Oh hello there, do come in.
I may look like I’m just sitting here, pen in hand scribbling in my notebook, but I’m not. I am actually perched with my feet on the moon, watching the world at play beneath me. Did you know I can make those people fall in love and those people fight? Oh yes. I can give that man courage and that child a new friend. I can despair at the state of the world, or try to make sense of it. I can reach into the hearts of other people and make them feel less alone.
Now I am flying across time zones and centuries, guided by the wind, my way lit by the stars. I am woman, I am bird. I am the wild shadow of sorrow and the fragrant flower of life. I am hope, I am memory. I am time itself.
Maybe later today I will carve poetry into the riven bark of the weeping willow in the garden of my childhood home. I might go to the shore, smash my hurt on the rocks and watch my tears become the ocean. Perhaps I will sleep in the forest and wake to a world of talking animals. I might gather with others around a fire telling stories of seeds and bones buried deep – or fill ancient caves with laughter and song. Or I might just be here, quietly at my desk, sipping tea, waiting for the sun to rise.
This is the writing life.
Sounds pretty special, right? It can be. But before you cast this book aside thinking that it’s all right for me but you have family obligations, an exhausting job and self-doubt you wear strung around your neck like a favourite scarf, let me tell you a few things about myself. I didn’t have a book published until the year I turned 40. I have two small children, run my own business, and I have carried so much self-doubt that I’m still amazed that my words have made it to the printed page. Until my first book, Freedom Seeker, came out, my work kept me behind the scenes, and I was wholly unsure about stepping in front of the curtain to share personal stories with the world. But the book demanded to be written, so I had to find a way.
It has taken me several years to realise that it wasn’t just a way, it was a Way: the Way of the Fearless Writer. And I want to share it with you, because it changed my writing life, and it might just change yours.
So I turned it into a book which the lovely folks at London Writers’ Salon said is ”more than just a book, it’s a way of life”. And that book is out now. The Way of the Fearless Writer: Ancient Eastern wisdom for a flourishing writing life was published this week and it has been such a joy to see so many people finding a quiet spot with a lovely cuppa and sitting down to read (and write).
If you don’t have a copy yet, I hope you will get one, and lose all sense of time as you dive into my stories, and then into your own.
Thank you to every single person who has bought a copy, sent me a message about it, and opened up to all it has to offer. I am so grateful for you and so excited for you, because I know it might just change everything.
Have a lovely weekend
Beth Xx
PS This was sent as a newsletter to my lovely mailing list subscribers. If you’d like to get love letters in your inbox from me from time to time, just hop on the list.
Photos: Holly Bobbins Photography
