PRESS RELEASE – JUNE 2015
“I Seem To Have Written a Book”
Barbara Cook, of Geelong Australia, is self-publishing her first novella, entitled Good Choice – A Soul’s Story. It’s a self-help book in the form of a fantasy story written from a soul’s point of view. It’s the one she wrote over twenty years ago and kept in the top of her wardrobe. Only a recent upheaval in her life, and the ensuing burst of compassion, has convinced her that it is time to share her story, time to come out of hiding. Expressing her inner truth could be the best help she ever gives herself.
But this is not your standard success story.
It is a story that may be familiar to many who have undergone any kind of personal growth – that time when you just know that you have to step into a strange new world where nothing is familiar and you don’t know what will happen. Maybe it even feels like jumping off a cliff into thin air. Barbara will be writing a blog as she waits for her publishing process to develop. She will be inviting her readers to come with her on her journey, that one where there’s no success, no end result, no guarantees, just waiting.
Although you can’t see into her future, do you want to wait with her in her vulnerability?
Most articles about success stories are just that; a celebration of someone’s new range they’ve launched, artwork they’ve exhibited, business venture they’ve started up. Success means you’ve arrived.
I didn’t want to wait for success, or the official book launch, the final product, before announcing my story to the media. I didn’t want to a) wait to see if it’s a fizzer, then retreat back into the woodwork and pretend nothing just happened or b) wait to see if it sells well, then announce, “So, here I am, a successful author.”
If I waited for that news article to be written, it would present me as a confident, newly-published author who just clicked her fingers and reinvented herself. I didn’t want anyone to think that for one minute. When you read my blog you’ll see clearly that’s not who I am.
Suddenly an idea came to me, a news article that seemed more honest; an article about the woman who hasn’t arrived yet. I wanted to invite readers to be with me before the book is published, and witness that vulnerable time of waiting and not knowing what will happen.
After all, my book could become anything on the scale between the J.K. Rowling of self-help books, and the one that sold twenty-five copies (and three of those were to my Mum).
This waiting time currently feels like a vacuum – the empty space, the gestation, and all the feelings that come up along the way. I wonder if others experience similar feelings when they reinvent themselves. I’m a mum, a nana, a daughter, a sister, a teacher, a dancer. I’ve always written, but I’ve never been an author before.
I trained and worked as a Primary teacher and have, over the years, taught dance, dance therapy and movement studies in various private, therapeutic and community settings. For the past sixteen years I have taught dance choreography to teenagers. I love learning.
My need to live an authentic life has taken me on a path familiar to many – pain, awareness, healing and the discovery that I am a soul on a journey. My meditation, dance, drawing and journaling, along with a plethora of self-help books, have always helped me to uncover my truth. I have known it was only my truth, so I’ve largely kept it to myself.
My ongoing journey of personal and spiritual growth began in earnest in my thirties. But I’ve only ever been pushed into growth. I don’t do anything until I have to. I don’t do this growth business gently. And I certainly don’t do things by halves. Usually it goes something like this: I’ll be perfectly happy going along on my old familiar path, until whammo! I’m hit by a crisis or upheaval. I hold on by my fingernails as I’m dragged into a new reality. I seem to repeatedly get myself into situations where there’s an impasse – my carefully-constructed way of doing things simply doesn’t work any more, and I have no choice but to finally give up, finally surrender to whatever painful emotions are there. But you know what? It ends up that each new reality gives me more and more freedom, more and more peace. Who knew? But this latest upheaval has my heart wide open and hurting, not just for myself but for everyone who’s blindly suffering, or living in fear, or wondering why on earth they keep repeating unhelpful or limiting patterns.
I’d now like to share on a personal level my attempt to make sense of the patterns in my life. Instead of hiding away, I want to share my whole self. That’s why I’m putting my fantasy story out there. I know that it is only my understanding, and only the sum of my experiences and insights so far, and could well change in the future. Parts of it may even resonate with other people. They may even begin to reflect on their own soul’s story.
In my blog, you’ll learn how I came to write a book (or how the book wrote me).
You’ll see how the word success becomes meaningless.
You’ll witness me finding a gentler way to grow.
You’ll see me discover a paradox in the word “vulnerable”.
If any of your readers are allergic to the V-word, they may want to stop reading now. Maybe for now I should call it The Vulnerability Blog. I’m willing to be open and vulnerable – it’s second nature to me now. I’ve just not shared my whole story with so many confidantes before.”
I invite you to join me on my journey at barbaracookauthor.com
PHOTOS
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CONTACT ME
Please use the email box to contact me, but be sure to put MEDIA in the subject line so I can get straight back to you.
I’m happy to have a chat with you on just about anything, including these topics:
The vulnerability of taking a new direction Finding my voice – revealing my truth My personal growth journey The capacity for self-reflection Creativity / self therapy Meditation / mindfulness Being a first-time author : my writing, editing and self-publishing process
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