And IDGAF. Here’s how..
So what happened in Canngu was that I met a guy in that cafe I always went to, Cinta, and he has an Amazon business and was encouraging me to publish ebooks. At first I was like, “No no, mine are real books”, but then the idea grew on me.
I spent September getting Wonderlust ready and published, then had a lot of technical issues and now finally, it’s all good.
The biggest breakthrough has been realising that I really just want to write and produce my books . It’s exactly 6 years ago today that I had the breast cancer lumpectomy and shortly after, joined the Academy. I was a bit crazy then. The week of my operation, I decided to publish a blog post a day. Why? Well as Gina used to say, you don’t know what you don’t know. Me, I didn’t know.
Or as Jess Lively says, the ego pushes and the soul calls.
I think that sums things up!
Now I’m really excited that I get to be myself and just write what I want. Not trying to fit into a mould. Yay!
The reason I wanted to emphasise that I published my book is cos when I tell people I published Wonderlust, they say, “Wow you’ve been published!”.. as if it’s a passive thing.
No, I published myself. No one published me.
And I don’t feel bad about that. Once upon a time I would have. But not now. I’m just happy people get to read my book and excited to continue working on the others I’m putting out in 2020.
Another telling thing was that when I was in the coaching academy, I couldn’t find my niche and all I wanted to do was talk about writing and coach on that. But was told not to. In any case, I went on that long journey to here and learned many things. Now, not even my lack of popularity on instagram could hold me back.
Wonderlust is set in Lucerne, Switzerland, and it’s about a travel agent from Perth who goes there on a travel adventure, seeking a respite from her bad habits, the mundaneness of conversation in Perth (at least in 2007 that’s how it felt) and a deeper experience of life. It’s based on my own feelings – especially how I felt locked out of being an artist or creative because that had not been encouraged in me growing up. But besides some feelings, experiences and conversations etc, the story is fictional.
It took me seven years to complete and I’m proud of this dedication and persistence. It’s a snapshot of 2007 too and I had to fact check things in September – like when skinny jeans, meth and myspace became popular. That was funny – and tedious! Next time I’ll get a proper editor.
I’m actually really proud of it and have received excellent feedback. I mean, I still enjoy reading it – even after 25,000 times! I wrote the book I wanted to read. You can get it here at www.amazon.com/author/mireilleparker or at Amazon in your country most likely – in digital or paperback.
I don’t really know what I’m going to do in terms of marketing yet but I feel like writing blog posts again and I’m excited to be on Goodreads too.
Enjoy!
Wishing you a magical week wild heart..
Lots of love,
Mireille xxx
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