Tell us something unexpected about yourself!
– I was in a car with my grandparents on the way home from shopping. I was on my grandmother’s lap in the front seat. She suddenly told me that I should get in the back seat and fasten my seat belt. Another care drove through a Stop sign and hit my grandfather’s car head on shortly after I had fastened my seat beat. My grandmother flew through the windshield onto the street and died instantly. I would have been crushed or thrown through the windshield if I had been on my grandmother’s lap. My grandmother somehow knew that something was going to happen and had saved me.
– I slipped and fell head first into a grain silo on the farm where I worked as a teenager. I was buried alive in the corn/wheat grain. The farmer had heard me hammering on the walls of the silo before I was completely covered in grain and passed out. The last thought I had before I had passed out was that I was going to die. The farmer later told me that all he saw was my feet sticking out of the grain. He had tied a rope around my feet and together with two other people pulled me out.
– I was in a serious accident in which the car I was driving went off a twenty-foot bridge embankment. I suffered an Open Skull fracture (compound) and a Closed Skull fracture (simple). I was in a state of severe shock. A farmer found me in his barn after the accident. I had climbed out of the car and was in his barn trying to milk the cows. I was covered from head to toe in blood but refused to get in the ambulance when it arrived. I was told this months later. There are six weeks of my existence that are a total blank due to the severity of the skull fractures. I have no memories of this period.
– I auditioned and was accepted as an actor/model for a well-known talent agency in the early 1980s.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Stepping Stones on the Pathway Home
This small book is an easy to read inquiry into life, love and conscious living. Existentialism, philosophy, spirituality topics and discussions are often overwhelming. Especially for individuals that are in the early stages of conscious awakening.Therefore, I have done my best to offer ideas and guidelines within the book that are clear and inspirational for you to read.
I have kept spirituality/philosophical jargon to a minimum within the pages. Thus, I feel confident that the information within the book will be helpful when you are ready to take the next step in your inner journey of self-discovery. The book is beneficial for anyone wishing to live and love more consciously each day.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My writing style is a mixture of spontaneity and use of the writing skills I learned during my education. I consider what it is that I wish to share. I tend to keep the initial ideal short and fundamental. I do research for lengthier manuscript projects; then I simple start to write.
Every project is somewhat like a puzzle that magically fits together. The puzzle pieces are constructed through free-form writing although there is always an intuitive desire for structure within the written segments. It all just somehow falls into place at the appropriate phrase of the manuscript project.
Do you think there’s any way you could ever run out of ideas for books?
No, I have never experienced this problem. I have always been told that I live in my own world; full of creativity. I feel that there is so much magic to be discovered in life. A tree is not just a tree; it is everything other than a tree. This is how I see everything in the universe. I love expressing and sharing my ideas, imagination and fantasy through the written word. The ideas flow like a never-ending stream. I have many writing projects in various genres planned in the upcoming years.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Wow, I can not list all the written works that have influenced me. There are too many. I can list ten that could be considered as more influential than others.
– “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment”, Eckhart Tolle
– “A Course in Miracles”, Helen Schucman and William Thetford
– “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, Robert M. Pirsig
– “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, Joseph Campbell
– “Call of the Wild”, Jack London
– “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, Richard Bach
– “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare”
– “Silas Marner”, George Eliot
– “Treasure Island”, Robert Louis Stevenson
– “Harry Potter” series, J.K. Rowling
Equally influential are Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, and Lao Tzu.
What are you working on now?
I have several manuscript ideas. My tentative plans are to begin writing a type of personal memoirs about my experiences as an adopted child and my search for love. The book will focus on my experiences as an unwanted child in a broken home. There will be drama, frustration, sadness, and reflective moments of self-actualization throughout the book. It will be a real tear-jerker for the reader. Spoiler Alert! The book will conclude with my acknowledgement that love and everything I was looking for in someone or something was always within me.
This should be an interesting and emotional reading experience because I will explicitly share the misery and suffer me as a child that did not know who I was, where I belonged, and no understanding of the truth beyond a four-letter word called love.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
A person interested in promoting what he or she writes has many options. The key in promoting is to stay active. This means using all available resources that have proven to be respectable. There is not a sure-fire method in promotion. Self-publishing authors can use mainstream social media platforms to promote themselves as an author and present their books. A well structured website is also very useful. Word of mouth is perhaps the best method in becoming established as an author. Speak with people about what you write and ask for feedback.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writing is not really something that is done for a reason. If you have a desire to write; then simply do it. The details will fall into place. It is truly about the joy of writing and sharing, not about the results of both. Stephen King stated this nicely in two quotes:
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
This would probably be a quote from Buddha.
What are you reading now?
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
What’s next for you as a writer?
I will continue writing by simply letting the words flow in alignment with my inspirations and motivations. I also have a list of potential projects in diverse genres. I add more projects to this list on an ongoing basis. Here are a few ideas for upcoming manuscripts.
– A non-fiction novel which will reflect on interaction with life as seen through our experiences. This book may be very enjoyable for many people of all ages
– Children’s books. I have several ideas. The topics and basic structures of the books are already written in my mind. The next step is to put them on paper.
– A science fiction novel based on spirituality. This book will have something for everyone; spiritual experiences, time-shifting (wormholes) and earth history. It is the story of a woman that is trying to make sense of her existence, her mortality and life. She will be accompanied by a dog with extra-ordinary abilities.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I would take a book with blank pages so that I could write about my experiences on this island; naturally I would also need a few pencils. Additionally, I would take these books:
- “A Course in Miracles”
- “How to Survive on a Deserted Island”
- “Treasure Island”
- “Critique of Pure Reason”
P.S. Please write me if you have any questions about me or the ideas and insight I share. You can use the contact form below. Thank you.