Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a resident in the coastal area of a quaintly shaped country called The Netherlands and although I have a lot of interests, I’m most passionate about anything creative. Like designing, writing, photography, drawing & painting and thinking up & creating (not the most standard) miniatures. They often come togèther, which I enjoy even more. I also have a huge soft spot for animals & people and I love food, reading, music, series and movies, quite diverse genres.
As a result of long lasting, serious and quite extreme medical issues & conditions, my life has been very unusual for way too many years already and I’ve never been able to do much of anything. What I have done was in very small or even the tiniest steps once in a while and only possible at áll because of not very common solutions and kind of impossible choices. Simply because my passion for life & creativity is too enormous. It only makes me more proud of and excited about what I have created and managed to do.
I am not easily impressed by a challenge or things going differently than I expected or hoped, with also the ability to look at something from a new angle, again and again. Always seeing and believing in possibilities. I’m also known to be very positive, determined and crazy passionate.
I have written one and a half books so far, or actually one and two halves. While in the process of writing the one it all started with, the idea for another book came up. The one I intend to finish next. Neither is near complete and in the meantime I felt inspired to publish poems I had written the past years, my first book: Emerald Heart. When it comes to writing, I haven’t really chosen to become a writer. Writing chose mé, but I absolutely love it and it feels like we are a great fit.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest, also my first and only book so far is called Emerald Heart. It is poetry, but not in the traditional sense to me and I think ‘poetic love story’ describes it better. Like someone said to me ‘I’ve never been a huge fan of poetry, but yours are beautiful’.
I’ve actually never had the intention to publish them. I had written them through the years as a way of dealing with an amazing and very intense connection. Then one day I felt they should be able to be enjoyed by others.
Although I’ve always loved to write I had never written poems before. More importantly I was never even interested in most things romantic at all, just too down-to-earth I guess ;). Not that I wasn’t into love or didn’t know it. I had actually been in a wonderful 21-year relationship with a great man. He was the love of my life who I had to let go after more than two decades because of extreme circumstances, breaking my heart.
The man Emerald Heart is about changed all that. He not only turned my world and what I thought I knew completely upside down, but unknowingly awakened my real feminine side I guess. He is the inspiration and reason for this book. I am not the same woman I was before he unexpectedly landed in the center of my heart to never leave, which was only the beginning of all kinds of new and magical experiences.
My poems are chapters that together tell an intense, not very common love story. Mostly very different from each other and combined with a certain lay-out and font-types I think give it a bit of a unique look. It’s how I had made them for myself and wanted for the book as well. All the result of an attempt to put on paper what my heart & mind have never been able to comprehend. In doing so surprising myself with this for me new way of playing with words, how joyful it was for me to write them and what I’ve been able to create.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No, not really I think. I mostly write when inspiration hits and it’s like I don’t even have a choice when I do. I almost only write based on sudden hunches and then immediately paragraphs and chapters flow through me, that way it practically takes no effort or thought at all. This does make it a bit challenging for me to work with certain writing tools, like outlines and such.
These hunches and inspiration present themselves at very random (inconvenient) times and it can also be an idea for something I’m not ‘officially’ working on, book or otherwise. But I have to let it out or it’s lost to me and impossible to get back. It does make it an ideal way for me, but I do have very little control on what I’m working on or how.
I do work more consciously on a manuscript too – I’d actually much more prefer to always work on one thing and finish that first, just not how it works with me apparently – just nowhere near as often as it takes more effort. When I do, it’s more about getting things going and to not be all over the place project wise, to create at least sóme kind of structure. But when I feel I can’t get in that zone, which is rare by the way, I’m not forcing myself either. I know and trust I’ll be treated to that flow of inspiration when the time is right for that. This has worked perfectly for me so far.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I don’t know if it’s because I’ve never really had the idea to be a writer but I can’t say I have any writers or books that have been of influence. Maybe or at least in part because writing is such an intuitive process for me. Also my first book is a collection of poems, not just a for me surprising ‘turn of inspiration’ so to speak but I also never really read poetry or liked it. So additionally I don’t have a frame of reference for that.
My work isn’t what you’d probably expect with poetry either but that doesn’t make it less valuable or enjoyable to read for the people I think are meant to find them, just different. I simply wrote what I felt and through the creative process of that and the one that followed I was able to turn them into the variety of poems I now published, a kind I really like.
What are you working on now?
Now Emerald Heart is finished and all practical things around that almost over, I am aiming to continue the book I mentioned before. This is the story leading up to and about the connection with the man from Emerald Heart with the many aspects that that book doesn’t cover. So a regular book, a true story that reads like a novel that will also be inspirational, I hope and think.
Ideas and parts for other books – I have quite a list of titles and ideas that started popping out of nowhere recently – have kept coming in as well. When they do, like I said before, I need to get it out to not forget. Then I have also been creating an oracle deck at rare possible times, a fun project I plan to crowdfund when ready. For which I may have a bit of time and opportunity again now the publication process is behind me.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Well, this is my first publication with the official launch on the 17th of July, so I don’t know what my best method will turn out to be yet. It may also prove a bit tricky to market because Emerald Heart is neither traditional poetry nor a novel. I have used as much methods and websites I’ve been able to find and might work for my book. So several free promotion websites like yours, paid and free ones. One I really liked for concept and ease is the ‘Book Marketing Ebook Submission Tool’, to promote your free ebook to 25+ sites in 5 minutes. I’ve also posted a couple of dressed up samples of the poems on my personal Pinterest page with a link to my book as well as on my (miniature) blog. Both very small, non target-audience, nothing official and I haven’t been able to be active on them for quite a while either, but every little bit helps right? I’ve also offered a Youtuber I always liked to watch, who has a pretty good following for my target audience, a free paperback copy with the question if she’d be willing to promote it on her channel, which she is.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Being a new-born author myself without much experience in the field I wouldn’t really know. There is however advice I would like to offer that has really helped me in life (the reason I’m even alive today) but also what led to and has been an important part in the creation and publication of my first book. This is to do things from and following your heart as much as you can, so to do what feels right. Even when this might be (and often is) not necessarily what makes the most sense, to you or others. Like when you decide on a subject go with what makes your heart excited, not with what may be selling really well right now.
My experience is that following our heart is the easiest and best way in any area of life and even more so when comes to something creative like writing, which I think makes it more likely to be successful. I believe it’s because we’re most aligned with our true essence when we do that. One of a few quotes I’ve come up with over time is “The key to living is not to be motivated into action, but being driven by inspiration.” It’s how I have been living many years and I think also fits perfectly here.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
‘A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step’ – Lao Tzu. My favorite quote and life motto for as long as I can remember, applicable in all area’s of life. We can’t or have to do it all at once anyway, so we might as well leave that for when we get to a certain stage. Thinking about what’s needed to get to our end-result is or can be too daunting or even discouraging. We just need to know where we want to go or end up, take the first step in that direction and take it from there. Chances are – especially when you follow your heart and intuition – things will change or be added along the way that will only make it better. Or give you an idea for something else entirely. Something you otherwise may never even have thought of, considered or come across as an option, things you could never have foreseen. It’s how I believe the Universe works and also helped me throughout my life. Additionally keeping you from thinking or worrying about an aspect or step that might not even be relevant anymore somewhere along the way.
I most often have no idea how to do something or to get started even, but I never think or worry about that either. I just start with what I do know or can do, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem and build on that. Somehow the next step or inspiration I didn’t know yet always presents itself. Like a lantern guiding the next part of our path without needing to see what comes next.
What are you reading now?
Tell no one by Harlan Coben
What’s next for you as a writer?
To enjoy where this new adventure of publishing takes me and the unexpected interesting twists I might encounter along my way of finishing my first regular book, taking it one page at a time.
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?
The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulish
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Night Train To Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
Author Websites and Profiles
Monique de Koning Website
Monique de Koning Amazon Profil