Today we’d like to introduce you to Wy’ Brown.
Hi Wy’, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My author journey began from one of the most difficult seasons of my life. I never imagined that my personal health struggles would eventually lead me to becoming a published author, but sometimes purpose is born from the very experiences we never would have chosen for ourselves.
For more than 30 years, I built my life around working, leadership, customer service, and being a mother. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management and established a career that I was proud of. Writing a book was not necessarily part of the plan.
Then my health began to change.
What started with unexplained pain and symptoms eventually became months of doctor appointments, specialists, testing, misdiagnoses, and uncertainty. I went from being extremely independent and accustomed to pushing through everything to having days when simply getting out of bed could feel like an accomplishment. Eventually, after a long journey searching for answers, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
That diagnosis changed so much for me; not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. I was dealing with chronic pain, overwhelming fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, depression, and the grief that comes with realizing that the life and body you once knew may look different.
During that season, journaling became a way for me to process what I was experiencing. The more I journaled, the more I realized my story wasn’t only about me. I thought about other women sitting in doctors’ offices wondering why no one seemed to understand them, women struggling privately with chronic illness, and women grieving who they used to be. At a breaking point in my journey I asked God for direction and he said put it in a book, and so I did.
Those journal entries became Still Me: Finding Strength Through Fibromyalgia.
Publishing my first book was the beginning of something much bigger than I originally envisioned.
Still Me grew into a series and a platform through which I could share not only the realities of living with fibromyalgia, but also messages about faith, mental health, resilience, self-care, and learning how to embrace yourself when life doesn’t look the way you expected.
My journey as an author continues as I work on additional books in the Still Me series. One of the most meaningful parts of this journey has been realizing that I don’t have to wait until everything is perfect or until I’m completely on the other side of my struggle to have something valuable to share.
I’m still living this journey.
I’m still learning my new normal. I’m still navigating difficult days. I’m still growing in my faith. And I’m still discovering who I am in this chapter of my life.
That’s really where the name Still Me comes from.
Chronic illness may have changed many things about my life, but underneath the diagnoses, limitations, and unexpected changes, I’m still me.
Today, I consider myself not only an author, but an advocate and a survivor. My hope is that through my books and my story, another woman going through her own difficult season will feel seen, understood, and reminded that her life still has meaning and purpose; even when it looks completely different from what she planned.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, my journey as an author has definitely not been a smooth road. In many ways, becoming an author has required me to learn as I go while navigating the same health challenges that inspired me to write in the first place.
One of my biggest struggles has been learning the self-publishing process. When I started, I didn’t have a publishing team behind me. I had to learn about manuscript formatting, editing, book covers, Amazon KDP requirements, marketing, promotion, and all the little details that readers may never see.
There were plenty of mistakes, corrections, frustrating moments, and times when I had to go back and redo something I thought was already finished.
Another challenge has been trying to build an audience as a new independent author. Writing the book is only one part of the journey. Getting people to discover it, purchase it, leave reviews, engage with your content, and understand your message requires consistency.
Social media has helped me share my story and connect with people, but building a brand from the ground up takes time and patience.
My health has probably been the most difficult part. There are days when I have ideas and things I want to accomplish, but my body simply doesn’t cooperate. Fibromyalgia can bring pain, extreme fatigue and brain fog, so I’ve had to learn that being productive as an author doesn’t always look the same from one day to the next. Sometimes I can write for hours, and other times I have to put everything down and rest. Learning not to measure my progress against someone else’s pace has been a journey of its own.
There have also been moments of self-doubt. When you put such a personal story into the world, you wonder whether people will connect with it, whether you’ve shared too much, or whether your voice will be heard among so many other authors.
But I’ve learned to remind myself why I started. I didn’t begin writing because I expected everything to be perfect or because I needed to become a bestselling author overnight. I started because I had something meaningful to say and believed there was someone who needed to hear it and because God told me too. It was my outlet.
The struggles have actually helped shape the kind of author I want to be. I’m still learning, still growing, and still figuring things out, but every obstacle has taught me something. My author journey isn’t about having a perfect path. It’s about continuing to show up for the purpose behind the story, even when the road gets difficult while Still being Me!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work as an author is deeply rooted in storytelling, advocacy, faith, and creating a space where people living with chronic illness feel seen and understood. I specialize in writing from real-life experiences, particularly about fibromyalgia, chronic illness, mental health, resilience, and learning how to navigate a life that looks different from the one you originally imagined.
My Still Me series was created from my own journey with fibromyalgia. Through my writing, I talk about the parts of chronic illness that aren’t always visible. The exhaustion, pain, brain fog, emotional struggles, medical appointments, changes in relationships, loss of independence, and even grieving the person you were before becoming ill.
But I also write about faith, hope, acceptance, and finding strength in the middle of circumstances you cannot always control.
I think what sets my work apart is my willingness to tell the story while I’m still living it. I’m not writing from a place where everything has been resolved and I can neatly explain how I overcame it all. I’m still navigating difficult days, learning my limitations, celebrating small victories, and discovering what my new normal looks like.
That allows me to connect with readers from a very genuine place. I can say, “I understand,” because I’m walking through many of the same things alongside them.
I’m also intentional about creating more than books. My goal is to build the Still Me brand into a source of encouragement and community. I want to develop projects that combine creativity, self-care, faith, and emotional wellness.
What I’m most proud of is simply becoming an author at all. I stepped into something completely unfamiliar during one of the hardest seasons of my life. I taught myself the self-publishing process, created my own platform, shared a deeply personal story, and turned something painful into something that could potentially help someone else.
I’m especially proud that I didn’t wait until my life was perfect to begin.
For me, Still Me is bigger than a book title. It’s a message. Life can change your body, your career, your plans, and even how you see yourself, but those changes don’t erase who you are.
If one woman reads something I’ve written and thinks, “Someone finally understands what I’m going through,” then I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory is a simple one, but it means everything to me: my mother standing in the kitchen singing.
I can still remember her voice and the comfort of her presence filling our home. As a child, I didn’t understand that those ordinary moments would eventually become some of the memories I would treasure most.
Losing my mother at a young age made those memories even more precious to me. When I look back, it isn’t necessarily the big occasions that stand out. It’s her voice, that kitchen, and the feeling of having my mother there. Even now, I can picture her singing, and that memory takes me back to a place that felt like home.
It taught me that some of life’s most meaningful memories are created in the everyday moments—the ones we don’t realize are special until years later. ❤️
Rest in Love to my mother Ester M. Simmons Brown.
Pricing:
- 13.99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://still-me-web.lovable.app/
