I wanted to illustrate this book although I am not a visual artist. The most important thing I hope to illustrate is that we don’t have to be perfect. We do the best we can with what we have and give thanks.
It is my hope that Simply BE will encourage you to step up and be all that you know you can be.
This is what I am trying to do.. or what I am trying to be. I am trying to be authentic; to be who I am .. the good, the bad, and the ugly. Perhaps I should say this is what I am being; not what I am trying to be. I have a feeling that if I say I am trying to be authentic, God will say, 'Okay, I will allow you to try.'
In that case I could be trying forever therefore I must state, "I am being authentic".
Authenticity is the reason that I have, months ago, begun writing my memoir. Its working title is All Them Houses. I hope to have it completed by the end of 2016 but so far I am up to only 1977 so I have a long way to go .... and, of course, life continues day by day so there is always more to remember and more to write about. I'm thinking of changing the title to Now and Then in order to allow myself to slip back and forth in time as I write. I did something like this when writing one of my books, Ellen and The Hummingtree.
I don't pretend to be the greatest writer in the world. I also don't think I'm the worst. I think my books are reasonably well-written and I believe I've written stories that a reader will enjoy reading. I know I enjoy writing them. And I've written several now. I lose count but I think there are eighteen plus many short stories that, like Daniel, dare to stand alone in Amazon. I know my stories don't please everyone but that's okay because I know that they do please many. With my writing, and with my life, I am not in any competition. Sometimes I do enter writing competitions but, apart from these events, I am not in any competition.
I am doing my best to Simply BE.
I've written many short stories. Some of them are in anthologies and some, as I've already mentioned, dare to stand alone. I have created four short story anthologies now, I think, or is it five? I truly do lose count. One critic reminded me, and the world, that a prolific writer is not necessarily a good writer. The critic is correct. But it is also true that a prolific writer is not necessarily a bad writer. A reader's liking of a story is very subjective. It's like looking at a piece of visual art or watching a movie. One person may love it while another will hate it. What is important, in my opinion, is that the artist and the movie-maker expressed themselves. They were creative. They didn't spend their time criticizing the work of others. They got out there and did their own thing. That's also what I'm doing -- my own thing. Most of my short stories focus on social issues because I draw on my background as psychospiritual practitioner, now retired, although I sometimes try to keep my hand in by offering occasional workshops for women.
Some of my short story anthologies.
I also like to write poetry. I've had some poems published by White Mountain Publishing Company and some published by the Ontario Poetry Society. This encouraged me to put together a poetry book titled Poetry from A to Z.
In addition to writing stories, whether they be short stories, novellas, or novels, I've also written a couple of plays. One of them titled Chocolate Cookies, is a one act play. It was presented a few years past by Elliot Lake's local theatre group, ELATE. My second play is titled On The Radio. It is a three act play and, so far, it is not published.
And I have also written some lyrics to songs. One of them is titled I Followed My Heart To 108. The melody was created by the lovely talented Kim Arnold who recorded this song. She included it in her Nashville album which made me feel very proud.
Another song is titled Listen To Love. I wrote the lyrics to this song and the lovely music was composed by the most talented Johnny Tyger who sings this song beautifully.
The third song I've written, I feel good about. I wrote the lyrics some time ago as a tribute to my father who died at a too early age. For this song I also wrote the melody. John Cal (Johnny Tyger) took my simple melody and turned it into a lovely music composition. I don't pretend to be a singer, but I did sing this song and it was recorded. Now it is a part of who I am.
Most recently I have taken an interest in a new hobby which is painting. I've created a couple of oil paintings now. Yes, I've copied them from pictures but I'm ready to take the next step now and I plan to create my first original piece of visual art. Here is my most recent painting.
Most of us want to express ourselves. Most of us want to be heard.
Most of us want to be appreciated -- appreciated for who we are.
And this is why I created the book Simply BE.
This is a book I created. It's not a story .. it's a collection of thoughts and sayings; some original and some borrowed. I'm not an illustrator but, yes, I did illustrate this book.
I hope to do a better job illustrating the next time I make the attempt.
But my point is, I did illustrate the book.
By doing so I hoped that I would encourage whoever may pick up and read the book to get out there on a limb, to borrow a line from Shirley MacLean; to take a risk; to not worry about criticism; but, instead, to celebrate your gifts, however big or small you may consider them to be. We are not perfect. No one is. We do not strive to be perfect. We strive to be authentic; to be who we truly are. In putting this book together I wanted to encourage myself, and all who read my books, to celebrate -- to celebrate life, to celebrate our authentic selves, and to
Simply BE
You will find me on all Amazon sites. My author's page is http://www.amazon.com/author/audreyaustin
You will find me on Facebook -- http://www.facebook.com/audreyaustinca
You will also find me on Google Plus; Linked In; and Twitter.
Always we do the best we can with what we have and give thanks.
Simply BE is free in the Kindle Store
Wednesday, June 29th.
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