Friday, May 4, 2012

Reflections

I Can Make Life was launched a week and a half ago, and in addition to my other current duties - lunch hour co-puddle splasher, pizza maker, hide-and-seek player, and owner of this little project called Sparrow), I've been spending time every day trying to nudge my book "out there". To date:

  • Megan Carlson's giveaway on her blog, Infertile Myrtle, gave the book a great boost. 
  • Having "Fish-Bird-Kite" published at Exhale the day of the book launch definitely helped send traffic to I Can Make Life at blurb.com (the book is inching up to 500 views to date, and a few sales).
  • De-constructing the book, poem by poem, and publishing on hubpages.com has been a fun experiment, and has also brought people to the book
  • Talking about the book to local independent bookstores has resulted in my favourite local bookstore, Reflections Books, taking my book on consignment. I have sent a review copy to Black Bond Books, as they support local authors, and am in the process of contacting Odin Books and others.
  • Am in the process of connecting with the local public library about acquiring a copy for their collection
  • Next strategy: taking over the world.

This is me and Carole from Reflections Books this morning. What a lovely lady.

I want to talk a bit about Reflections Books, because I have had a soft spot in my heart for this bookstore since it opened its doors in 1988. I was 14 at the time and remember excitedly riding my book there weeks after it opened. I'd already been through a pile of library books on astrology and Edgar Cayce, and kept reading references to someone named Carl Jung (I was always drawn to books about dreams, being an active dreamer with an uncanny history of picking up details from the near and distant future while asleep).

All this to say, Reflections was a haunt of mine for five years, until I moved away from home at 19. I'd often go back and browse when I was in town. One time I remember being drawn to an orange book - it was a book in a series, though I don't remember the title - and realized the cover had the image of my tattoo on the cover. This was strange, as I assumed the stylized Star of David with hearts was just something Leonard Cohen's book designer came up with for Book of Mercy - which was where I swiped it from. My well-used set of tarot cards are from Reflections, as are a couple of crystals I purchased when I was 14 - an amethyst, because it was my favourite colour, and an agate, because I needed its general healing properties (everything from love and good fortune to protection and safety).

Today I met with Carole, whom I recognized from previous visits, and she very kindly allowed me to take some pictures with her, as well as my son, whom my book is so much about. We talked about a local author book signing at some point in the future, and perhaps a review of my book on the Reflections Books website. For now, I am just thrilled that if you walk into Reflections, you will find my book on the shelf with the work of so many great thinkers and writers concerned with wellness and spirituality - just as I am, and have been from a young age.

I left the store with a new set of cards - the Path of the Soul Destiny Cards designed by White Rock fractal artist, Cheryl Lee Harnish. On my recent Bowen Island retreat, my wise friend, Karen Watson, provided readings with another deck by the same artist. The deck is truly beautiful and speaks directly to the heart. As an art lover and someone who gets excited about anything that leads back to inner wisdom and consciousness, I fell in love and am excited to work with them.

As for Noam, he was drawn to a beautiful crystal at Reflections, so I let him take his special rock home. But of course.