Inspirational Indie Author Interview #212: Annabel Youens on Midlife Reinvention and Creative Independence

My guest this episode is Annabel Youens, a novelist who left a long career in tech to return to her first love: writing fiction. Her work explores midlife reinvention, creativity, nature, and the courage it takes to stop putting off the life you meant to live. She also brings a business founder's discipline to indie publishing, treating authorship not just as a creative act but as a serious enterprise. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of 2,000+ blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. We invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. About the Host Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan. About the Guest Annabel Youens writes mythic fiction where the change is the magic. Thread Traveller—a Kirkus Best Indie Book of 2025 and a 2026 CANREADS Award finalist—is her debut novel, written at forty-seven after twenty years of building tech companies. She was employee number eleven at Abebooks.com and co-founded two global startups before returning to her first love: storytelling. She lives on Vancouver Island and writes a Substack called Saved by the Spell on midlife, motherhood, and mushrooms. Find her at annabelyouens.com and on BookTok.