Each morning I wait for inspiration to fill my head so that I can write something that needs to be said through me. I never know until I begin, what will manifest through my fingers and onto the page before me. I often think of myself as a lighthouse. The light of Spirit shines through me, directing its rays out into the world, to draw those who seek the light. Sometimes I am a candle and the life force within me is the flame. Maybe I am a body of water from which the light reflects and becomes brighter. I am nothing. I am everything.
I have learned to rely solely on inner guidance. When I wrote Swan Sanctuary’s Guide I knew only that it needed to be written. Those who needed the information would be serendipitously led to it. When I wrote Question Everything, I knew that I was supposed to write it. I had no grandiose illusions that it would become a best seller or that I would sell a million copies. I had no preconceived ideas about where it would lead. Since its publication, I have been inundated with unsolicited emails and phone calls from people masquerading as publishing companies and agents, making their best sales pitch in hopes that I would hand over anywhere from $1000 to $5000 for their marketing expertise; making the false promise that my book was destined for success.
There are an infinite number of companies and individuals out there who write books and do interviews and create marketing schemes with the intent of teaching a writer how to write, how to get published, how to find an agent, and basically how to succeed as a writer. Self-publishing has gained popularity and extends more rights to the writer, but according to the experts, you have to devote several hours a day marketing yourself and your book. You have to create an online presence – a platform – so that you become noticed. In order to do this, you must have excellent computer skills or you must hire and expert who can do it for you.
I love to write. Many other people love to write and many are far better writers than I am. Still, I have never had a competitive bone in my body. I have no need to be noticed or to attain success. I do what I love to do and I do not do those things that I do not enjoy. Spending more time on the computer, or learning more computer skills, or becoming an expert at creating an online profile for my readers, would take away the time that I have to do those things I enjoy most, such as gardening, creating wildlife habitats, reading, cooking, and walking. If my book becomes noticed, or if I become noticed as a writer, it will not be because of my own efforts. It will be because I have made of myself a vessel, through which the light may shine.
