Ernest Clement has written his first book, The Book of Ernest, which is intended to be a spiritual primer for the New Age for everyone. He has consciously lived that life, as a father, a civil servant, and student of our times. He attended graduate school in English for three years, giving him extensive exposure to the English language. For more information, please visit www.ernestclement.com.

About the book:

The long anticipated awakening of mankind on our world is happening now. For this awakening, humanity recently received two books of epochal significance. The first book is a revelation inspiring awe. The second is a miracle inspiring gratitude. Ernest combines and stirs the truth and wisdom of these two books into a powerful expression of the divine framework underpinning humanity’s Shift into a new era of unity consciousness. In kindness and humility, he explains how we are mindlessly relinquishing our power to other people and institutions in order to “save” ourselves. Yet we are perfect creations in a divine training program for eternal service, and our nightmare of a world that does not honor the value of each of us and all creation will end.

Author interview:

Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. My book is timely and very needed. We are on a cusp between ages, and preparatory to the changes underway the world has received two epochal communications. I wanted to make plain for all to hear that this change is fast upon us. The world has great need to hear what I have to say.

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. 14 years. I began writing in October 1997 and finished in October 2011. The book was decades in the incubation prior to the writing.

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. My subjects are religion, spirituality, politics, and economics, all of which are inherently controversial. The controversy could not be avoided, but I wanted to be very respectful of my reader and not to give offense. My intent was to be loving, rather than to fan the fires of fear or anger. There was a fine line between being insightful and true to my inner self, and not appear to be judgmental. I wanted to create an experience for my reader that would gently elevate their perspective.

Q. What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
​A. How blessedly difficult it was!

Q. Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
A. It was very satisfying to realize I had accomplished something with its own magnificence.

Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. My reader will gain a new sense of his or her own spiritual grandeur.

Q. What projects are you currently working on?
A. Blogging, family spiritual practice, preparing for my second book.

Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. I had a modest career of over 30 years working for our federal government. I intend to make my writing and spinoffs from the writing my life work from here on.

Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A. I mostly wrote from experience. There is a lot of my history in my book, although my book is not an autobiography. But there was considerable study involved, particularly with reference to The Urantia Book. I will summarize enough of our revelation for my readers for them to know the true history of humankind on our planet, as well as the nature of the four revelations to our world that preceded the appearance of The Urantia Book, which is our fifth revelation.

Q. How did you come up with your title?
A. The book title came to me by inspiration at age 22. I am now 67.

Q. What books have influenced you the most?
A. The Urantia Book (a revelation), and A Course in Miracles (a miracle). Of the two books, A Course in Miracles is the more important book. The revelation is awe inspiring, but not necessary. It is helpful to know our planet’s true history from a celestial perspective, but this knowledge is not necessary for our spiritual growth. The miracle is necessary and inspires gratitude. The miracle is necessary because we are required to live by the thought system taught by the Course in order to make spiritual progress.

A. My beloved and I and our two children formed our own company (Arborvitae Junction, LLC) to publish the book. We did this because I wanted to have complete control of the content, and I did not want to have any legal wrangling with a traditional publisher about what they would or would not publish. Since a traditional publisher assumes some legal liability for your content, they want to have the last say about what is actually published, and I insist on having the last say myself. I chose not to have my book published by a so-called vanity publisher, because I did not want to enrich that kind of publisher by my labor. Given time, my book will reach a wide audience and be read and cherished by a wide readership for many years into the future.

Q. What can we look forward to in your next book?
A: A joyful story of life in the New Age.

Michael D. Stalter spent 17 ½ years being his wife’s primary caregiver and helping her battle breast cancer. Mike has a Bachelor’s of Science with majors in History, Education, and English, with minors in Political Science and Special Education. He retired from the Illinois Department of Corrections as the Chief Fiscal Officer of the Maximum Security Prison in Pontiac IL. To learn more, please visit the Still Have Faith Facebook page.

About the book:

This is a story about a husband’s emotions, feelings, and struggles in dealing with his wife’s 17½ year battle with breast cancer and the 4 years since her death. Over this time period Mike had to deal with the deaths of other family members, raising his two children, his relationship with God, and rebuilding his life. It is a very compelling story written from a man’s perspective on how men think and feel in a very down-to-Earth style like it is being told to the reader by a friend. For every book sold $1 will be donated to cancer research.

Author interview:

Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. Know that I am helping others deal with cancer. Because there were no books out there to help me when I was dealing with my wife’s cancer

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. 6 months

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. Transforming my ideas and thoughts into printed words.

Q. What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
A. How many times I had to go over the book editing it and correcting typos.

Q. Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
A. I loved working with my editor and seeing for the first time how someone else saw my story and her reaction to it.

Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. I hope my reads can copy my successes and avoid my mistakes when they are dealing with a ​spouse, family member, or friend that has cancer. Also I hope they can understand how hard it is but yet know that they are helping the patient more than they will ever know.

Q. What projects are you currently working on?
A. Just this one. I am trying to get my book out in the public so that people know it’s here for a resource if they need it.

Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. I am a retired corrections worker and I have been teaching high school students since I left the Illinois Department of Correections.

Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A. I wrote from experience. This is my story about a husband’s emotions, feelings, and struggles in dealing with his wife’s 17 ½ year battle with Breast Cancer and the 4 years since her death. Over this time period I had to deal with the deaths of other family members, raising my two children and rebuilding my life. It is a very compelling story written from a man’s perspective on how men think and feel in a very down to Earth style like it is being told to the reader by a friend.

Q. How did you come up with your title?
A. I was telling a date about Mary’s cancer and death along with my dad’s death four months before Mary died and she made the comment. “I’m surprised you Still Have Faith.” When I was talking to my editor about the date I had the night before Elizabeth said that is what we should title the book. Still Have Faith.

Q. What books have influenced you the most?
A. There isn’t any book or books that I can point specifically to, but books that influenced me the most were the ones where the main character never gave up, never lost hope, and finished what they started.

Q. Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?
A. InstantPublisher.Com because they were the easiest self-publishing company to use.

​Q. What can we look forward to in your next book?
A: I am working on a fiction book that deals with a similar subject matter that will touch on faith, hope, and a belief in God.

Scott Edmund Miller has made significant contributions to the educational reform movement as a human development researcher, practitioner and school developer. He is cofounder and emeritus Board Chairman of Our Community School, a Los Angeles public charter school that received the 2009 California Charter Schools Association award under his leadership for “Best Charter School of the Year” in California. To find out more, please visit www.usersguidetobeinghuman.com.

About the book:

Every human being is born with an extraordinary set of inner resources, including intelligence, attention, imagination, willpower, love, and emotion. Strangely, most people pass through young-adulthood and years of schooling without formally learning about these innate capacities. As a result, the vast majority of people spend their days harnessing only a small fraction of the great potential that is freely available within them.

The User’s Guide to Being Human is the first book to comprehensively examine the inner tools that people use to shape their lives. Merging art with science, this book illuminates 8 core capacities that enable people to bring out the best in themselves. It offers step-by-step coaching for all who wish to master the ongoing art of personal development.

Some valuable benefits that readers will gain:
• Learning to fully use the natural capacities available within themselves
• Finding the skill to positively transform their lives and relationships
• Revitalizing parts of themselves that were buried or damaged in years past
• Learning how to solve their own problems and avoid being overly dependent upon others
• Engaging in exercises that help them apply the 8 intrinsic arts to their everyday lives

Author interview:

Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. This is a book where the reader is the main character. It collaborates with him or her to awaken an inner knowing that he or she has accumulated over the course of life, and to put the reader back in touch with the inner seed from which his or her life might sprout. I wrote it because I love people, and because I generally find myself seeing more in those around me than they see in themselves. It’s not supposed to be that way.

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. Four years. Four joyous and transformational years!

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. Staring at 200 blank pages. To write a book, you have really care about something enough to set out on a journey that will, over time, carry you somewhere. This “carrying” is what fills the pages.

Q. What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
A. That one chapter could take 2 weeks, and another chapter of equal length could take 11 months. Some spilled out effortlessly from a vessel of life experience and insights gathered. Others required me to learn, grow and change before I could begin to do them justice.

Q. Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
A. The first day when I sat down and wrote the Preface I had a feeling much like lighting a small bundle of kindling beneath a larger teepee of branches that would eventually come to warm a campsite on a cold summer night at high altitude. I love cold summer nights at high altitude, drawn to the fire that allows me to remain outside the cover of my tent. It allows me to cook food and draw nourishment. It allows me to remain under the clear and open sky. It holds me to a place of light and energy that sometimes stings my eyes, yet other times warms my feet so I can take a proper stand. Lighting my kindling that first day made all the rest possible.

Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. I hope it will support them in the process of drawing out the best in themselves so that they may lead extraordinary lives. I hope it will help them to awaken the everyday superpowers that are available within them. I hope it will inspire them to take personal responsibility and authority in fulfilling each precious day of their lives.

Q. What projects are you currently working on?
A1. I’m working to help reveal the field of human capacities development, and integrate advancements in this field into other fields such as education, social services, recovery, and support of our incarcerated fellow citizens. Toward that end, I’m collaborating with various teams to create organizations that support people, families, businesses and various services in capitalizing on the great technologies that are woven into our biology as human beings. We are so busy as a species tapping all sorts of resources outside ourselves, yet we ourselves remain virtually untapped. Most of us have heard about the small portion of our brains that we actually use. We smile, and let it go at that. To awaken more of what’s inside allows us to exploit less those other resources that share our world.

A2. I am releasing a coming of age novel under the pen name Kyle Weaver, written when I was a young adult. It explores much of the same material, but places the material in the context of an actual person who struggles with the everyday ups and downs of life. It is my hope that The ​Barefoot Warrior will make The User’s Guide material accessible to a wider range of readers.

A3. I am working with the Jean Houston Foundation to help develop and proliferate the field of “Social Artistry,” which is an approach to artfully using the social setting as a medium for self-expression, inspiration, and contributing to the quality of life here on Earth. Jean is a pioneer of human capacities development, and has applied the body of her work to this field that she has identified as “Social Artistry.” I hope to offer her work as much support as she has offered mine.

Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. I spent my youth developing as an artist, my young adulthood developing as a scientist, and much of the time that followed as an educator, entrepreneur and school reformer. One of the public charter schools that I cofounded was identified as the best charter school of the year by the California Charter Schools Association in 2009; it sought and seeks to adapt our system of education to incorporate many of the wondrous advancements available to us in the 21st century.

In my experience, the entrepreneurial cycle—much like life—has four distinct phases: conception, trial, prosperity and death, the fourth of which often follows from an inability to adapt to changing times. I’m currently deep in the trial phase of this new career, striding with perseverance through the challenges of getting my work off the ground while loving every second of it!

Q. Did you do any research for your books or did you write from experience?
A. I’ve always been a student of human nature, and as such have found that research and experience are inseparable from one another. Observation and analysis of experience are essential to harvesting the gifts of experience, just as the application of research through tangible experience (a.k.a. experimentation) is essential to the advancement of that research.

Q. How did you come up with your title?
A. It’s a literal description of what the book is about—The User’s Guide to Being Human: the Art and Science of Self. It serves as an instruction manual that covers some of the most important features of our humanness so that we can make the most of our lives. It’s as valuable to parents and educators who support the growth of our young as it is to individuals working on personal development. It’s not as cold or dry as an ordinary user’s guide, or as the title might sound. It uses real life stories to show the concepts in action. It was a blast to write, and I hope that blast was imbued in the text.

Q. What books have influenced you the most?
A. Not necessarily the same books that would appeal to my readers. Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda had a fundamental influence on my life in its ancient wisdom conveyed regarding the nature of personal power and our perception of reality. Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig also made a major impact, exploring the relationships between Eastern cultures and Western cultures, art and science, the left brain and right brain, philosophy and experience.

Q. Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?
A. SelectBooks, NY. Early on in the process I decided I wanted to work with a smaller publishing house. Relationships are central to everything I do in life, and I wanted to be able to journey through the publishing process in close collaboration with a team. I set an intention for the ideal kind of relationship that I was seeking. A year later my agent Bill Gladstone sent my proposal to Kenzi Sugihara, owner of SelectBooks, and within two weeks we had signed on to collaborate. Our relationship has indeed filled that initial intent for a publisher relationship. The team is highly skilled, very communicative, and integrally involved in the process. They really care, just as I do. Kenzi also has a great sense of humor, which is a terrific gift!

Q. What did you do to prepare for writing your book?
A: I lived my life for 40 years absolutely fascinated by just about everything around me, and conducted research on human development. Along the way, I picked up some useful insights from fascinating people, things, and dynamics. Writing the book was then a harvesting of those life-experience gifts. Fascination is often a highly underrated state of being to those over the age of eight.

Q. What can we look forward to in your next book?
A: The User’s Guide to Being Human: The Art & Science of Connection. Where the first book explores eight intrinsic arts for personal growth and fulfillment, the second one explores eight intrinsic arts that empower us to make the most of our relationships with the people, systems and natural forces to which we are integrally tied—arts such as communication, collaboration, conflict resolution and so on. I’ve been teaching an adult course on the material from both books for two years now—including the eight arts from the second book. It’s just a matter of time before I get it all down on paper.

Kim O’Neill has conducted private channeling sessions for over 25 years for international clientele and is the author of four books on spirituality. Kim hosts online teleseminars and in-person national motivational workshops, writes ‘Ask Kim,’ a monthly advice column for the Indigo Sun Magazine, produces a YouTube webisode called ‘Connecting You With Spirit,’ and has appeared on radio and television talk shows, providing audience members with psychic information covering a wide range of topics. Kim lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and their two children. She can be reached through her web site: www.kimoneillpsychic.com.

About the book:

In a moment of crisis, a depressed and beleaguered advertising executive is visited by a guardian angel who radically changes her life by revealing – and helping her attain – her destiny of becoming a psychic channel, author, and speaker. In a time of global uncertainty, economic woes, and fear of the future, The Calling provides heartwarming reassurance and tangible validation that each individual is surrounded by angels who are eager to help them prevail over adversity and reach the special destiny that will allow them to create a positive ripple effect in the world around them. The Calling’s target audience: women ages 25-70 who enjoy memoirs, inspirational true stories, angels, psychic experiences, and humor.

Author interview:

Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. I hope readers will come away with a greater understanding that they are not alone; that no matter where they find themselves at present, their future can unfold in more positive directions than they ever thought possible; that spiritual growth requires mustering the courage to move beyond existing comfort zones; and, that an individual can prevail over the challenges involved in growing spiritually without the support, encouragement, endorsement, or approval of others.

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?​
A. The Calling: My Journey with the Angels took only three months to write…after 50 years of research! It’s a memoir.

Q. What did you do to prepare for writing your book?
A: I had already published three other books, and I’m a firm believer that writing is like channeling; we are all a work in progress. The more we practice, the more we hone our skills! In addition, my life was literally transformed over a twenty-year period, not just because of what I ​experienced, but because of what I ultimately learned from the adversity I encountered. I couldn’t have written The Calling before fully understanding what my angel John Reid had been sent to teach me. Once I was ready to begin the writing process, I quickly discovered that I had to make ruthless choices about which experiences to write about or the memoir would have been 2,500 pages! Because all of my books have been non-fiction, I had never written dialog before and I loved it. I decided to make each chapter like a short story so that it would continue to flow and remain entertaining. I am a very visual person, and I really wanted my story to come alive for the reader; so, I envisioned each chapter as a different scene in a film.

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. Wanting to write about events that took place without divulging embarrassing or hurtful things about others. I had to make a very difficult choice: do I err on the side of diplomacy, or really write from my heart and soul? I chose to write about my life as authentically as I possibly could, because otherwise, the book would not resonate or ring true for me…or the reader!

Q. What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
A. I have written three previous books and what continues to surprise me is how each new writing project is like giving birth to a child; the process of conceiving the idea, maintaining the ‘pregnancy’ by showing up with intent in front of my computer every morning; and, then the labor and delivery of editing and finding an agent and publisher. Then, it’s a matter of announcing the new baby’s arrival with a marketing campaign. I can vividly recall having lunch with bestselling author Catherine Lanigan after my first book, How to Talk With Your Angels was published. As memory serves, she told me that past successes do not affect future projects, and that each new book has to stand alone in regard to its level of worthiness or popularity. I have learned that every writing project has a unique destiny. Making a commitment to a new manuscript is like starting all over again in unknown and unexplored creative territory. But…that’s why things remain so exciting every time I sit in front of the computer and engage in ‘tickling the ivories.’

Q. Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
A. I actually enjoyed resurrecting long-healed memories of the painful, and sometimes humorous, experiences that I included in the book. It gave me a wonderful reality-check in regard to the spiritual and emotional growth that was made possible after I decided to let go of a life defined by hopelessness, stagnation, and the desire to control everything and everybody. John helped me understand that when the universe provides a vehicle of change—it is for my best benefit. (I like to share the example of how my family became far closer after half of our home was demolished by falling pine trees during Hurricane Ike in 2008.) I believe that we are all a work in progress, and writing The Calling spotlighted the fact that I have a lot of exciting goals left to accomplish in my personal life, as well as in my life’s work as an author!

Q. What projects are you currently working on?
A. I am hard at work on my first novel, which I plan to complete in fall 2012.

Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. I really enjoy a balance! Right now, besides authoring books, I have a full-time channeling practice, I teach online classes and in-person workshops, give keynote speeches to audiences at spiritual conferences, produce a webisode called Connecting You With Spirit, I am expanding my ​series of personal coaching CDs, and I write a monthly advice column called ‘Ask Kim’ for the Indigo Sun Magazine.

Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A. I have mainly written from experience, although I have engaged in hypnosis that has allowed me to explore past lifetimes…which I would describe as research.

Q. How did you come up with your title?
A. My angels specifically recommended the title The Calling. The subhead, My Journey with the Angels, was the brainchild of my publisher, A.R.E.’s 4th Dimension Press.

Q. What books have influenced you the most?
A. I have a hardcover, very dog-eared copy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte that always remains on my bedside table. The novel underscores the importance of a woman choosing to remain independent, empowered, financially self-reliant, and steadfast to her principals…and it was published in 1847 Victorian England! And, I recently discovered Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Carlton Esselstyn, and it has dramatically changed my life. I finally understand how to eat! I feel healthy and energized, and in six months I’ve lost 35 pounds. I would recommend this book to everyone!

Q. Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?
A. My publisher for The Calling: My Journey with the Angels was A.R.E.’s 4th Dimension Press. My angels told me that 4th Dimension would be the best “home” for this book, and everything happened very quickly and smoothly. I’ve had the most marvelous experience with them. My editor, Cassie McQuagge, is second to none!

Andrew J. Rafkin, was born in 1946 in San Pedro, California, grew up in a commercial fishing family. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills with degrees in economics and marketing. Louis Pagono, was born 1947, in San Pedro, California. He worked on the docks on his family’s commercial fishing boats, and later in his parent’s restaurant, Luigi’s. Later he joined the Merchant Marines, and worked on the freighters moving cargo up and down the Pacific Coast. Find out more at: http://andrewrafkin.com/index.php

About the Book:

In 1983, the rapidly growing city of L.A. and beachfront communities were active in the illicit drug trade, successfully operating through ANGELS GATE Lighthouse, and LAX, the gateway to the City of Angels. This true story is a recounting of the largest monetary heist in history, carried out by four local surfers, and August Taracina, a successful marijuana dealer. The heist progresses with only minor hitches, until they open the bags of loot. Much to the thieves’ chagrin, there is no cash, no gold, nothing but financial instruments, unable to be cashed.

While still in command of one of the largest marijuana smuggling operations on the West Coast, August begins a whirlwind, worldwide tour using his connections to organized crime, the Medellin Cartel, and international bankers, as he attempts to fence the items. Other gangs, along with their treachery and murder, as well as FBI Agent Nick Cutler’s team, the Treasury Department, and Interpol pursue him. During this maelstrom, August devises an incredible plan to satisfy everyone’s interests and fulfill their dreams. Now all he has to do is MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Author Interview with Andrew J. Rafkin:

Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. This is a true story of the greatest monetary heist in history, told to my co-author Louis Pagano by a dear friend who was dying of cancer. I was asked to write the story, and loved every minute of it.

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. It took us a little over a year.

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. To write a true story, that’s informative and will keep the reader turning pages.

Q. What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
A. The heist occurred in 1984 carried out by four local surfers and August Taracina, a successful marijuana smuggler. After writing a few chapters, it became clear that there were two fantastic stories running parallel to each other, making it more interesting and exciting.

Q. Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
A. The greatest experience was the opportunity to write this book with Lou, and rekindling our friendship.

Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. This is not only a great story of the largest heist in history, but it gives readers an insider’s look at the inner workings of the smuggling trade and how a shrewd “importer” ran his enormous operation.

Q. What projects are you currently working on?
A. I just finished Reaper 6, an amazing true story about Staff Sergeant Larry FitzGerald, the leader of a thirty men black ops team missions during the Vietnam War. Reaper 6 was Sergeant FitzGerald’s call sign, given to him by General Westmorland, commander of the U.S. Forces. I’m also writing The Green Alliance, the fourth novel in the ongoing O.R.C.A. adventure/thriller series.
​
Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. I am President and owner of Palos Verdes Security Systems Inc. servicing Los Angeles, and Orange County for over thirty five years.

Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A. Always a combination of both.

Q. How did you come up with your title?
A. This true story is a recounting of the largest heist in history, and the illicit drug trade successfully operating through Angels Gate Lighthouse, and LAX, the gateway to the city of Angels.

Q. What books have influenced you the most?
A. I read over fifty books a year, and get something from most of them.

Q. Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?
A. This is my fifth book published by Outskirts Press. They’re professional, reasonably priced services, and provide excellent support.

Judith Pearson is an award-winning author and public speaker. She has written hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles and columns and has published two biographies about ordinary people who were extraordinarily courageous. She learned to “walk the walk” when diagnosed with breast cancer, and shares the 20 essential life lessons she learned as a result in her latest book. To learn more, please visit http://courageconcepts.com.

About the book:

“This can’t be happening to me!” Yes, bad things do happen to good people. Perplexing or painful, personal or professional, life challenges stop us in our tracks, leaving us numb, breathless and frightened to our very core.

The 20 essential life lessons in It’s Just Hair will give you the strength and perspective to meet these challenges. Read them all at once, read them one at a time. Read them in moments of solitude, read them out loud with others. Read them as a battle cry, read them in a quiet whisper. These powerful lessons, delivered with honesty, courage and brilliant humor, are resources you or a loved one will reference time and again.

Author interview:

Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. When we find ourselves in the midst of a life challenge – illness, divorce, losing a loved one to death and so on – we are surrounded by BAD NEWS. This book was designed to be a bit of GOOD NEWS in the midst of the darkness.

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. I had written much of the material as blog posts or monthly newsletters throughout my own life challenge – the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. It needed to be fleshed out so that it would flow, and making the raw materials into a book took 2 months. I was so inspired and driven, some days I worked all day in my PJ’s!

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. Keeping my focus on what I wanted the final product to be. As I said, the words just flowed out of me, but I wanted the book to be something that could be read both in its entirety, and just one lesson at a time. Therefore, I felt each lesson to be similar in length and tone.

Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A. I love history and I love research, so I couldn’t help but add some in to most of lessons. The majority of the material, however, came from what I learned through the darkest journey of my life.

Q. What surprised you the most about this process?
A. Again, the words and ideas for this book came to me so readily. Having written two biographies about ordinary people who were extraordinarily courageous, I was accustomed to proceeding through historical events retelling their lives with historical accuracy. This project was completely different for me.

Q. Did you have any notable experiences when writing your book?
A. There were times when I looked back at the previous months with wonder – who was that woman who, less than a year earlier, had been diagnosed with cancer, undergone surgery and 18 rounds of chemo, and was now telling funny stories about it? Oh, and did I mention my son was serving a deployment to Afghanistan at the same time? AND I was a newlywed?

Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. My goal is that readers will relearn those 20 lessons. None of us is above a life challenge. Dragging your way through can be a tough journey. We all know we should be patient and courageous and accepting, but hearing it again is always a good thing. Hopefully this book will give them the fuel to face each new day.

Q. What other projects are you currently working on?
A. There will be two more 20 Lesson books. The next is entitled A Different Kind of Courage: 20 Lessons in Women’s Courage. The third will be Elegant Mellowing: 20 Lessons in Aging Gracefully.

Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. It is. I’ve been writing for publication for about 16 years.

Q. When can we look forward to your next book?
​A: God willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll have it finished in December of this year (2012) and on the shelves by March 2013.

Cynthia Williams has been writing professionally all her life, as a television and magazine copywriter, freelance, creative non-fiction writer, and currently as senior staff writer and editor for a Fortune 300 Company in Charlotte, NC. Cynthia recently won an award for creative non-fiction with “Just for Tonight,” which is available on her blog, “Quo Vadis? Time Traveler” at www.cyn1020.wordpress.com.

About the book:

Gerry and Clara, brother and sister, live in seclusion in a once splendid house on a river in southwest Florida. As a tropical disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico builds to hurricane force, Clara grows increasingly distressed over the bewildering emotions that accompany her confused memories of the dreaming time, and over her strange visions of houses she has never been in. Are the memories and visions only dreams, or are they the only reality, dimly remembered and tragically misinterpreted?

Like the statue of Lorelei in her overgrown garden, “a celestial being held captive by jungle vines, soft as sculpted moonlight, her dreaming face aglow under deep sea green,” Clara’s essence is captive to forces too illusive for her to grasp. Yet it is from her complex interplay of memory and illusion that the unspeakable and heartbreaking crime committed in this house finally emerges.

Author interview:

Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. I didn’t really choose it. It welled up out of me. I live in the past, gazing out fearfully at the present and often turning and going back “in.” I live with one foot on earth and the other in other dimensions of time, of being. I think that BANYAN is a distillation of both past and present life experiences, relationships. Clara just walked into my head and started talking. I don’t know who she really is.

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. I actually started Banyan quite a few years ago, working on it off and on, so I can’t say exactly how long the first draft took. When I finished it, I tried it out on a few family members, but I think they found it a bit obscure. Then I shelved it for years. Busy with life, work. But the characters would not leave me alone. Out of nowhere they’d start up again. I could hear them walking around in that house, talking loudly, demanding my attention, and my heart would turn over in my chest. Finally, I realized I needed to do something with it. I went back to work on it, now and then, here and there, rewriting the second half. Shelved it again. But Clara kept after me until I pulled it out again a couple of years ago, reviewed and reworked it a bit, and began sending off query letters to literary agents. Another year or so went by, with me intermittingly sending off queries. My husband kept suggesting I self-publish, but I was reluctant to do so for all the obvious reasons. Finally I got fed up with the closed and locked doors to traditional publishing—of agents who won’t even accept queries—and I decided to publish it myself. Once I had, and people began to read and enjoy it, I realized that all I ever wanted was for somebody to read it. What difference does it make who published it or how? Times change. Hello.

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. Plotting. I’m weak on that. Banyan, as all my fiction will be, is introspective. It’s a journey within, and therefore does not lend itself to plotting a course of action, even to organization by chapters. As with history, I’m not interested in what or when, but why.

Q. What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
A. Well, for this particular book, it was the way the characters almost dictated the book. I could never have imagined myself writing any kind of suspense novel, with the kinds of things happening in it that happen in this one. I don’t even like to read them.

Q. Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
A. Oh yeah. Reading it when it was finished. Writing is hard work. No question. I’d rather be on the beach reading somebody else’s hard work. But once I sit down and start, I can’t stop. I write myself into utter exhaustion. Writing intoxicates me. I cannot come down from it for a long time. Need a martini and somebody else’s book to calm me, to wrench my mind away from my characters and their story.
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Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. I hope they will entertain the possibility that there exists no external (perhaps not even any physical) reality, that one’s perception of what is real is his reality. It’s Plato’s allegory of the cave. It’s pure physics. We may each be a figment of our own imaginations. But the point is, if our “truths” are illusions arising from misconception, misinterpretation or misinformation, and if our actions are based upon these illusions, then we are always, at every given moment, acting according to our own truths, which is to say that we are each, at every given moment, doing the best we know how to do. I would like the reader to rethink his most entrenched convictions about life and human beings and come, if not to forgiveness, at least to understanding.

Q. What projects are you currently working on?
A. This one. Honestly, getting a book “launched” is all-consuming. But I have started a series of inter-related short stories that, taken together, make up a family history. The book will be titled Houses. I have completed a children’s picture book story (am looking for a publisher) and a screenplay for an animated film (looking for a producer or someone who knows someone who can get someone to read it and hand it to a producer), and have begun outlining the scenes for a second screenplay about a famous military engagement in Wyoming in the 19th century.

Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. I wish. Nope. Still employed as a senior writer and editor in Communications at a Fortune 300 company in Charlotte, NC.

Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A. As stated earlier, I think the book came from the flotsam of both present and past-life memories and associations.

Q. How did you come up with your title?
A. It’s a powerful word and to emphasize its power, I write it in solid, black, capital letters. The banyan tree is a metaphor for the human mind, but particularly for the mind of my central character. I explain this in my Forward, which reads:

“The Banyan tree is an ancient East Indian fig tree. It drops vines laterally from its limbs and the vines take root, growing decade by decade into multiple trunks that merge gradually with one another and with the mother trunk. In this way, the tree travels from its center, its thickening vines serpentine, its roots like monstrous, writhing anacondas. It is an alarming phenomenon.

A mind functions similarly.”

Q. What books have influenced you the most?
A. I must have learned something from Thomas Wolfe about the richness of our language, and about how, by using language as a chef blends flavors, to bring the reader into the physical experience of the story. Like everyone else, I learned something from Hemingway about how to write with precision and economy and how powerful the unsaid can be. I learned from Faulkner ​how to allow myself to dispense with economy and precision in order to explore the minds of my characters, and how deeply meaningful the simplest twist of a wrist or lift of a chin can be. By reading and appreciating many styles of writing, I have learned that there are no absolutes in writing any more than there are right and wrong colors. Cannot I love a Rembrandt as much as Cezanne? I relish Tolstoy and Cheever and A. A. Milne. I love both black and white and color, don’t you? All really good books are feasts.

Q. Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?
A. Me, upon the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Lulu and Smashwords platforms. I am wildly impatient. I wanted to get on with it. I can’t work on the next book until this one, so dear to my heart, is on its way.

Gerard Doyle is a change management consultant, personal coach, NLP and Reiki Master, with 35 years as CEO and senior manager with companies and non profits in Ireland, the Middle East and Asia. A Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants (CMC), he divides his time between Ireland, France and the United States. For more information, please visit www.adaptivefreedom.com.

About the book:

Be Brave, Be Smart, Be Free, Be You. Authentic people lead happier lives. They are committed, connected and adaptable. They accept and respond to life’s challenges creatively. They are loved and loving. They lead meaningful and successful lives which are full, fun and free. This book contains the knowledge and practical tools to help you create such a life – in a word to live authentically.

If your life lacks direction or you feel blocked, anxious or unable to change then this book may be for you. If you are questioning what life is all about or losing confidence in your previous choices, finding your goals ​unfulfilled or are actively searching for a style of living that has meaning and purpose – then this book contains the answers and ideas to help you live the life of your dreams.

Author interview:

Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. I think life’s greatest challenge – and thus life’s greatest reward – is to live authentically, to just be me. It seems simple and yet it is one of the toughest hurdles we face. I have discovered that everything flows from living authentically. Life’s aim can be summed up in one word: freedom. In the end that’s what happiness, success and fulfillment all boil down to—the freedom to ‘be you.’ Living authentically is the road to freedom. By writing this book I am helping others – and myself – to be free through the process of authentic living

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. 10 years! I wrote the early outline of the book in March 2001 and have been writing pieces of it ever since. I devoted a concentrated period of time to working on the book in 2009-10. Much of the time was spent doing in depth research into the core concepts. I felt that I had to thoroughly explore all avenues before settling on a particular idea. One paragraph could be the result of days of research.

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. I found it hard to translate some of the more complex philosophical and psychological ideas into an easy to understand form without losing their essential meaning.

Q. What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
A. The more I did the more I enjoyed it. This was especially true of the editing process. Even though I found it hard to delete sentences or phrases that I have labored over for hours, I began to get a thrill from creating alternative ways of saying the same thing.

Q. Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
A. Moments of bliss when everything just seemed to flow. This experience of ‘alignment with the universal flow of information’ is a key feature of the book and being able to write these words was made much easier by having lived them: “You can swim against the flow of the current and find yourself becoming tired, frustrated, and angry or you can just ‘let go’ and swim with the current. ​Then you will find the process to be effortless, smooth and enjoyable.”

Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. Learn to be true to the unique and wonderful people that they are. There can hardly be any greater aim in life than to be oneself and my ardent hope is that this book will help people to regain their true selves and in the process attain the life of their dreams.

Q. What projects are you currently working on?
A. I have just finished a short book on success. This is an exploration of what success is along with a practical seven step path to achieve success in life. I am also nearly finished a second book that is exclusively focused on authenticity which goes even deeper into the concept than the Being You book and brings some fresh perspectives to the subject. It also contains a biographical section on my own search for authenticity.

Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. No, I am a part-time writer. My main career is as a change management agent helping organizations implement major people change initiatives. I am also a life coach, Reiki Master and NLP Master in private practice.

Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A. Both. I have extensive personal and professional experience which colors everything I write but I did an enormous amount of research for this book which essentially outlines a philosophy for life. For something as momentous as that I felt I needed to be thorough in my research.

Q. How did you come up with your title?
A. This took a long time. I knew the title should be simple and easy to relate to and the original flash of information came from the 19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard who used the phrase “to be that self which one truly is.” After much discussion with my partner she came up with ‘Being You’ and it seemed just right.

Q. What books have influenced you the most?
A. I have been heavily influenced by the books of Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, William James, Viktor Frankl, Carl Rogers, David Brazier, George Herbert Mead, Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Palmer, Thomas Merton, Carl Jung and Malcolm Gladwell.

Q. Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?
A. Balboa Press is a division of Hay House who specialize in self improvement and inspirational books. They allowed me great flexibility to partly self-publish which was really attractive to me.

Q. What can we look forward to in your next book?
A: Many readers have asked that I go into more detail on authenticity, explain it a bit more and spend more time fleshing out the implications of authentic living. That’s what my next book, Authenticity Defined, is going to do.

David Mercier is a speaker, coach, and a former Buddhist monk with three decades of clinical experience as an acupuncturist. With master’s degrees in acupuncture and organization development, as well as experience as a consultant and a senior executive, he brings a truly integrated approach to supporting the growth and vitality of individuals and organizations. For more information, please visit www.abeautifulmedicine.com.

About the book:

A Beautiful Medicine is an exploration of the soul of health, healing, and medicine. One key idea is that our symptoms are not the enemy, but our teachers, guiding us toward physical health, but also on the path of our psychological and spiritual development. Health is not just the absence of disease, but the flourishing of human possibility, an idea Pablo Neruda captured when he wrote, “I want to do to you what spring does to the cherry tree.” The book is designed to open hearts and inspire change, and includes many case studies—some poignant for their tragic tones, some remarkable for their illustrations of healing that defy conventional notions of what’s possible in medicine.

Readers who enjoy Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil and Christiane Northrup will relish this book. But unlike most comparables on the shelf, A Beautiful Medicine is a literary treatment of health and healing. It’s a touching and inspirational book that includes threads of memoir about the author’s personal struggles with depression and illness in his earlier years, and his subsequent recovery and growth through the methods of integrative medicine. It presents a radically different view of how we normally see health and healing.

Author interview:

Q. What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
A. The book is an inquiry into the idea that the heart and soul are core ingredients of health. For that reason, I chose to make it as personal and lyrical as I could. An important part of the vision for health and healing is that our deep humanness, the quality of our spirit, is deeply woven into the physiology of the body. By focusing less on the academic view of health and more on its poetic expression, I hoped to convey not only the idea that health is about mind, body, and spirit, but the idea that it’s very much related to our highest personal and spiritual aspirations.

I think the exploration of this broader and deeper vision of health is timely, when the health of the general public and the health of the healthcare system are both in dire straits.

Q. How long did the book take you from start to finish?
A. It took about a year, writing four to five days a week and seeing patients two days a ​week. I spent seven months writing the first draft, took a month off while I had friends critique it, then spent another three to four months incorporating the suggested changes with the help of an editor.

Q. What did you do to prepare for writing your book?
A: I jumped right into it without preparation, except for creating an outline. But an unexpected turn of events was essential for writing my book: I had been working as a vice president at a graduate school when I was laid off in November of 2009. As I pondered my next steps, I realized that I now had the ability to work two days a week as a clinician, which would allow four to five days for writing. This was an opportunity I’d never had before, and one that would be unlikely to happen again. Without having been laid off from this job, which had been consuming seventy intense hours a week, I doubt I would have ever written the book.

Q. What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
A. It was a toss-up between two challenges. The mental challenges of crafting a vision for health and medicine that was as clear and articulate as I could make it was certainly stressful at times. I realized then why many writers drink. The other challenge was being physically sedentary for many hours, days on end, months on end. I’m accustomed to a more active lifestyle.

Q. What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
A. I was most surprised that it became something very different from what I’d first imagined. Writing the book was clearly not a matter of recording of what I already thought. My thinking evolved as the book progressed, and I ended up with a vision of healing and health that was much deeper and broader than the one I’d started out.

Q. Did you have any favorite experiences ​when writing your book?
A. My favorite experience was not a specific time or incident. It was seeing how the book grew between the time of inception and completion as though it had a life of its own. While the book continued to be an expression of the key ideas I started with, what I ended up with was a book I could not have predicted. So in the long run, it was a surprise. Writing is learning. And as I learned, the book took a number of twists and turns I couldn’t possibly have anticipated before I started. It was marvelous to see, though often during some of those twists and turns, the organic evolution of the book was not obvious and therefore frustrating.

Q. What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
A. My greatest hope is that people will fundamentally alter their view of health and healing for the better. By understanding the core of how healing happens, they’ll be able to avoid the downward spiral that often results from the often misguided attempts to deal with their symptoms and illnesses. And they’ll be better able to nurture not only their physical health, but their psychological and spiritual lives as well. The book is as much about the art of living as it is about physical ​wellbeing. One of the main points is that matters of health are woven into the very fabric of the psychological and spiritual path. When we can see that our symptoms are here to help us become the best we can be, then we’ll have a fundamentally different view of health. And that can lead to significant changes in our lives.

Q. What projects are you currently working on?
A. I’m working on using the key ideas of the book to create seminars to help people be inspired to live the healthiest and most fulfilling lives they can.

Q. Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
A. No. In fact, writing is a small part of my career. For one thing, I’m a life coach, a seminar leader, and a clinician – an acupuncturist in practice since 1983.

Q. Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
A. I wrote mostly from experience. I did research to support the basic concepts of the book, mostly in spirituality and philosophy – for example, I read Martin Buber, some Teilhard de Chardin, and Rollo May – for their ​insights into the nature of human identity, the spiritual nature of the cosmos, and the role of courage in becoming a creative individual. Then there’s some research about medical and biological matters covered in the book. But by and large, I wrote from my observations about the very patterns and processes of healing that have come from nearly thirty years of seeing patients.

Q. How did you come up with your title?
A. The first title I’d chosen was “Flourish.” Then I heard that Martin Seligman was coming out with a book with the same title. When I went back to the drawing board, nothing came to me for quite a while. Then one day, the new title just came to mind while sitting at the kitchen table.
While the book is consistent with an integral view of healing and medicine, I wanted to emphasize the aesthetic, feeling dimensions of health and healing. The idea of a beautiful medicine fit perfectly.

Q. What books have influenced you the most?
A. Talks with Ramana Maharshi; The Collected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, Psychology of the Future by Stanislav Grof, Integral Spirituality by Ken Wilber, A Course ​in Miracles.