During my stint with Academy of Coaching and NLP to become a certified NLP Life Coach, I decided it was time to write my first book. While I began during my time there and while I followed the advice of others to just write, after a few weeks of this I felt overwhelmed and lost amongst my growing files of Word documents. Where was I going with all this? What was my real story? And how in the world do I make heads or tails of how to actually become a published author?
Enter stage right: an email from Writer’s Digest announcing their conference in just a few weeks time.
Enter stage left: there would be a special day dedicated to learning more about Self-publishing!
I quickly got on the email horn and enlisted a few of my fellow life coach/writing friends which sparked interest from one other. We signed up for the VIP status, booked our hotel and flights and put it all on the back burner till the day before we would meet up there.
I have to be honest, I did not expect too much out of this conference and with a more than busy life leading up until it – I didn’t even look at the material until the day before. For me, I had only one goal in mind: to begin to understand the publishing world and figure out the best way to get published.
With this in mind, I attended the Self-Publishing bootcamp where I hoped to have some big “ah ha” moment about whether or not this was the way to go. This day was filled with a plethora of new information and wonderful speakers – Ivory Madison of Red Room, Gordon Warnock of Forward Literary, Paula Munier of Talcott Notch Literary (who reminds me of my high school AP Comp Teacher full of pizazz and spark!). I also met the owners of Wise Ink Creative Publishing, Amy & Dara, a botique self-publishing agency passionate about giving the industry a great name by helping self-publishers learn how to do it right.
So did I have the big “ah ha” moment that I had hoped for?
In short, that is a resounding no. I actually fell in love with what both sides of the growing, morphing and expanding publishing world have to offer. Other then that, more questions then answers were sparked in my quest.
The real surprise in this day was this: that my idea for my first book way back in July at life coaching training that had expanded into two books in August was now showing me that I had a first book to write.
This idea ignited in me as I thought back over my own journey on this extremely personal blog with all of you my dear readers. This blog is the beginning of a great story that I know is wanting to be told thru me. Not because other abuse survivors haven’t told their heroine stories before me, but because this blog – I believe – gives us all hope at a new and better way to address our societal plague of abuse. Yes, this book would be a story of my own life experience of how I divorced myself from all forms of abuse – from relationships, religion, culture and more – while also being an announcement of my vision to eradicate the world from abuse by teaching how we can partner with our feminine and masculine in the Dance of Life.
By the end of Day 1, I was on fire with the idea of possibilities not just to be a writer (something I have always wanted) but a writer who ignites a revolution of change. My head was filled, my body was tired and my heart was alive with song.
Now, on to fine tuning my idea and turning it into a book pitch for the Pitch Slam by tomorrow at 1:30 – a place where I had the chance to get noticed and possibly asked to send in my goods.
Will I make it in time while still attending the sessions I wish to learn from? Will I turn any heads as I desire to spark my revolution in any small way I can? Will I have any “ah ha” moments in regards to my original goal?
Join me tomorrow for my Day 2 story!
