Interview With Author Krista Edwards
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a semi-retired certified personal trainer that made a career change to clinical herbalist several years back. When I was younger, I thought working out hard and eating “clean” was the way to being healthy all the time, and over the decades I have realized there is significantly more involved than that. So my first book is on being able to fit working out into actual daily mom life, and my current book- Backyard Herbal Remedies- is the first in a series of books that hopefully can inspire and empower people to become herbalists in their own homes and communites.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Backyard Herbal Remedies: A Beginners Guide to Identifying, Foraging, and Wildcrafting Herbal Remedies Straight From Nature is my latest book. My intent is to make a series of five books, each focusing on 15-25 herbs. When I decided to become an herbalist, I had no background. Nothing to anchor any of the concepts on. It was unfamilar and overwhelming. I thought I needed to learn all the things that all the plants could do immediately in order to be a good herbalist. That’s not how it works. You start small. You learn a handful of plants and you learn them well, learn all their properties, learn everything they can do. Once you are very solid and familiar with that handful of herbal friends, you can add a few more, and a few more. THAT is how you should learn herbs. So what I want to do with this book and this series is to bring Herbalism to people who are interested but don’t know where to start. I want to encourage them that they don’t have to know EVERYTHING right off the bat to start, just start small and go at your own pace.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I was a fantastic formal writer in college but apparently people don’t particularly enjoy that. so now I just try to write like I would be teaching you if you were walking with me in my herb garden. This often involves movie quotes.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
When it comes to my niche the styles are all over the board. Many of them can make your head swim as an new herbalist. Lesley Tierra’s Healing with the Herbs of Life was the first book I got that explained the concepts of herbalism in a way I could understand. I hope I did as good of a job, though my book is not nearly as in depth. Rosalee’s Alchemy of Herbs is another, as she presented herbs in a way that everyday people could incorporate them into their life, and I have recommended that book to so many clients.
What are you working on now?
My next book in the series, which doesn’t actually have a working title yet, will be Cupboard Medicine- those herb and spices you already have in your kitchen that you can use medicinally! It was actually one of my reviewers that suggested it. I have four different books I was deciding on, and she pointed out that my first book was on plants you can find right now in your back yard, and the next logical step would be herbs you can find right now in your kitchen. Her point was that if people learn 40 herbs that they did not have to go out of their way to plant or find, then they would be hooked as herbalist and take the next step to planting a tea garden or foraging in the meadows.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still in my first “real” book launch so the jury is still out on that! I had good luck promoting in facebook groups, but I was already an active member in several herb groups before I even wrote the book!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Lol I feel like I am still in that new author category…. Does any one have extra advice for me?
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Know who (or whose) you are.
If you know this, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of you. Even the guy that gives you a two star pubby review.
What are you reading now?
The Practice of the Presence of God; Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies; and Rainbow of the Soul
What’s next for you as a writer?
I hope to get this second book in my series out by October. Also, my late father as his dying wish had wanted me to get his book published. To be honest, that was one of the biggest catalysts for me to even look into self publishing. So I hope to also get that going as well!
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?
Hmmmm. That’s like asking an herbalist “if you could only choose five herbs….”
-Bible
– A local field guide so I could eat and not die!
-the last few books in the Robert Jordan “Wheel of Time” series, as I would finally have time to finish it if I was stranded!
Author Websites and Profiles
Krista Edwards’s Social Media Links
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