Jan 24 2015

Raising Funds to Publish

I recently set up a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money to publish the next book in the Earth Angel series. Being a completely Indie Author, I have so far funded the publishing of all eight of my books myself, with the help of some beautiful people who want to see me succeed.

I created the campaign because I would love to invite my readers and fans to get involved, and to help me to bring the next book in the series into the world, and to also be able to get stock to do some Mind Body Spirit shows and get the books out there to even more people.

I guess the sensible thing to do, would have been to set a budget for each of my books, for the editing and publishing costs, so that I could see how much I had spent on each one. But I never did that. I am planning on writing a post on my publishing blog about budgeting for publishing a book, because if you approach publishing books as a hobby, you’ll end up just spending loads of money on unnecessary things, and it’ll end up really expensive. If you approach it as a business from the outset, then you are more likely to decide on a budget and stick to it, and also, if you keep better records of everything, it makes everything much easier comes tax return time!

I am so very thankful to everyone who has donated to the campaign so far, your support is very much appreciated. I plan to list all of the donors in the new book, which I haven’t begun editing yet, but do intend to release in March. If you would like to help me with the publishing costs, please know that every little bit helps and that I am very grateful to have your support.

Jan 23 2015

First Oracle Reading of 2015!

It’s taken me a while to get to record this video, in answer to Brittney’s question about her Twin Flame. It was amazing how many similarities there were between Brittney and the man she feels is her Twin Flame and me and my Twin Flame. I sincerely hope that the reading helps her, and other Twin Flames who may also be in a similar situation, as I believe that there is a lot of good general advice for Twin Flames from Velvet and Amethyst in the reading too.

Please do leave feedback on the reading in the comments if it has helped you, and if you have a question of your own, email it to theamethystangel@hotmail.co.uk

Jan 22 2015

A New Publishing Blog

A week ago, I started a brand new blog, over on my publishing website – TheAmethystAngel.com. I am undertaking the 30 Day Blogging Challenge on that blog to get it going, and have had a wonderful response to the 7 posts I have put there so far. I am blogging about all the different steps and elements there are to independently publishing your own book. Each blog post will cover an aspect of self-publishing. I have so far covered some tips on self-editing, whether Indie Authors should have publishing imprints, how to send documents to your Kindle and some of my favourite uses for Scapple.

Over time, there will be enough posts on there to assist authors in every step of their Indie Publishing journey. I am writing posts somewhat randomly, choosing topics that come up and that I am inspired by each day. But I am categorising the posts so that it’s easy to find what you need easily.

I am opening the door to questions, so if you are an Indie Author and you want to ask me something, then email it to me at theamethystangel@hotmail.co.uk and I will create a post to answer it, as I’m sure many others are likely to have had similar questions.

Jan 21 2015

New Author Photos

Today my sister came to visit me. For those who don’t know her, she is the awesomely talented graphic designer who created my beautiful Visionary Collection covers, the back covers for the Earth Angel Series and also did my last set of author photos.

We went for a little wander in the woods today to take some new author photos, as I felt an update was needed. I wore my beautiful new hand-carved fox pendant, and my angel wing scarf. We had fun taking over 400 photos, and before she left this afternoon, Liz transferred some of the pictures to my computer.

Out of all of them, there were a few favourites, and I wanted to share them here with you first! I may share some of the silly ones at some point too.

Jan 20 2015

Goals Not Wishes

It’s my 31st Birthday today. And I’m not sure how I feel about that. I think of all the goals I have set over the last few years and there are so many that haven’t happened, it makes me wonder why I bother trying to set them.

Still in an attempt to set goals and make a plan for 2015, I’m writing down 100 things to do in 2015, and after writing down number three:

– I have a sudden moment of complete clarity.

I haven’t been setting goals. I’ve been making wishes.

Goals should be actionable, achievable, doable, tangible things that YOU can make happen. That are in YOUR control to create. Not things that are mostly up to other people to make happen.

To clarify, this is a goal:

I will write a book in 30 days.

This is a wish:

I will sell 1000 books in a month.

Because writing a book in 30 days is completely within your realm. You can do it, it is completely possible. Selling 1000 books however, depends on a thousand people discovering your book, then making the decision to buy it. You can do all the marketing possible, you can definitely do your best to make your book visible and get it into people’s hands, but ultimately, the number of copies sold is not up to you. It is merely the by-product of you achieving the goals you set for your marketing.

So I’m realising now, that almost every goal I have failed to reach, was one that was out of my hands. And many goals that were up to me, did happen. So all this time I have been beating myself up for failing over and over is ridiculous. Because I was setting myself up to fail by setting goals that weren’t really up to me.

Now, this is not to say that we shouldn’t have intentions, desires, wishes, etc., but I am going to promise myself now, that I will never mistake a wish for a goal again. That my goals will be actionable, achievable and doable by me.

Because every time I set a goal that is really a wish, and I don’t achieve it, I am dis-empowering myself. I am making myself feel useless. And I no longer wish to live that way. I am going to focus on the things that I know I can make happen, and then appreciate and celebrate the results, no matter what they are.

I do feel that many people have tried to get these concepts through to me before, and they just haven’t sunk in. But like anything that really gets under your skin and makes total sense, it’s got to come from within. So if you’re reading this and just thinking that I’m some crazy woman who’s afraid of reaching 31 having not fulfilled her goals, so she’s making a bunch of excuses for it, that’s cool. But if this post is resonating with you in any way, go within and ask if that’s true for you too.

Now I think I need to go out and buy some new slippers.

Jan 19 2015

Adventures with Astrid – January

In December I began my Adventure with Astrid, in my attempt to change my haphazard ways and become a more organised person for 2015. The reasons for this were to get my life in order and to make things happen that require some kind of long-term planning. The first step I took was to buy myself a gorgeous planner, who I named Astrid. In my planner I have sections for everything. Addresses (I’m always losing my address book) diary, goals and dreams, to-do list, and notes from books I’m reading and ideas I have.

Astrid has stayed faithfully by my side since I bought her, and since the beginning of the year, I have been filling her up every day with things I want to do, but I also have used her to form some daily habits that I have wanted to have, but never got round to creating.

Some things have been blanked out to protect the innocent. Hehe

Having Astrid by my side has helped me to take part in a 30 Day Blogging Challenge, of which I have done every day for the last 19 days on my author blog, and I have also begun a new blog on my business website, all about Indie Publishing, and I am on day 4 there.

I have started the habit of meditating daily, going for a walk every day, reading a book every week, reading through my Love List every other day and writing one thing I am grateful for every day.

My Sunday walk in the woods

In terms of long-term plans, however, that still hasn’t really happened. I had a session with the Time Doctor, Mike Gardner, and he helped me to realise that I am a creative person, and not a linear-thinking, organised person. So perhaps instead of trying to become linear – I should come up with creative solutions to my problems.

Part of me still very much wants to just go with the flow, and just see what happens along the way. But another part of me really wants to break the cycle of not moving forward in certain areas of my life. I think if things were good financially, then I would feel more justified in going with the flow, because I could afford to. Which might not make a scrap of sense, but it seems to make sense to me.

Anyway, my plan now, is to create creative solutions for the areas of my life I’m not happy with. I think the solutions need to be very visual, colourful, fun and maybe even a bit silly. But I’m not sure yet what they looks like or where they’ll come from.

What I have realised, is that having a structured routine might just not be the right way forward for me. So although I have daily ‘action’ lists, I don’t stick to rigidly to doing each thing at the same time each day, as long as I can tick it off the list by the end of the day, when it happened doesn’t matter. Though I have been trying to fit my walk in before dark!

I consider my adventure to be successful so far, as I feel quite calm and peaceful, which I think is down to the meditation. In all the years I have been reading spiritual self-help books, I have never had the daily practice of meditation. But I can see now, finally, why so many people swear by it! It creates a space in your head, it makes room for growth, for new ideas, for love to envelop you. In fact, I think I may sign off now to meditate for a while.

How are your New Year plans coming along?

Jan 18 2015

Matrix Reimprinting

This week, I have been reading Matrix Reimprinting Using EFT: Rewrite Your Past, Transform Your Future, in my bid to read a book a week. I’ve had this book on my Kindle for quite a long time now, and I’m glad that I finally got to read it.

I have used EFT many times over the last few years, and have benefited greatly from it. In this book, it’s not just about using EFT to release emotions or fears, but to actually rewrite scenes or moments in the past that have had an effect on you throughout your whole life. The idea is, that by energetically rewriting these scenes, these experiences, you can actually change your beliefs or emotions in the present day that were created from that experience.

I have tried it out a couple of times so far, and each time it has led me to another scene that I had forgotten, that had such a strong charge that I would get emotional. I will continue to work on each thing that comes up, and once I have had a bit of practice with the basic technique, I can then move onto the more complicated ones.

Though I haven’t had much time to see whether it makes a difference yet, I do know that there are many instances of things that happened in my childhood which have affected me later on. It is believed that everything that happens in our lives up until the age of 6 or 7, will shape our views and experience of the world when we’re adults. Even really minor incidents at that time can cause problems later on.

It will be interesting to see what long-term effect doing the reimprinting has, and if I notice any major differences, I will write another post about it in the future. But if you have tried EFT before and found it to be effective, then I would recommend getting a copy of this book and trying it out yourself.

Jan 17 2015

Michelle Gordon and the Epic Harry Potter Party

A year ago right now, I was getting the last-minute things ready for my Harry Potter theme party to celebrate turning 30. I had already sent out the invites by owl, had begun to turn the house into Hogwarts, and made a lot of chocolate frogs. Having done two other Harry Potter parties already by this point, one for my best friend, Liz Lockwood, and another for a very good friend, Annette, I already had many of the props and decorations. I created a site to house all the photos, called Lumos Parties.

Despite the crazy weather on the day, we all had a great time, though the quidditch match was cut a little bit short!

It was great to see some friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and to drink butterbeer and eat Hagrid cake. My sister was a fantastic Professor Trelawney, and her readings really were quite accurate! (Which freaked a few people out!)

Anyway, just thought I would post a little gallery of my favourite photos, and the video I created of the day. Can’t quite believe it was a whole year ago though, will be 31 in a few days!

[youtube http://youtu.be/iU8v72kYaPw]

Jan 16 2015

Trusting Your Intuition

I know I have blogged about this before, but I think it’s something that I need to keep blogging about until I finally start listening to my own advice and get a clue.

So I’m sitting in Morrison’s Café right now, killing some time, and I figured I could have a hot chocolate and do a bit of writing while I wait. I bought the hot chocolate, and after sitting down, I took a few sips and found that it tasted, quite frankly, a bit gross. It was super sweet, and after drinking a few mouthfuls, I found I had the disgusting aftertaste of sweeteners in my mouth. I should have stopped drinking after the first couple of mouthfuls, because I knew it would not be good for me, as I haven’t had anything with sweeteners in for quite a few years now, but I stubbornly held to the fact that I wanted a hot chocolate to drink while I waited.

But halfway through drinking it, it got ridiculous. My stomach was now churning, and the aftertaste was really bitter and starting to bother me, to the point where I couldn’t concentrate on my writing. So I took what was left of it to the counter, and complained. She didn’t even question it, she just said they’d had a problem with their machine and she immediately gave me a refund. But sitting here now, with my stomach churning painfully, I just feel a little bit stupid for not listening to my intuition after the first couple of mouthfuls and stopping.

This may seem like a really trivial thing, after all, it’s just a cup of hot chocolate, but my stomach is so sensitive (I have a gluten intolerance, so I’m usually pretty careful) that I may well end up with stomach cramps and other unpleasant things to contend with all evening, all because I didn’t stop drinking, and complain sooner. I’m drinking water now, and am trying to get rid of the hideous taste in my mouth, but it’s not working so far.

It also led me to start thinking about how many people come into this café, and have a hot chocolate that is clearly choc-ful of sweeteners and other crap. Do other people not taste it? Have they become so desensitised to it that it’s just not noticeable? After all, there are artificial sweeteners in virtually everything. Not to mention that there is wheat in so many things too, even in things that have absolutely no need for it whatsoever.

But most of all, what this little outing has proven to me, is that I still don’t act on my intuition easily. That I will get a thought to do something (or not do something) but if it clashes with something I have decided I want, or with what others want, then I am likely to resist it. It has happened with bigger things. In 2012, I wanted to go to a Faerie Festival in Glastonbury. But on the way there, I kept getting the feeling (well at times it was more like a voice shouting at me) that I should turn around and go home, and not to go out for the day. But I ignored it. I wanted to go and I had a car full of people who wanted to go.

So off we went, and we had a great day in Glastonbury, though I was in a bit of a mood to start with because we had left so late in the day, and I was having to resist the voice yelling at me. We headed back around 7pm, and being March it was dark at this point. We were on a 50mph stretch of road, doing 45mph, when the car in front stopped dead in the road. Of course, I hit them, and the car behind me then hit me, sandwiching my car, writing it off. Hello, dead car, crazy insurance claims and months of painful whiplash.

All because I stubbornly held to what I wanted to do. Now, you may think that it was all just random, that none of those things had anything to do with each other, but that wasn’t the first car accident I’ve been in after ignoring my inner voice.

Every time I regret ignoring my intuition, I swear to myself that I won’t do it again, that I will listen and take action next time. But as I sit here in Morrison’s café, hoping that my stomach will play nice until I get home, I have to wonder when I will ever really learn.

Do you listen to your intuition? Even when it’s telling you something you don’t want to hear? Do you ignore your inner voice because it doesn’t fit in with what you want, or with what others around you want? Or do you follow your intuition every time? Let me know your thoughts in the comments 🙂

Jan 15 2015

Permission to be Myself

I was inspired to write today’s blog post after having a great Skype session with Mike Gardner, aka The Time Doctor. We met on Facebook through the 30 Day Blogging Challenge group, and he suggested we have a session to see if he could assist me with my time management problems.

Well how many ‘aha’ moments can you fit into an hour and twenty-minute conversation? Quite a few apparently. The first thing to come up, was that based on the way I speak, the terms I use to describe things and my chosen vocation, Mike identified that I am very right-brained, and very creative. Which means that I simply don’t think the same way that left-brained, logical, structured people do.

AND THAT IS OKAY.

It’s who I am, it’s how I think, it’s how I work. It’s not defective, it’s not wrong, it’s not awful. So why do I keep beating myself up over it? My family members are all very creative people. My dad is a photographer, a musician, an artist and a craftsman. My mother is a quilter, patchworker and craftswoman. My sister is an artist, musician and graphic designer and my brother is a musician and handyman. It would be downright odd if I were left-brained, to be honest, coming from the background that I do. At home, we didn’t really do routine or structure, aside from school and work. We were encouraged to be creative, to do our own thing, to be original.

We weren’t encouraged to be practical, to save money, to be disciplined and stick at things we hated. (In fact my dad did work in a very corporate background, and he did stick to it, but seeing how miserable he was doing it, put me off that kind of life completely).

I realised after my session with Mike that I had created this link in my mind, that the reason I was in a bad position financially, was due to my haphazard (creative) ways, and so if I was to solve the financial issues, I would need to become more organised, more structured, and more left-brained in order to solve those problems. Because being creative = being poor. And this isn’t unusual thinking. After all, the ‘starving artist’ concept is so strong in our society, that when artists, musicians or writers do make a lot of money, it’s a big deal, because it’s seen as being so out of the ordinary.

I could go on about this all day, but the point is, I have now unlinked those concepts in my mind. Because I don’t choose to live in a world where to be wealthy you have to be left-brained. I choose to live in a world where if you are living a life full of passion, love and service, you get to be wealthy. If working in a highly logical, structured way is your passion, then you should be wealthy. If working in a creative, authentic and unstructured way is your passion, then you should be wealthy.

The reason that I have tried so many times to implement structure in the hopes it will help me sort my finances, and yet have always failed with it, is because I was trying to be someone I was not. I need to play to my strengths – which is to be creative – and use that ability to sort it out. And in allowing myself to come up with creative ways to solve my financial problems, I have already had several awesome ideas, that not only will help me, but will also help others who have similar issues.

Wow. The above is just talking about a single ‘aha’ moment I had in my session with Mike. If I wrote about them all, it would be a ridiculously long post. Because suddenly, I have been given permission to be myself. And I cannot believe it has taken me this long, or that I needed someone else to give it to me, but at least from this moment on, I will no longer strive to be someone I am not. I will strive to be me.

I went into my session with Mike expecting him to give me some strategies on how to be more efficient with my time, and yet I came away with something far more valuable and awesome. I would recommend checking out Mike’s blog, where there is a wealth of information. Or get in touch with him to arrange a session. In the meantime, just in case you need it – I hereby give you permission to be 100% yourself. Because you are awesome 🙂

PS. I just Googled ‘Be Yourself Quotes’ and looked at the images to find an image for this post. I loved the one above because I love Richard Bach’s work, but there were so many great quotes, check them out for yourself 🙂