Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
“Breaking the Foundation of Procrastination” is the first, and for now, the only book I’ve published. Since I was writing a lot of self-help, self-development articles and blog posts for other people as a ghostwriter, I decided to do it for myself, under my own name, so that I could provide more freedom and opportunity to my own expression. I am quite passionate when it comes to all the wonders and problems we people are blessed and challenged with. After all the time and effort spent on those topics, I felt the need to share all of the understandings, knowledge, support, comfort, and motivation I’ve found on that path.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My books’ name is “Breaking the Foundation of Procrastination”. And it illustrates exactly what the book is about. This is not the book that gives advice about overcoming procrastination since procrastination is only a symptom. It wants to help us understand where does it come from, together with lots of problems we usually find ourselves stuck with. This book goes to the very roots, causes, and triggers, and from that point of view, it’s showing us how we can change the unwanted results, effects, and consequences.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My passioned interest in my books’ topic is born primarily out of the troubles I had when it comes to writing. I didn’t understand why I have so many resistance for doing something I really loved and believed in. And the first step towards letting that resistance go was one of those I described in the book. It was breaking that one big goal to the lots of little ones. And from my perspective, I’m not writing a book. I’m writing one thought, sharing one insight, describing one understanding at a time, and with time and working flow, it all shapes itself into a book, fearlessly and naturally.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have a bachelor in World Literature and spent more than half of my life reading all I could related to self-help, self-development and spiritual stuff, so it’s hard for me to answer this question. Everything influenced me. I believe that there is no bad book for a good reader. That doesn’t mean that some books aren’t better than others, it means that the wise man learns from everybody. If we found single thought that inspires or illuminate us in an overall “bad” book, wasn’t that book good for us? Also, there are people able to read a book flooded with wisdom and finish it untouched by a single drop of it.
What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on a book about meditation. Since I consider it the most important and beneficial practice we can adopt, and since I mentioned it as such many times in my book, I think I owe to my readers a complete guide for it. A guide that’s going to cover all those questions, dilemmas, challenges, fears, and ambiguities that I have had, and that many people face with when starting with meditation.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Since I am a complete newbie, I’m still researching ways for giving more exposure to my book and reaching more potential readers. “Awesome gang” seems like a really good and helpful platform for both authors and writers, and I would really like there to be more websites like this.
For now, I am presenting my work mostly on my Instagram page (amy_wonders), where I publish small parts, quotes from my book so that people could see whether or not it resonates with them.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Oh yes, I do. Forget about the labels, forget about the numbers, forget about the expectations, someone else’s or your own. As they say, write to express, not to impress. Strive for authenticity, not originality. Do your best, but remember that perfection exists as nothing else but a lodestar that’s showing us the direction to the destination we’ll never get because it’s ever moving further. Always do your best, compete only with yourself, but don’t forget that perfectionism is nothing but a self-destructive Ego-trip. As Margaret Atwood said: “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The mother of a bunch of great advice I’ve heard is the premise that we do not attract what we want, but what we are. For me, this was a life-changing thought, because it’s calling us to take responsibility, and shifts our focus and forces from the things we are unable to control, to those that we are.
What are you reading now?
“Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman
What’s next for you as a writer?
The same that’s next for most of the other writers, I suppose. Writing, reading, presenting myself to the people, listening to the feedback, improving, researching, more writing.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I would bring a guide on how to survive on in a desert island, and some ancient Buddhist scripts, since a lonely place like that would be perfect for becoming enlightened! 🙂
Author Websites and Profiles
Amy Wonders Website