities, but across the world too. You commit to positive change by going on these paths of growth, and understanding, and want to help your community to be better, and do better. And I know you put prayer behind it. And the power of prayer behind all that stuff that you’re doing, it just can help elevate you to another level of being able to help others, transpire to be better, have people want to be better and do better. This has definitely been a fabulous interview. I’m just so blessed that you were able to be a part of the podcast show. Of course, I always say, we always want to inspire change, growth. Because progress, you have to take action, and action becomes growth so we continue to share these motivational, inspirational stories of people.
Avalon Brown: I appreciate being here.
Dr. Jim Price: Definitely. I always like to say, we motivate others, we inspire others, and want others to be the best versions of themselves they can be. And I always say, it’s always good to try to inspire others in that way. And today, everybody’s definitely gifted to be able to experience the story today. So as we close out today, we always say, prayer changes things. And once again, this is The Purpose and Progress podcast show. I’m your host, Dr. Jim Price. And I always say, stay prayed up, and stay blessed. We’ll see you next time.
Thank you for joining me on this episode of The Purpose in Progress Podcast. I hope today’s conversation gave you insight, inspiration, or a fresh perspective to help you move forward with purpose. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little encouragement. You can also support the podcast through the donation link in the show notes. Every contribution helps us keep sharing stories that uplift and inspire. Remember, your purpose is waiting, and progress never stops. I’ll see you next time.