Hello Stranger! (I mean ‘Friend’, but it’s been so long…)
I’m sure you’ve been as busy as me… So much happening in my world, both business and personal! Please reply with your news – I’d love to know.
• On the business front, I’ve made cautious friends with Chat GPT and he/she/it (!) is giving me some useful marketing advice, so we’ll be relaunching The Mastery Club online course soon in a much more compelling format…
• I’m underway with the second draft of my musical and about to launch a podcast where I’ll be interviewing leading-edge doctors and health practitioners about some of the concepts, like the outrageously popular germ myth – I used to call it a theory but was advised that it’s actually only a hypothesis. Seriously. Never proven. (There are other reasons for apparent contagion.)
• So far I have five interviews ‘in the can’, so the podcast, ‘Remedy and Revelation – uncovering truth and healing one story at a time’, will be launching as soon as my wonderful artistic assistant, Kelly, has had a chance to edit them all, etc.
• This weekend I’m heading to Melbourne and will be giving a talk on Monday at ‘Boho’, the eclectic space in Bentleigh that is a treasure of a venue, bursting with locally-produced crafts and health products, and an open-fire café area with delicious snacks. Do check it out.
I originally called my talk ‘Love, Health, Money – How to have it all’ but Chat GPT disapproved because people wouldn’t believe the topic. I accepted the rap over the knuckles and the talk is now called ‘You ARE the Hero of Your Own Life – A Journey through Love, Health, Wealth and Purpose’.
I’d truly love to see you there. Monday evening 29th June 7-9 pm.
I’m also regularly teaching online writing courses for Laneway Learning.Coming up are:
- Writing Natural Dialogue on 8th July
- Impact Your Readers on 29th July (Guaranteed strategies)
- Language Mastery on 18th August (from Mediocre to Masterful Writing)
- Mood and the ‘Body Language’ of Prose on 9th September
- Originality & Genius in Writing on the 29th September
And, finally, I wanted to give myself a little shout-out for my work in the genre of Personal-development Fiction – I’ve decided I should reignite marketing of my books and do a little more to acknowledge myself as a reasonably established voice in this genre.
“What is Personal-development Fiction?” I hear you asking…
Essentially it is fiction that aims to empower and inspire. And that, folks, is my calling! I ‘teach through story’; and what I pass on are the ideas that I find inspiring and empowering. Here’s a little more…
All fiction qualifies as ‘self-help in disguise’, as literary agent Mark Gottlieb states, simply because we learn about ourselves and others as we read about fictional characters engaging with a range of challenges and circumstances. Personal-development fiction genres range from fantasy to contemporary narratives, and embrace quite a range of sub-genres, from traditional coming-of-age novels to allegorical stories.
However, some forms of personal-development fiction very directly or metaphorically explore concepts that relate to self-actualisation, and instead of presenting these ideas as a set of instructions or advice or facts, as self-help non-fiction does, the reader is drawn into the lives of imaginary characters who discover ideas and opportunities that have the potential to generate growth and transformation. There may even be specific ‘lessons’ presented in the course of the story, as I did with The Mastery Club.
The Hero’s Journey is usually the core structure governing all of these stories, as characters grapple with adversity, are supported by mentors and challenged by ‘enemies’, and go through ‘dark night’ experiences, including, ultimately, some sort of catharsis.
Which is why I’m giving the talk on Monday night at Boho about Your Hero’s Journey through Love, Health, Wealth and Purpose, since it encompasses all my books and everything I hold dear.
Hope to see you there!
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