The ship has officially sailed! The manuscript was sent to the book designer yesterday. Ophelia will be wrapping up one last illustration and then I’ll be sending those off in a zip file for placement in the book’s interior.
Here’s another preview of the book just for my Hive subscribers, the Prologue:
Prologue
Most of us, at some time in our lives, have experienced a moment of almost perfect peace. In these moments we lose ourselves, it’s as though we’re wrapped in a cocoon of pure joy and contentment. These feelings can be triggered while experiencing a golden sunset, the warm glow of a campfire on a crisp night, or our children happily at play. I call these mindful moments and they’re so profound that it’s difficult to describe in words how good, content, and whole they make us feel. However, these mindful moments are usually fragile, short-lived, and evaporate in a few seconds.
What if there was a way to train your mind to experience more of these moments? What if, with practice, you could begin to string these mindful moments together until you begin to exist in this place of joy, peace, and contentment more often than not? The key to experiencing this next-level quality of life is by mastering the art of living mindfully.
Learning to live in a state of mindfulness is easier to learn than you think, it requires nothing more than a subtle shift in mindset. This book will teach you simple techniques that will allow you to live your best life and be the best version of yourself despite the challenges and negative circumstances unfolding around you.
At the end of most chapters in this book is a section dedicated to meditation as well as blank journaling pages for you to jot down thoughts and ideas. The meditation exercises are very simple, by design. This 5,5,7 meditation technique has been honed over twenty years of practice and designed to be easy to remember and effortless to apply.
You’ll be able to test out the concepts presented in each chapter and use the book to chronicle your personal journey to living a more mindful life. If you’re reading the eBook version on a mobile phone or tablet simply place your finger on the Notes page and “long press” your screen to activate the Notes feature in the Kindle app. Use this notes feature to document your observations and results.
Note: For best results I suggest reading only one chapter per week and practicing that chapter’s meditation section at least once a day over the course of that week and focus on the journaling section of that chapter. After you’re through with all ten chapters, if you feel the need to reread the book, please feel free. I also recommend keeping the book and revisiting your journaling sections when you’re feeling emotionally depleted or challenged in any way. I’m a firm believer that the best way to change the world is to work on ourselves. I hope you find this book to be a useful tool in the journey to becoming the best version of yourself.
What’s Next?
At this point in a book project I invariably start to ask myself, What’s The Next Project?. This is a common mistake that most self-published authors make, the creative mind wants to just keep creating, but the truth is this project is far from over. Now that the manuscript is in the hands of the designer it’s time to start mapping out a marketing strategy and trying to choose a launch date.
Communication with the book designer is crucial at this stage. Arrive at a date when you think it will be done and then add two weeks to that. It’s best to have a week or two of cushion to allow time for last-minute revisions or technical difficulties. The worst thing you can do is announce a date to your readers and have to revise it down the road. This creates a logistical nightmare and can result in lost sales.
Thanks to Covid-19, in-person events will be tough so it’ll take some creativity to think of ways to create a buzz about the book without personal appearances and book-signings. Virtual events will be the only option this time.
It’ll be very important to get at least 25 Amazon reviews posted prior to the official launch so I’ll be reaching out to my readers on Hive to help make that happen when the time is right.
Before I delve into any of that, tomorrow is our wedding anniversary so I'll be venturing out today in search of a card and gift worthy of the woman who's put up with me for twelve whole years! Lol.
Thank you for your continued support!
(Gifs compliments of Giphy.com)
I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.
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I've been having issues trying to comment today but suddenly all is well so let's hold thumbs! What a lovely and very apt prologue to a wonderful book, we really don't know just how much work goes into having a book published.
How lucky that you found your soulmate, I would say she's a very lucky lady to have found you! Congratulations to both of you on your 12th anniversary!
The Hive site hasn't been working properly for me for about a week now. I got so frustrated I switched to PeakD and it's much, much smoother. I may decide to stick with it from now on.
Thank you! I wrote and rewrote that thing probably fifty times. It is definitely a lot of work to self-publish because you have to wear all the hats or hire and manage others. I'm working on some VERY exciting marketing ideas now. I'm going to share some of those ideas in this week's Saturday Musings post.
I appreciate that. I'm very lucky! We went out and had a nice dinner (on a patio) last night. It's been difficult for me to stay focused lately with everything going on with the book, my dad, and the world right now but last night was a nice pause in everything. We enjoyed a nice meal and a few glasses of wine. The weather was perfect.
It's always great to hear from you my friend. Take care and enjoy the weekend!
Sounds like you had the perfect anniversary dinner; it's been quite a crazy year, some very scary stuff but also some exciting new changes!
It's so sad about your Dad and I really feel for your Mom too as she must be taking strain.
We're taking a break down the coast next week with close family, really looking forward to that! I'm going to try and squeeze in a couple of scheduled posts this weekend. We'll have returning business guests here who will self-cater, but leaving our one trusted staff in charge;) Cynthia our housekeeper is coming along to help Mom; her balance is really bad now and she still refuses the walker and walking stick! Otherwise she's really well, turned 89 last month.
I use peakd 99% of the time but have been having issues with that as well!
Thanks @lizelle! We had a really nice dinner.
It's been super difficult on my Mom. He took off in the car last night, got lost and got into an accident. He's in surgery now for a broken knee cap. It's been quite a tense 24 hours.
I hope you've enjoyed your time away! You certainly deserve it after being in lockdown for so long!
Oh no Eric, that's an added concern for all of you!
I do hope the surgery went well, but those car keys are going to have to be put away which won't make your dad happy at all.
Thinking of all of you!
We're only leaving tomorrow, really need this break:)
Take care!
Thanks, Lizelle. We're happy he was found and that he didn't hurt himself any worse (or anyone else). His surgery went well but he's not being a good patient. We'll be packing up and heading down to be with them here in a few days. Enjoy your much deserved break!
Hello dear friend @ericvancewalton good afternoon
What a joy it is to know that you are in the final stage of your book, what you say is true, I have heard that writers do not want to stop at the end of each book, they want to maintain the momentum they carry, however, writing is a part of the business of a writer, I suppose it is so, although you love to write, deep down it is a business, and as such, you have to boost your sales. This year you will have to do live presentations on the web, I don't know how your audience is on YouTube, but you could make a live video about your book.
Whatever strategies you use, you will see that you will do very well. You are a good person, and people like that are always enlightened.
Happy anniversary dear friend, do your best to get a nice gift for your wife.
Enjoy this beautiful night very much
Thank you very much @jlufer! I appreciate the kinds words. Have a wonderful rest of the week!
A month of celebration, Eric! Every day closer to the big launch, dear friend! The prologue is perfect and complete. It captures to a great extent not only the essence of the book but also its practicality. As for marriage, even if I am not married, I know that there are dates that are important and I give them their value. My parents were married for over 50 years and only separated because my father died. However, my mother still loves him. So take care of that gift, that card; put into words all the love you feel for that woman you were lucky enough to meet and lucky enough to stay. Congratulations to both of you! Hugs
Yes! It's an exciting time for sure. I'm working on some ideas for the launch that I can't wait to share with you all. I'm sorry to hear about your father's passing! When you're truly in love one lifetime doesn't seem like it's ever enough. Thank you and I wish you a wonderful rest of the week!
No kidding! Our twelve year anniversary is in just a week or so. Congrats! Also congrats on having the book sent off. That has to be an awesome feeling! I can be one of your Amazon people if you need me to. Just let me know. I have read pretty much the whole thing after all :)
Thanks! What a coincidence! I can remember the day like it was yesterday. It was the second marriage for both of us so we decided to go to the courthouse then just have a nice meal afterwards. We celebrated later with friends. I appreciate the offer and will take you up on it. I'll send you a link when I have it. To make sure the review is "verified" I have to price the book at $0, you have to "purchase" then write the review. I hope you're having a good week!
Yeah, that is no problem. I can do that for sure. This was our first marriage, so we did the whole she-bang. It was still a great day. Pretty much perfect for the middle of October. Actually, it was a kind of small ceremony, we did it on a shoestring budget, but it turned out great. The only bad part was our cake was supposed to be square but the lady made it round. She ended up not charging us, so it wall worked out. Our only regret is that we weren't able to go bigger.
Thanks again for stepping up! It sounds like you had a great day. There are so many things that can go wrong with a wedding. The good thing is you can always renew your vows at a later point and do it as big as you want.
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