Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This is my first book. After many years as a school band director and religion teacher, I have recently changed careers (again, LOL, I guess this is my third career.) I am now a spiritual author and speaker. I’ve been a school teacher, band director, musician, public speaker, laborer, chemical process operator, marketer, market researcher. I may have missed a few. For fun I love the great Alberta outdoors, fishing, hunting, hiking, canoeing, camping, running, swimming, biking, skiing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The title of my book is, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. There’s a subtitle that needs some explaining. The subtitle is, “Volume 1 – 50 Parables on Life’s Performance Cycle”.
As a school teacher, there are times when something happens in school that we call a “teachable moment”. A situation develops where a lesson far more important arises than what we were trying to teach – something eternal, something transcendent, something spiritual. I started writing some of these moments down on paper and drawing the spiritual lessons out of them. Eventually, it became a book – fifty little parables to help us understand ourselves as spiritual beings having a human experience.
Now the meaning of the subtitle. In a school band program, all my teaching is planned around our performance schedule for the year. With the next concert in mind, we prepare, practice, perform, then reflect on our performance and redirect our efforts to try to perform better at the next concert. That’s the band performance cycle. It’s a metaphor for our cycle of spiritual growth in life. So the book is in four parts: preparation, practice, performance, and reflection and redirection. Then the cycle starts all over again. We are constantly setting new spiritual goals, practicing to be a better person, performing daily (some good, some not so good), and reflecting on what we did well and poorly.
It was seeing daily life through spiritual eyes that inspired me to write down my thoughts and insights so others could benefit from them as well. I hope my readers are enlighted by reading my book.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Too many to list. I’ll just mention some spiritual books and authors for now. Certainly, the Bible is number one. I particularly love the teaching of Jesus. Over the past 2000 years, Christian theology has added so much to his simple words that I’m not sure Jesus would recognize his teachings today. So I love to go back to what Jesus really said. He made it so simple. Love God. Love everyone. What could be simpler?
I love many of the Christian mystics as well, both modern and older. I’ve read all of Maria Valtorta’s “The Poem of the Man-God”. It’s beautiful. If you want to get a picture of what Jesus’s times and teachings likely really were, read that series. I love the work of Edgar Cayce, of Saint Sister Faustina, and others who have connected with the Divine in special ways. The outpouring of Divine revelation in the modern world is absolutely astounding, yet most people ignore it.
What are you working on now?
This year (2020) I’m working on Volume 2. I’m trying to make these parables even shorter and more succinct. I’m also working on marketing Volume 1 and developing as a public speaker.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still trying to figure that out.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never give up.
What are you reading now?
I continue to go back to the classic writings that I love so much, but also to read new things. I picked up a copy of “The Four Agreements”. It’s ancient Toltec wisdom and it’s amazing how much its teachings overlap with esoteric Christianity.
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 think I’d bring a fishing rod and a couple of guns. I wouldn’t need books – you can make a fire with dry grass.
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