Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Words on a page
I am a sucker for books, for the written word. Now that I am older I have opened my reading choices to include more non fiction books. Books about spirituality, about the Enneagram, about social issues – books about things that are important in my life. As I read each one I am grateful to the authors for sharing their knowledge and conclusions and feelings in writing.
Now I’m the author of two non-fiction books. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever write hundreds of pages and put them together in the form of books. They will never be best-sellers but the feedback I get from readers warms my heart. People who read it get spiritual sustenance from the book on the Psalms. Our non-fiction book of true stories produces both laughter and tears in the readers. These are exactly the reactions I hoped for. I am grateful when a reader shares feelings and impressions with me.
Yesterday I got a long email from a woman I met recently at the prayer chaplain training in October. I had given her a copy of the psalms book for her consideration and for support to a new Unity prayer chaplain. It seems she is doing what many other readers have done – reading one psalm at a time and reflecting on its meaning in her life. Then she journals on what comes up for her in the process. As she does this each day, feelings of love, forgiveness, peace and healing result. Her email about this is precious to me and will go in my “Woo Hoo!!!” file on this computer.
Jan is responsible for my author career. She watched me, for years, journal each day about the psalm-of-the-day. She noticed as spiral bound notebooks filled the bottom row of a bookshelf. The first time she told me there was the stuff for a book in those notebooks I laughed. But she kept at it, and one day I thought maybe she was right. At the time I was attending Unity of Naples in Florida and taking classes in Unity teachings and beliefs. One morning, looking out of the window at the riot of Florida green plants it occurred to me that I could re-write each psalm using Unity language and principles. My Unity minister at the time thought it was a novel idea and encouraged me to pursue it. I gathered some Unity reference books and started translating each psalm from the New International Version of the Bible.
That’s enough about the process. Suffice it to say that writing a book requires both discipline and an open mind through which ideas can flow. There is heart work in this process too. By that I mean trusting in the faith that the product will be beneficial to readers. It means acknowledging that the Divine has a huge part in the process. I say this because, as I wrote about each psalm, it felt as though the words were coming through me more than from me. My Unity interpretation of each psalm came relatively easily over the eight months that it took me to finish writing.
Then came the process of sending my baby off to a stranger to edit the written words. It was relatively painless and actually helpful to get a manuscript back with red markings on pages. I worked with a company to design the cover and was really really happy with their interpretation of what I asked for. This same company printed the book and I became a self-published author. Just like that.
I don’t know how many copies have sold. Not too many. I’ve probably given more copies away. When I hear back from a reader about the impact of the book had on them I am always happy. A few people have written comments on my Amazon page, but more often than not I hear back in writing or in person from my readers. Their words give me joy. And so it is. Amen.