Well today is finally the day when my first book is published. I celebrated with a bike ride on a beautiful day in the Shropshire hills and countryside.
I was thinking while riding in the sunshine, that a book is a bit like a village! You know the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and I think birthing a book is the same. So many people contribute over a long period of time. Starting with my English teachers at school (one memorable essay/story about the end of the world because the sun was dying) and my sisters to whom I’d tell stories I’d made up. And my Mum who read voraciously and passed on her enthusiasm.
And along the way, the readers, the encouragement and feedback offered. Short stories, detective stories, ideas still hiding in the back of my mind for a children’s story (some of you will remember ‘Truffle Pup’!) set in the mountains of Aragon. And a solitary retreat where a complex ‘dharma fiction’ idea was born and is yet to be nursed into a reality.
Finally to this book, to the friend who suggested that my retreat leading material was a natural structure for a book. And another good friend (who became my editor) who said ‘well, writers write!’ to my failure to get on with the actual job of writing, providing me with the impetus to come home from that meeting and set myself a writing timetable.
To the Trustees at Windhorse Publications who thought the initial chapters showed promise. And the team at WP who have been consistently patient and helpful with my inexperience about all aspects of the process of how a book comes into being.
To those (including some of you) who I know sponsored the book, making it more likely it would make it to publication. It’s here!
What comes now are a series of book launches on zoom. These will be associated with various Triratna Centres across the UK and Europe, and then spreading further in accord with later publication dates. With the link below you can find out if I’m going to be speaking anywhere near you, you can purchase the book or ebook, and you can watch a little video with me and Dhammamegha, the director of Windhorse Publications talking about the book.
Uncontrived Mindfulness 