Book Four: "Don't call me kitten!" update and general news

I finished "Don't call me kitten!" a little while ago. My highly valued test readers and editors have given it their thumbs up. So what am I waiting on? Well there is a move afoot to immortalise my beloved partner's Laverda Jota on the front cover. The main character of this book, Helena, needed a bike. At first I thought her bike was going to be a Vincent Black Shadow on a Norton Featherbed frame but as there are not a lot of those around where I live and I needed a unique copyright free photo I was in a bit of a quandry. It was then my partner suggested the Laverda. The very original full racing version is bright orange and goes so fast that if you are a pillion passenger on the back it damn near pins your ears back. Being race worthy it is rather temperamental. It needs a full charge in its battery, the right ocatane fuel and the right spark plugs for the conditions you want to ride it in. It has been our pride and joy for many years but it is a younger person's bike and it is in need of restoration. Before we part with it we want to put it on the cover of book 4. To do that my partner needs to get it road worthy, as well a presentable for sale. Then we'll find a nice location for the photo shoot.

In the meantime I've had a rare form of shingles back in May. Throughout the Australian winter we've been immersed in house building as we extend our small log cabin retirement home to include a deck, a new main bedroom, bathroom (with bath - yay!) and lounge room. In the middle of all that my two day a week paying job is going through restructuring and cutbacks. My intuition is telling me its time to pull out my resume, do a new business card and go hunting some casual work to tide me over until I'm legally entitled to draw on my superannuation. It's a balancing act between working enough to pay the bills and having enough time to write, garden and meditate.

Book five is in progress and I've given it a working title of "Don't label me." This will be mainly Hideo and Sathi's story but as usual there will be plenty of sub plots building on the lives of those in Boswell. I'm still fleshing out the plot for it but it is starting to come together.

And...I've decided Simon needs a cookbook which a certain unscrupulous journalist will copy. This will include many of the recipes that have been mentioned in the novels plus others. I'm putting it together as much for my own reference as well as those interested in the ancient Sattvic diet and its principles. I'm particularly interested in adapting the diet to the colder and more temperate climates. The original was designed for the tropics. I thought it would be better if the bulk of the ingredients used could be grown in Boswell.

An infinitiy of space - a meditation

listen to ‘An infinitiy of space - a meditation’ on Audioboo

"Infinity of Space" meditation now on both myPlick and Audioboo

Since Slideshare closed down its Slidecast service (that allowed you to sync audio with a presentation). I first moved the whole of the "Infinity of Space" meditation to myPlick and now the audio only, as an mp3 file, to Audioboo https://audioboo.fm/boos/2443889-an-infinitiy-of-space-a-meditation. The myplick version is just a straight overlay of sound over the pdf I downloaded from Slideshare. I haven't fiddled yet to see if you can control where slides change but on this one it doesn't really matter as it is really one to do with your eyes closed anyway.

listen to ‘An infinitiy of space - a meditation’ on Audioboo

or myPlick:

An Infinity of Space

Tags: meditation mysticism consciousness 

Happy no matter what

Enjoying reading Louis Koster's "A new language for life: happy no matter what" http://www.amazon.com/New-Language-Life-Happy-Matter-ebook/dp/B009R898FY/ at the moment. In a nutshell it's about how we can choose to be happy, independent of what is happening in our lives. It's also about the insight that comes from realising that nothing outside of us inherently has the capacity to make us happy. So what does the author mean by all that? Well you'll have to read his book for that but here's my take on it all below.

Have you ever remembered a happy event and had a smile come to you face. If you visualise yourself as happy then your muscles follow suit. The brain is just a mainframe information processing centre after all. If you tell it you're happy it will send messages to your bodies systems that you are happy. Visualise and feel the emotion and the body will follow suit. Happiness is a choice. It is a habit that we can practise and become skillfull at. In some cultures being happy may be seen as abnormal.  Some cultures value stoicism, the still upper lip, fatalism or a carefree "whatever" attitude. How we respond to the world is largely learnt from our culture, circumstances, our peers and  our family. But we can break free.  Someone has to be first right? The hundred monkey syndrome starts with one monkey. A while back I decided to be such a monkey. Like the author of "Happy no matter what" I'm still practising. Its a skill I practise daily by being aware of where my emotions are coming from, how am I responding to others or circumstances. Changing your response to life is a hell of a big elephant to eat but if you do it one bit at a time you will eventually eat it. Why else are elephants scared of mice.

Part of my own practise is using the basics of Bon Dzogchen meditation as outlined by Tenzin Wangyal in
Awakening The Luminous Mind: Tibetan Meditation for Inner Peace and Joy
and in his
Tibetan Sound Healing. I find boundless space in my solar plexus (under my ribcage) and allow the sense of light and warmth there to awaken into joy. It is not a joy I create but one I am allowing. It is always there. I just choose to awaken to it and allow it to take a greater prominence in my life.

When you start to practise the choice you start to realise that while someone around you might be having a bad day you don't have to have one too. Yes feel compassion for them but you don't have to be miserable too. The world is geared around judgement. Lots of people spend their daily lives passing opinions about other people's actions. When you start to realise that you make the choice about how you react to the world around you suddenly you realise that it is the act of judgement that determines how you feel about something or someone. By taking responsibility for feeling happy of not you become less inclined to judge others because you are no longer making them responsible for your happiness.

For more about Louis Koster and his remarkable life journey visit his website at http://www.louiskoster.com/

"Trust and Destiny", book 3 of Lefthand Adventures

I'd had "In Deep" as the working title for book 3 of the Lefthand Adventures series but at the last minute it morphed into "Trust and Destiny" with a different cover than I'd planned. It was nice to take a few weeks off while my editors poured over the draft. One thing writing has taught me is that I don't have to be a total do-it-yourselfer. There are people out there with better attention to detail and a better feel for design. I'm really grateful to all those who helped me with this one and donated their time to make it happen. The enthusiasm of my small but growing fan base has been a sheer delight.  When I started out I really wasn't sure what people's response tot the books would be.

As a writer I achieved my first goal the first time I got into print. The next was my first online sale. Frankly when I started this whole exercise I thought it would be nice if I could get a few copies of my books printed for friends and family and if I ever got an online sale I'd be over the moon. Just last week I got my first review in the New Zealand Journal of Natural Medicine for my meditation and relaxation booklet.

If you enjoyed the first two books in the series I know you'll enjoy this one. This is Michael's story:

One minute he'd been Michael Williams, six foot four, short cut brown hair and unassuming brown eyes.  The next minute he'd found himself in a vast boundless void of light and space with no point of reference in time and space. It was immensely peaceful with a sense of oneness and connectedness with everything.  Then he was spat out the other side..

"Who are you?" came a lilting but startled female voice, waking him from his reverie.  

Before him was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. She wore a pale blue, almost translucent garment.  Wavy hair the color of softly spun gold flowed down her back.  Her eyes were of clearest sea-green, sparkling like a tropical ocean. He thought he might fall into that ocean and drown in it happily.

"A lick of Immortality" - The second in a series of paranormal romance novels based around the ongoing battle between the Malakim and the Din

The extremely hot weather we had over the summer that's just finished gave me the time I needed to write "A Lick of Immortality". I can see know why some writers get attached to their characters. I feel compelled to tell their tale and see them through the whole story arc, to the release of all their friends.  It's going to take a few books to do that.  This is the second.

The basic synopsis for this one is this:

Thex wants to free his second in command Arion who was imprisoned in immensely hard crystal at the same time as the rest of his team. He'd like to free his whole team but humans with the level of compassion to do it are pretty thin on the ground. There's still the problem of who will help them this time.

Major John Samuels is just back from a trip to Sydney, tying up a few loose ends before he settles permanently on the outskirts of Boswell.  He plans to settle into the old fishing shack down by the lake that he's been renting but has just bought. He's had some bad news.

Sally, the local vet and sister to the local cop, has been mooning over the Major since he arrived in the town.  She's been looking forward to his return.  She can't work out why but weird things are starting to happen in her life. Simon's kitten might be to blame.  The kitten might be more than he appears.

To tell you more would spoil the story but there's plenty of romance and fantasy along the way.  Beyond the surface story is a wealth of metaphysics covering ascension into a rainbow body, traversing the Bardo, transcending the self and realizing the true nature of the universe. 

The evil Din are still there in the background, causing trouble.  There's a little more of a look at the tyrant Sakla who leads them and his economic empire. We meet General Polemarch who's been Sakla's right hand man what seems forever.  Upal and Mendal who defected to the Malakim side in the first book are still there and assist Thex towards the end of the book.  I think their story will come in book four.

In the meantime I'm plotting Sargent Michael Wilson's story and the rescue of Kiana from the deep.

For me these books are a whole lot of fun.  Writing is turning out to be the hobby I never planned.  Sure I've written a few short stories in the past but whole books...! The process of writing, editing, doing book covers, indie publishing and marketing has really broadened my horizons.  It's strengthened my belief in the interconnectedness of everything as what I've done wouldn't have been possible without the right people with the right skills turning up to help.  I am indebted to them.  Maybe one day I'll make enough from this hobby to reimburse them in some way but for now we're all in it for the love of it.

A plain English introduction to the world of yogic meditation and relaxation : A simple Nuts and Bolts Guide to Meditation and Relaxation

Finally a plain English introduction to the world of yogic meditation and relaxation : A simple Nuts and Bolts Guide to Meditation and Relaxation

This booklet outlines the basics, drawn from across a number traditions. It doesn't try to say that this is the only right way as some dogmatic tomes do, rather it recommends an experiential  try it and judge for yourself approach.

The meditations are all simple and easy to do. Background information explaining yogic anatomy and terms that might be needed to help the practitioner further their interest are provided. While I respect Sanskrit as a beautiful and ancient language I am aware that it deters many from this path. With that in mind I try to explain the system using language people know while giving sufficient terms so that the curious can go looking for further information.

The booklet is well suited for those who want to know how to do meditation without the usual overload of religious doctrine.  The spiritual side is still there but it is presented as a way of using meditation.  Its your choice whether you use the meditations to simply relax and find inner peace or to start a spiritual journey to uncovering the oneness that is always present within us all.