What No-One tells you about Self-Publishing

What No-one Tells You About Self-publishing

When people hear that I am an author they asked me if I am 'properly published'. In this day and age that question actually makes me laugh. What is it that makes people believe that if you don’t have a huge publisher behind you then you are not a real author? Erm let’s look at the likes of Amanda Hocking and E.L. James. Did they have ‘proper’ publishers behind them when they started out? Erm no. It was word of mouth that sold their work and then the publishers heard of them. Their sales demonstrated they were 'worthy'. So with the question are you properly published in mind: I would like to tell you what no one tells you about self-publishing and actually why self-publishing is so beneficial.

Once upon a time... I started writing with conviction. Actually it was around fifteen years ago and at the time I was naïve in my aspirations. I thought you sent a nice friendly  letter to a publisher about an idea and they would reply really quickly with 'wow that is a good idea' and instantly offered a book deal. Yep I was wrong. Instead I learned the art of being rejected. It is quite a humbling experience to receive endless rejection letters. It is more fun to burn them. Rejection could stop many people  and cause them give up because they think – you know what people think my writing is shit! I thought if my writing was shit then it is actually quite amusing really to want to keep writing. The thing is I was compelled to write. I just couldn’t help it. It was something that kept coming and coming. I liken it to vomiting. You just can’t hold it in… It has to come out! I then came to conclusion that REJECTION IS NOT FAILURE IT IS RE-DIRECTION.

Over the next year I took a different tactic - I learned that you send to agents. So I sent to agents and a couple of times I was in the running for representation only to be dropped for someone who had been recommended by a friend. Nepotism and recommendations was the way forward. So I learned the best way to ‘befriend’ and attended literary events and fairs. While at one literary event, and after sculpting a double-helix structure from cocktail sausages, I was taken on instantly by an agent. However, they had spotted my artistic talent rather than my literary talents, he represented my photography. At the time I wish I had sculpted the equivalent in literature. I guess I could have chewed up my manuscript and made a paper-gobby-mush sculpture of a squirrel or the like to capture attention. Anyway after being rejected more than one hundred times I came to the conclusion that I must have been deluded. Something in my writing must have been causing rejection – so I had my work evaluated by a ‘professional’ service. At the same time I was offered a place on a Master’s degree in creative writing. The Masters people told me I had talent and that I was destined for great things. Great, until a series of events stopped me being able to take the course. After that I came to the conclusion that there had to be a better way. So I met an editor in real life and a series of circumstances resulted in meeting my proof-reader who works for ‘real’ publishers. I came to the conclusion that it was time to go it alone and do things my way… You know that blooming song…MYYYYYYY WAYYYYYYYYYYY! which is often accompanied by another ‘I get knocked down but I get up again…’ Rocky would have real competition if this was boxing and not writing.

After forming my own team, I began to self-publish. The first attempts were okay; however, there was a real learning in formatting and designing book covers. The biggest learning is providing absolute quality. My proof-reader is a professional who advised me there are always details missed in any book. When she works with the big publishers she finds mistakes in books that are already on the shelves… The thing is everyone is human and everyone has a certain attention span. With this in mind, it is really worth focusing on quality and making sure you have grammatical geniuses read your books. There is always that pedantic aunt who was a secretary... Or that uncle that spouts Latin. If you can get them involved great, although, if you are writing erotica... actually who cares. If they can spot a grammatical error amongst eroticism then they are on your journey for the long-term!

Now it is time to publish and discover Kindle or one of the other platforms. Make a great cover, filled with refined content and hit PUBLISH!!! YEY! Once you have self-published your book, I guess you might be sitting rubbing your hands together expecting the New York Times to call. The reality is that thousands of people are releasing self-published books each day. Unfortunately each self-published book sits amongst a crowd of other self-published books. In addition, you are competing against published authors who are listed before you. So how do you compete against million pound/dollar marketing campaigns and a crowd of other authors? This is where you need to find your own unique way and your own unique voice.

What no one tells you is that you are going to have to learn how to market yourself!

This is it – it is time to make yourself into a brand. That brand has to be such that people are impressed by it. The thing with brands is they have an identity and my advice, whether you choose to take it, is to be absolutely authentic. You will never be able to please everyone and you will definitely discover there are some right dickheads out there. Some of those dickheads purposely go and put one star reviews on new author books (that is something that no one ever tells you or prepares you for).

In addition, there are the vultures… These are the people who are sitting up in the tree watching you flail away to literary death. They then want to come and pick off the bones. This analogy comes from all those people who will offer you their services. There are promoters, marketing people and…. so many others who are all ready to take your money. My friend, who is an author, learned the hard way. She invested in paying people to market her and nothing came from it… In the end she used friends to recommend her to a literary agent and that was her way forwards…

That was not my way forwards because I am a little bit headstrong and can write and write… I also work with trending analysis, social media and business. While doing that I was also teaching creative writing classes. I like to be busy and teach creative writing was a joy. What'smore, I had written numerous books including LOVE HUNT 1 & 2 and my most powerful book MONEY FARM. They were selling at a steady pace, so I felt that I had the right to teach what I had already learned. That is quite lucky really. By teaching you certainly have the chance to evaluate and look at new angles.

So, with my business head on, I considered what was it that people needed or wanted? I then wrote books that filled those gaps – one of them was A Short Course in Creative Writing. That was written because my students asked me to write it. I then had that turned into audio so that people could be prompted and write. Guess what? That sold and sold well. Guess how I sold it? I advised students that I had put the whole ten week course onto audio so they could download it. Guess what happened? They told their friends and they told their writing friends. Word of mouth again!

So what else does no one tell you?

If you want to make money from writing then write what people need. That is entrepreneurialism.

The thing is sometimes there is no fun in that. Admittedly I loved writing the creative writing book because I could imagine students sitting and developing their writing with a teacher at their side whenever they needed it. I likened it to an 'on call' audio teacher. That made me feel nice. Although we write because we have other aspects to express too...

After understanding how to initiate word of mouth I thought: I know, I am going to get a little bit cocky… I want to see if I write the books that I want to write then can I create the market? I was applying the theory of post-modernism. What did I want to write? Some short fun kids’ books.  So I wrote The Hairy-Legged Mystery. That was quickly followed by Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs. Now, there is nothing like a bedtime story being read to you. Yet sometimes parents don’t feel like reading. So I thought – actually why not have it made into audio too? That way the story can be read aloud and the parents can be present while it is being read. Also the story can be stored on the phone and played on car journeys. It just made sense to me. So I posted the books on ACX.COM (this is a place where authors can invite audio producers to produce their work) and both were picked up. The books were produced and went on sale on Audible and ITunes.

What no one tells you: how easy it is to get your book produced professionally on audio! Those books began to sell due to a few blogs, a number of tweets and a being lucky enough to have attracted a producer who works with children as a ‘reader’ of books.  I could go on and on but I won’t. So this is what I have learned about self-publishing that no-one tells you:

·        There are loads of people who want to make money from vulnerable authors. There are vanity companies, book promotional companies and agencies all looking for you to pay them to validate you. I say steer clear! None of my author friends have achieved anything that way.

·       Before you do anything test you work on people who are honest. None of the ‘nice’ friends. It is better to find out where you are going wrong or right. Also remember everyone has an opinion and you will have to learn discernment of opinion. That is a huge learning in itself.

·         Find yourself a good editor and proof-reader to make your books the highest quality.

·         The truth is you are going to have to spend some money if you want to create quality.

·        Decide on being in the spotlight or anonymity. I went for the latter because I would rather not be accosted in a supermarket or toilet (I had that happen when I won a big award for photography – it seriously put me off being recognised. Imagine a head poking under the toilet cubicle door to ask you a question... Oh yes!)

·         Build yourself a brand. Look at the people you like and look at what works. Decide what makes you special and build your brand accordingly.

·       Marketing – promote your books. There needs to be time and effort put into this. Ask friends to tell friends. Post that you have published on Facebook. Write a blog. Make a film. Do what your gut tells you to do but do intend to tell as many people as possible. Pod casting and YouTube enable people to engage with you. The strange thing is when people like you they buy your books. Weird eh?

·         Publishers are looking for easy sales. If a book establishes itself on a market then the publishers will come to you. At this point you then get to ask yourself the question – do you stay indie? After doing all that work and going on that journey – why do you actually need a publisher and an agent? My answer is negotiation. However, there is a benefit of doing it your way and that is no pressure. You can write. Release. Repeat. That is liberating and seems to be a remedy to writer’s block! To be in this position is a beautiful thing...

·       Finally write your next book and the next and love the writing. If it sells great. If it doesn’t it is not failure. The fact that you hatched an imagined idea into reality is success in itself. The truth is writing will take you on a blooming journey – much like a narrative. The monster in your narrative are the parts of your self – the self-doubt, the inner critic and the idealist. Everyone wants their book to touch another’s soul… Yet it might not. The biggest thing that no one ever told me is that the purest pleasure is in the creation… You may sell a lot of books; however, the joy really is in being in that creative space and imagining as the words flow onto the page.  I hope this inspires you… Go for it my literary friend because there are seven billion people in this world and a large enough market for everyone…

You can find my books at the following link: Ruby Allure books on Audible:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+allure&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

AUDIBLE BOOK AVAILABLE HERE:

LINK TO BUY ON AUDIBLE:

http://www.audible.com/pd/Self-Development/A-Short-Course-In-Creative-Writing-Audiobook/B012OVUKE8/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1443260320&sr=1-1

LINK TO PAPERBACK ON AMAZON.COM

A Short Course in Creative Writing
by Ms Ruby Allure
Link: http://amzn.com/1517234832

LINK TO THE HAIRY LEGGED MYSTERY ON AUDIO:http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/The-Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Audiobook/B01H2HF0XU/ref=a_search_c4_1_9_srTtl?qid=1466104902&sr=1-9

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AMAZON.COM - https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=Ruby+Allure&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Ruby+Allure&sort=relevancerank

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AUDIBLE.COM
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_mn_mt_ano_tseft__galileo?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+Allure&x=0&y=0 

NEW RELEASE: TINGLE DINGLE AND THE LITTLE MISCHIEFS

 https://www.amazon.com/Tingle-Dingle-Little-Mischiefs-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G9C0XC2?ie=UTF8&keywords=Ruby%20Allure&qid=1465049617&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

NEW RELEASE: THE HAIRY-LEGGED MYSTERY

https://www.amazon.com/Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Ruby-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G2C0Y9Q?ie=UTF8&qid=1465049724&ref_=sr_1_2&s=digital-text&sr=1-2

The Hairy-Legged Mystery Voice Sample..

The Hairy-Legged Mystery,

Narrated by Lisa Hicks

One afternoon, while Ben and Jenny play in the garden, Ben notices a pair of extremely hairy legs belonging to a huge creature hiding in their hedge. Just as they investigate, they are called in for tea. From that moment on, the pair attempt to determine what the creature is.
During the night, they watch from their bedroom window and can see the outline of a hairy shape lurking in the darkness. It had to be a monster didn't it? What did that monster want? The whole thing was turning into a mystery. Why had the cucumber patch been destroyed? Had the creature taken the fruit bowl? Why would the prize roses be beheaded? Was the creature trying to get their attention? The whole thing had turned into a hairy-legged mystery!

Link TO THE AUDIO BOOK:
http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/The-Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Audiobook/B01H2HF0XU/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1466355259&sr=1-1#publisher-summary

An Interview with Lisa Hicks, the voice behind The Hairy Legged Mystery!

An Interview with Lisa Hicks,  the voice behind The Hairy Legged Mystery!

This week The Hairy-Legged Mystery burst onto the audiobook market and made a hugely hairy impact. With the audio fluffaciousness reaching the masses,  I felt that the world like to know a bit more about Lisa Hicks - the voice artist and producer behind the audiobook. Lisa trained as an actor, spent several years acting on stage, in TV and film, and then became an elementary school librarian.  I guess you want to know a little bit more than that... So here are some questions that will give you a better insight.

Q: How did you get into producing audiobooks?

I love “Kid Lit”, I love reading it, I love listening to it and I love being a matchmaker – finding just the right book for each kid.  Part of my job in the library was to read aloud to the students, and they enjoyed my readings as much as I enjoyed performing books for them. 

I am also an avid audiobook listener.  I listen during car trips, while walking and while doing housework.  When a narrator “gets” the author’s voice, then has the skills to communicate that voice, it is magic and I am transported into the book in a powerful way. 

A few years ago I began to wonder if I could combine my acting training, experience with kids, love of books and technical skills to become a narrator myself.  It has been two years of a roller-coaster-learning-curve, but I am enjoying the ride! 

Q: What do you look for when choosing to work on an audio book?  

For the moment I am sticking with what I know – kids’  ‘tween and teen books, but I feel sure I will branch out with experience.   I look for books which respect the intelligence of the audience.   I will not audition for a book if I feel the author is talking down to the young reader, or manipulating a reader of any age.

Q: What are some of your funniest/ weirdest and most awkward experiences within audio production? 

Hmm…  I’m something of a newbie.  Check back with me in a couple of years ;-)

Q: What was it about The Hairy-Legged Mystery books that appealed?

I fell in love with the characters and their family life.  I wanted to be in that family where the kids love to play outside, where they think fast, take risks and back each other up.  Hats off to their working parents, who manage to give their kids space, but hang with them at bedtime too, telling wildly imaginative stories. 

Also, I should mention Ruby that your writing style makes narrating easy.  You have a natural conversational tone with realistic dialogue, which made the job of a narrating this book an absolute pleasure.

Q: What are your favourite bits of The Hairy-Legged mystery that the readers should listen out for? 

Listen for the tea-time scene in which Ben and Jenny hide the creature under the table.   While banana peels and orange skins fly, the pair try to cover the sounds and distract their parents from discovering their secret.

Q: What advice do you have for authors intending to produce audiobooks?

GO FOR IT!  The audiobook audience is growing.  There are people like me who listen while doing mindless tasks, people who are learning English and will use your book to improve their language skills, and there are brilliantly intelligent people who are dyslexic and who appreciate a good read minus the agro of decoding .  GO FOR IT!

LINK TO THE HAIRY LEGGED MYSTERY ON AUDIO:
http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/The-Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Audiobook/B01H2HF0XU/ref=a_search_c4_1_9_srTtl?qid=1466104902&sr=1-9

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AMAZON.COM - https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=Ruby+Allure&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Ruby+Allure&sort=relevancerank

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AUDIBLE.COM
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_mn_mt_ano_tseft__galileo?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+Allure&x=0&y=0 

NEW RELEASE: TINGLE DINGLE AND THE LITTLE MISCHIEFS

 https://www.amazon.com/Tingle-Dingle-Little-Mischiefs-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G9C0XC2?ie=UTF8&keywords=Ruby%20Allure&qid=1465049617&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

NEW RELEASE: THE HAIRY-LEGGED MYSTERY

https://www.amazon.com/Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Ruby-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G2C0Y9Q?ie=UTF8&qid=1465049724&ref_=sr_1_2&s=digital-text&sr=1-2

WRITE.PRODUCE. RELEASE...

WRITE. PRODUCE. RELEASE.

I am very lucky because I have a friend who is quite brilliant. This friend managed to simply accumulate wealth. She does not have to try... Money quite literally gravitates to her. It is amazing. The thing is, because she is removed from the wasted mental energy needed to pay bills and make ends meet, she provides some fantastic insights. Last night's insight was about why we do things. What is our motivation? How does that motivation change as we mature?

Admittedly we have both matured in the last ten years. The way we approach things have changed dramatically. She has watched my writing journey with amusement. In the beginning there were heady ideals and great aspirations which gradually whittled away to become the purity of creation. My delusional ideals were quite hilarious now when I look back; however, they are what drove me to write daily. They motivated me to create discipline and conquer the inner critic, the inner saboteur and the deluded grandiose egotism that demanded that I prove to the world that I was special. I now write anonymously because I have no desire to be known. That is quite a reverse of the dream of standing in the spotlight!

On my journey I realised that I knew less than I thought, that ego was a dick and that actually the outcome is nothing in comparison to the beauty of being immersed in creativity. For me creativity is like being suspended in this beautiful light space where everything is possible. It is a space filled with magic, dreams, laughter and manifestation. I love it there. It has fairies, mythological creatures and all manner of hero waiting to take part in adventures. All the pieces of the puzzle are suspended in all directions and it my job to waft around the creative realm pulling all the pieces together into an adventurous narrative.

Over the years I must have written about forty books. Not bad going. I think about twelve are on the market, the thing is I actually stopped caring about the market, the acclaim or money. I have a good job which takes the pressure off the writing. The funny thing is when you stop caring about money or acclaim they come to you... What I have learned is there is a sense of privilege in being able to provide entertainment for others. There is a great feeling of gratitude in being given a creative idea that can run to completion and more than anything there is the true love of dreaming and imagining.

My friend then, in her own special way, pointed out creativity and writing was the opportunity to 'give' something of you to the world. That creativity is between you and your maker; however, once made you can share your creation with the world. That is why I publish the work - to share and to come to completion. Another great learning is that no one owes you anything, no one needs to read your work and no one owes you an income from what you create... This then leads people to the question then why create at all? THE ANSWER IS JOY AND THAT YOU ARE COMPELLED TO CREATE. Creativity has picked you to be the vessel to transmute an idea into reality. Isn't that a privilege?

This goes back to my friend and her insight: she arrived at a point in her life where she no longer needs to toil. Simplicity became the answer. She came to the conclusion after numerous successes that they meant nothing. The mastery comes from finding beauty in the mundane and when you master that then what do you need? It is funny how we both arrived at the same conclusion from very different paths. I was always competitive and taking part in sports competitions whilst writing books and climbing the career ladder. At the same time she set up businesses, developed property and had a family. Two very different paths but one conclusion - the joy is truly in the journey and learning to be authentic. By taking such paths we are open to learn who we truly are. At first we may aspire to be something or to have something. Yet the journey reveals us all the facets of self. During the journey we discover new pieces of the puzzle which can be slotted into the spaces that needed to be filled. During the journey we see our shadows and conquer our own dragons in search of the treasure. However, we are the treasure and yet we have looked outside for that validation. So with all that in mind, my approach is WRITE. PRODUCE. RELEASE. Today The Hairy Legged Mystery was released on audio. Fantastic job Lisa. Thanks for being the voice of the story! The amazing thing is that it already sells and I guess that is because I loved writing it. Those who have read it say they can feel the fun in it. What more can you want than that? People ask me about the money side of things - that is no longer the motivation - it is nice; however, the royalties become the by-product of the joy I felt in the creation. The value for me now is in creativity because ultimately money is a piece of paper with a stranger's face on that is used for exchange. Money is not the motivation the experience is and that is when things truly changed...

LINK TO THE HAIRY LEGGED MYSTERY ON AUDIO:
http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/The-Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Audiobook/B01H2HF0XU/ref=a_search_c4_1_9_srTtl?qid=1466104902&sr=1-9

Tingle Dingle & The Little Mischiefs - YIPEEEEE! MISCHIEF!!!!

Today Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs arrived on audio. Tierra did a wonderful job and in all honesty it is wonderful to know that children are able to hear a funny bedtime story that popped from my random imagination....

LINK: TO TINGLE DINGLE & THE LITTLE MISCHIEFS ON AUDIO: http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/Tingle-Dingle-and-the-Little-Mischiefs-Audiobook/B01GW55E48/ref=a_search_c4_1_8_srTtl?qid=1465848730&sr=1-8

A fun bedtime story!!!

Are You Having A Laugh?

Are you having a laugh?

Come on admit it: there is nothing like a good belly laugh or laughing until there are tears streaming from your eyes and you can hardly breathe. In fact laughing hysterically is one of my favourite things and I indulge in it regularly. That is why I returned to writing children’s books because I can step into a world of wonder, where the most ridiculous scenarios have me shaking with laughter or force me to take a stroll around the room to get myself back in order. The thing is laughter is infectious. It lifts our energy and even on a cell level contributes to our health. So why aren’t we laughing more? Or laughing as much as possible?

There was a time when I was working for a large corporation and the head of the department, who appeared as though he had a smell under his nose, passed by while I was shaking with laughter. He paused by my desk and asked whether I was actually laughing. I replied that I was. He seemed bemused, as if he had not witnessed laughter in a long time.  Later that day I was called into an office and advised by my manger that I was to limit my conversation to ‘Good Morning and Good Night’ and certainly no laughter shenanigans. I asked him whether he realised that a happy team was a highly productive team. He avoided answering. I also questioned him - I said since people spend a huge amount of time at work – did they expect them to be robots? His response was ‘yes they wanted robots.’ They wanted the ‘robots’ to produce. Needless to say, I handed in my resignation. Within three months ninety percent of team left because the atmosphere had died and people did not want to spend their days doing a mundane job in misery. The remaining ten percent happened to be one person – the manager.

 

As the complete opposite to the above, my great friend is a laughter therapist and laughter yoga teacher. She uses laughter to break down internal barriers. She has developed quite a reputation and recently was asked to hold a speech for the police. So guess what she did? She got a huge hall of police people to laugh like the laughing policeman until everyone was shaking with laughter. The atmosphere in the room was so energised that everything she said was inspired. The room was united in laughter and each and every police officer who attended that talk left with such a positive experience that they would attend again.  The thing is laughter unites people and makes them more open. Don’t you gravitate to the person who is filled with laughter instead of the one who stands like a black-hole filled with doom?

With all the above in mind, I have taken some time out from writing my intensively researched books to having a bit of fun with some children’s books. Some of my colleagues at work asked me to put something together that would appeal to their children. So I came up with The Hairy-Legged Mystery, which went on sale last week, was snapped up for audio this week and the production is already complete and should be released next week. The same thing happened with Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs. Both of these books were written for personal entertainment and friends and were not expected to be put out into the wider market. Instead I wrote them with the intention to create something that made me laugh out loud at the desk and would be fun for my friends to read to their children. I admit, I do do some rather bizarre things and crying at the desk could be considered one of them. The way that I see it is that I write for sheer enjoyment and creativity - that enjoyment involves belly laughter, general tears of laughter at the desk and titles like a ‘cucumber catastrophy.’

What I have realised through creating these books is that laughter is precious. Laughter lifts our spirits and illuminates our souls. The question ‘are you having a laugh?’ made me consider how can I bring more laughter to the world. There is so much doom and gloom around and endless fear being perpetuated that I came to the conclusion we need more laughter. Obviously the answer is not pointing at people and laughing because that would be unfair. This one thought actually was the catalyst for the current children’s book I am writing. I am not going to give details because it is not complete yet.  It does involved giggling, laughter and a baddy who is truly miserable. The thing is the world needs more laughter and unites people positively through laughter. So my question is not only are you have a laugh but how do we encourage more laughter to lift our energy? If you have any answers that would be wonderful!!! This is the reason I released Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs along with The Hairy-Legged Mystery because it is my way of sharing the laughter.

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AMAZON.COM - https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=Ruby+Allure&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Ruby+Allure&sort=relevancerank

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AUDIBLE.COM
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_mn_mt_ano_tseft__galileo?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+Allure&x=0&y=0 

NEW RELEASE: TINGLE DINGLE AND THE LITTLE MISCHIEFS

 https://www.amazon.com/Tingle-Dingle-Little-Mischiefs-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G9C0XC2?ie=UTF8&keywords=Ruby%20Allure&qid=1465049617&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

NEW RELEASE: THE HAIRY-LEGGED MYSTERY

https://www.amazon.com/Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Ruby-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G2C0Y9Q?ie=UTF8&qid=1465049724&ref_=sr_1_2&s=digital-text&sr=1-2

The Grass isn't always Greener on the Other Side!

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side!

If the grass looks greener on the other side then start tending to your own grass until it is vibrant and filled with radiance!  Why are you looking at other people's grass anyway when your attention could be focused on making yours amazing!

This week has been quite a week for me. Two children’s books released and snapped up by audio producers, a return to work after being signed off with Deep Vein Thrombosis and being able to see the world with a new perspective. It is funny how when you are immersed in routine that you live on automatic pilot. How often do you stop to take in your surroundings? How often do you stop and say actually I am living the perfect life for me? I would guess that it isn’t that often. Don’t you find it amazing that all your choices and decisions in life have resulted in where you are now? Those decisions must have been made because you felt your situation would improve… Am I correct? So why do people look at other people’s lives and wish they were them? Or wish they had their life? Why do we assume that life is greener on the other side?

A good example of the grass being greener was when I was at a rowing championship. I was staying in a cottage with a group of mothers (who were there for their children). They said to me they wished they could live my life: a life of freedom, creativity and working in business. I had never considered that people would look at my lifestyle from the outside and consider my grass was greener. I pointed out that in my opinion they had it pretty good. They all had wonderful husbands who provided for them and they had a family, lovely homes and all they needed. They had not had to work up a corporate ladder or find ways to enable numerous incomes. Instead they had had the opportunity to focus on nurture, bringing life into the world and they had the opportunity to do that in comfort rather than struggle. I had struggled, seriously struggled and there were times where I would have gladly been saved by an opportune prince. Unfortunately there was no prince making that showy arrival, so instead I realised my life was my responsibility and rather than waste time admiring people’s grass and wishing it was mine, I thought well how do I make my grass the greenest it can be? Since each person’s life is their responsibility and their grass state is representational of their life, then tending to one’s own grass is the best thing a person can do.

At this point I would like you to ask how you make your grass as green as it can be?  The thing is it isn’t just about having more or earning more money, it can quite simply be a shift of mental perspective. Just think that there are people out there who aspire to have the life you have. I know… It is a strange thought. The way I see it is if you have access to the internet and have the opportunity to read this blog then you are rich. You have the capacity to purchase the technology to be able to access the world. You have the funds to buy the tools. You are not sitting in a hovel digging through shit.

Through doing this evaluation, I realised that my life was good and worked perfectly for me. As much as those images of people living in huge luxurious mansions bombard us, I realised that actually I would feel very lonely residing in such a huge space. I would be like a pea rattling around a warehouse. My little apartment is perfect for me. It is peaceful, cosy and filled with an air of femininity. In truth it is beautiful, has turrets and is minimalist. So you might wave a mansion at me and I would smile and know that in terms of where I live my grass is very green.

 

It was a few years ago now that I saw through the big illusion. That illusion is fascinating – we are fed images of ideals in films and adverts. They are not real. We are shown images of the ideal bodies, yet we are all different. So why not love the body you have and treat it well? Don’t starve it, treat it to great nutrition and it is worth shifting perspective to consider food as medicine and building blocks for the body.  Find an exercise you love so that your body radiates with health. Blood moving around the body stops it stagnating. Finally money – we all chase money to be rich because everyone else wants to be rich. Yes money is a decorated piece of paper to accumulate but what if all that effort to accumulate results in devaluation? It happened to Cyprus and Iceland. So with that in mind, you can realise that actually what you want is the feeling of being rich and that comes from appreciating what you have. It is so simple.

The moment I realised I was rich was quite out of the blue. I stood on my paddleboard on a beautiful expanse of water. It was close to sunset and the clouds were decorated with pink and the reflection made heaven and earth one. I stood there in that moment and thought I couldn’t pay for this. This endless chase for money is ridiculous because it is continuous. When will you ever have enough? You know the answer to that... For me - beauty and true wealth comes from being immersed in the experience.

That moment on the paddleboard was when I realised I had stopped to smell the roses and seen the beauty in life. That beauty had not cost a thing – it was nature working its daily miracles. What was it that made me rich? It was the recognition and the feeling of a great connection with the planet. A feeling of great wealth rose up inside me. I series of pictures connected, as if there was a thread throughout my life. I saw the sequence of great moments of inspiration. It was then that I realised that my grass was as green as I wished to make it. I just needed to focus on the feeling of being wealthy with what I have because I have access to that whenever I wish. I also realised that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side. Instead it is far better to focus on my own grass, tend to my own grass and then take it with me in the form of radiant turf!

I hope this inspires

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