An award-winning Rochester author is headed to the Austin Public Library Monday for the Summer Reading Program.

Abbie Williams is bringing her romance and historical fiction books to the Austin Public Library for a meet and greet at 7 p.m. Monday.

“I am just excited to meet people who want to talk about books,” Williams said. “That’s my favorite part of the job.”

By day, Williams is Addie Bratrud, a 37-year-old English teacher at Century High School in Rochester. Outside of that, she takes to her keyboard and to her pen name to write books with Minnesota themes, and she’s won awards in the romance category.

“I never really expected it to expand as much as it has,” she said.

With seven books in one series and another trilogy on the way, the Minnesota native is quickly becoming an established author. She recently got a book in print — instead of only online — and said that is when she felt she had made it.

Adult Services Librarian Courtney Wyant is excited to have an area author talk about her books.

After a library patron came in asking about Williams’ new book series, Wyant decided to ask the author to visit the library.

“I thought it would be really interesting to have someone new who’s also kind of a local author in our communities,” Wyant said.

Williams adds a lot of local charm to her stories and Wyant said the library has some of her books available. Williams tried to publish her books many times before she found Central Avenue Publishing in Vancouver.

“I just think that’s a neat thing for people to see, that if you enjoy reading and writing, now with a lot of those independent publishing outlets you can sort of become an author yourself if that’s something you’re interested in,” Wyant said.

Williams researched many Civil War battle fields last year for her newest trilogy, which she called a historic fiction/romance series. She said research is one of her favorite parts of writing.

“That is my absolutely favorite part of it,” she said. “I try to do my best to make my novels realistic.”

Williams has been a writer since she was a child, writing stories in notebooks and letting her sisters read and laugh at them. She said it’s always been something that she’s enjoyed, writing and telling stories.

“And I never thought in a million years that it would go anywhere,” she laughed.

Her family also stayed at many different cabins in Northern Minnesota, which helped her create the setting for her series — Landon, Minnesota.

Williams recently won the gold at the Independent Publishers of America award, or IPPY award, during the 19th annual ceremony. She said it was a whirlwind and she was amazed and honored to receive the award.

Although Williams keeps her teaching and writing separate, she said having a background in English has been helpful. One of her strengths is characterization and getting invested in her characters, to the point where she said sometimes she misses her characters in between books.