Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My bio highlights the major events in my life journey and so, not wanting to duplicate the information, I will use this space instead to describe how I came to write my memoir because I never set out to do that – it just happened as a matter of course.
Friends loved the finished work, ‘renamed “Awakening in the Northwest Territories,” and urged me to publish it so that others could share this unusual journey and be inspired by it.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
When I came out of retirement and went to live with a small First Nations band in a remote location in Canada’s NWT, my daughter, sensing that something exciting was going to happen, gave me a fancy journal to record my experiences. I did, and when that journal was full, I continued to write nightly in note books, on scrap pads and on whatever I could find to write on.
‘Awakening in the Northwest Territories”
When I came out of the north two years later I went to Costa Rica for a month to put the journals into Microsoft Word. I called the finished manuscript “White Man On The Land” and intended it as legacy, purely for my children and grandchildren.
Other people read it, enjoyed it, and all made the same comment – “readers will want to know who this guy was, what he did before he went there, and what he did when he left” This got me thinking, and as I began to re-write the ms I realized, for the first time, how much I had changed over that two year period – I went in as a hard core businessman, focused on maximizing profits, and left as an advocate for helping others less fortunate than myself.
I continued writing and re-writing, spanning sixty years of my life, and the process was cathartic: I gained a deeper sense of who I was , who I’d been and why, and was able to summarize as “Awakenings” what I had learned from the First Nations people.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have been writing and re-writing for the last seven years, in countries other than Canada. Most of these years I was an International Volunteer working with local NGOs in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Jamaica and Guyana, and the rest of the time I spent back-packing Central America and S.E. Asia. I got a guest house on a beach usually and after a walk on the sand and a swim I began writing at six or seven and went at it until noon. Then I’d break and do something else for the day.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I enjoy reading, anything and everything, but Tolle’s “New Earth” and “The Power of Now’ particularly resonated with me
What are you working on now?
I love the writing process and now, after eight years of re-writing and possibly ten thousand hours of practice, I feel comfortable and am working on two new books for primarily the Boomer crowd: one on International Volunteering and the other is Budget Back-Packing
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am a recently self-published author and just embarking on the book promotion journey.
I have many lists of web sites to check out, such as this one, which I will get to in time, but at the moment my major activity is doing book readings for Seniors Centers, Seniors Residences, Public Libraries and coffee shops. I live it for I get to meet many interesting and inspiring people
Do you have any advice for new authors?
For me, writing was easy because I was bubbling over with what I wanted to say and was not content until it was down in print. I could then let go of those ideas and let the Universe bring me new thoughts, which it always did.
I’m sure writing a memoir is a totally different animal than writing fiction, and so, for those authors, I don’t really have any specific advice, except for being single minded and committed to finishing your writing. Many times I thought about abandoning my writing project and I’m so glad I persevered.
Author Websites and Profiles
Alastair Henry Website
Alastair Henry Amazon Profile
Alastair Henry’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile