This month has been consumed by audiobook production – slotted in around loads of family support.
At 100 chapters and just shy of 100k words, there is no short cut. I am managing 10 chapters a week and am 70 chapters in at the time of this blog.
So it will be finished by mid to late October and the book will be out, at last, well before the end of the year. I can recommend the process to all authors. Not only do you get the audiobook from it but also you find errors not found by any proof reading process and, for a complex plot like this one, inconsistencies that need ironing out.
Enlightened Conversations
In the run up to publication, I’m slowly restarting the Zone Show podcast and also being interviewed myself.
Here’s a couple of conversations from this month.
… more coming soon.
Authentic Living
by Tom Evans chatting to John Siddique
Timeful Reflections
Writing this blog and this whole production process around this novel has caused me to reflect.
Why has this project taken so long when other books have just popped out in weeks or months? This one has taken years.
Is it just because it’s my first novel and I am learning my craft?
Am I still harbouring a fear or imposter syndrome?
Is all driven by some kind of divine timing?
… if you are an intuitive or a channel, please leave any insights below by way of comment.
Several blogs ago I set my stall our to post once a month as a bread crumb trail of what was going on in my life – the original purpose and format for a blog perhaps.
Something happened at the start of this month which means I should break with this tradition and sneak an extra blog in – my meditations on Insight Timer hit the 2 million listens mark, after three years.
What does this mean?
Firstly, what was something I played and experimented with has gone mainstream. People seem to enjoy each new meditation I post.
Secondly, I have hit a groove where there is no limit. I post two to three free pieces of audio a month – a meditation, a podcast and a short story. The sales revenue from Insight Timer courses mean I can relax and release more and more free stuff, which in turn helps with sales. After 15 years of pretty continual content creation, I have found my metier.
Thirdly, it means I can really devote the time my forthcoming novel Soulwaves requires to create a Big Splash.
Eternal thanks to the team at Insight Timer and all those souls who helped me get to this milestone.
The two pillars in the High Priestess card in the Tarot represent Involution and Evolution.
Involution is like a winding down, or curling up, and it leads to evolution when it unfolds again.
Reflecting on this natural cycle, the High Priestess sits on a Cube (more on this coming up over the next few months) and holds the scroll of Tora, which contains all wisdom.
It’s no coincidence that this last month has seen much involution as the next phase of evolution is about to arrive.
Just for Today
After nearly four years of writing them, and two years of having them illustrated by the wonderful Siri Stiklestad Opli, the last Just for Today will be posted today. Is that the end of them though? No way! They begat from a meditation and every month going forward I’ll be publishing a new meditation based using the words “just for today” as the seed.
This is the meditation that started them off – eponymously called Just for Today …
You can listen to the others for free on Insight Timer
and just sharing my favourite illustrated JFT again here (must get that T-shirt done!)
Non-fiction to fiction author
Soulwaves will be back from the editor today and I’ll be spending the next three months getting it ready for publication. This will involve incorporating the edits, updating the science (thanks brother John) and narrating the audiobook as the final process of the edit. If I can’t say it “out loud”, readers won’t be able to experience it “in loud”.
I’ve also been learning about how to get a book made into film or TV. This book would need a serious rewrite so I’m looking at either an adaptation, or a new series of sequels/prequels written for telly using the principles of soulwaves as a seed. Black Mirror is my muse!
Surrey to Wiltshire
After over 20 years in our wonderful house in Surrey, this month it came under offer and we’ll (hopefully) be permanently moving to the new ‘passive’ and eco-friendly house in Wiltshire in July. This passing represents a huge transition too, from living in a 100 year old energy inefficient house to one which virtually runs itself and in Summer sends energy to the grid.
With much less energy drain, finances free up too. In addition, my latest courses on Insight Timer are now providing a decent sleeping income. All of which means, I will be free to write 24×7 (ideas come in dreams too).
What goes around, comes around … listen to this podcast for a summary of the journey so far.
NEXT MONTH : How cogs whir when pebbles are dropped in the pod … and you keep a quiet mind to allow the ripples to come back.
This month I did something I have been meaning to do for ages, I had some new photography done for my site.
The wonderful Maria O’Brien of Haiga Photography popped over to my house on a glorious pre-spring day. You’ll find my mugshot on all main pages of the site now, as opposed to me hiding away down somewhere deep.
I am so pleased at what she did and am wondering why I spent so long just hiding behind my voice on meditations, audiobooks and my podcast. Time to be seen, as well as heard.
Now the first draft of Soulwaves, the novel, is in the can – more on that in the next blog – I dusted off The Zone Show podcast this month and started it up again.
In this episode, I chat to Jelena Adzic about her transition from meditator to meditation guide on Insight Timer.
You will hear from Jelena again in the next episode when she turns the tables on me when we talk about said novel … and the next page I am turning.
A Meditator’s Journey
by Tom Evans chatting to Jelena Adzic
Being Heard Even More
I’m thrilled that my new 30 day course, Mindfulness for Busy People, is now live on Insight Timer.
The new course format has allowed me to collate meditations from many sources of mine into the app into one cohesive container. The course contains a mix of remastered existing meditations along with brand new ones that link the whole 30 day narrative together.
This month saw the unexpected passing of my mother-in-law. She has been in a care home for 8 years and wasn’t ill (for once). She had had a happy day, laughing and joking and was chatting to my father-in-law watching TV early evening. She was alive one second and gone the next. We had just moved them to their 3rd care home as my father-in-law had had a stroke and needed more care.
It was peaceful and painless for her and we were lucky to get a funeral slot just before Xmas. We are now left with a bereft person who doesn’t want to be around.
It makes you reflect and realise about the cycles of life. We have been in elderly care mode for at least the last 10 years and this gave me the impetus (and opportunity) to write at least 10 books and create hours of meditative visualisations and resources
Efforts Redoubled
So now our care and attention will increase, as father-in-law will need company, before the end of this year, next year is mapping itself out. When we encounter death, it is natural that we think about our own mortality. The fear of death left me many years ago but I do have a desire to leave behind a legacy of what I have learned for others (and possibly a future incarnation of myself/my soul). So this puts a focus on the next orbit of the Sun.
Project 1 : Soulwave : The Novel : I’ve now decided not to pressure myself on this and just to get the 1st draft written by my next birthday in March. Then to produce the audiobook by the 21st June, which will double as the the best proof read and edit you can get. And then to make the publication date, the 21st September.
Project 2 : Just for Today : These daily nuggets of mindfulness have been going out for well over two years now, latterly illustrated. In the New Year, Siri and I will be taking them to a new place where community involvement sits at the core.
Project 3 : Meditations : My free meditations are already on Insight Timer and more will be coming. One short story (from the Germinatrix) and one new free meditation will be published a month. Plus a new 30 day course will appear Q1 of 2019 which will replace three of my existing standalone courses.
Project 4 : The Big Awakening : While all of my creative output has been finding its way to the world, a massive amount of esoteric wisdom has yet to see general release. Some 1-2-1 mentoring clients have seen and experienced small snippets. I am giving no shape to how it gets out there but I know, with publication of The Big Ü, a channel now exists. Watch this space and it will be revealed – and all I know is that projects 1 to 3 above are the foundations.
This month I reached a milestone which was not in my wildest of wild dreams and not on any To Do List, or set of goals. My meditations and podcasts on mindfulness have been listened to over 1 million times.
When we hit milestones like this, it’s a good idea to reflect back on how it was achieved and what unexpected events happened along the way.
It also pays dividends to say thanks, so big thanks to Insight Timer for making it happen and thanks to all the 280,000 meditators who listened in. This means many of them tuned in multiple times.
How it happened
The reflections are nicely captured in this podcast with fellow Insight Timer meditation guides, Louisa Tanner Munson and Carl Munson.
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The unexpected events
#1 : I made a transition from an author who had some meditations as accessories to his books to becoming a popular meditation guide who happens to be an author.
#2 : This directly lead to a new career as a keynote speaker and trainer in practical applications of mindfulness.
#3 : I was commissioned to create seven meditations to help with weight management directly as a result of a meditator, and his 3 year old son, listening. The composer of the ambient background music is Eternell, found through the app.
#4 : The popularity of Just for Today, my most listened to meditation, lead me to creating a series of daily nuggets of mindfulness of the same name. They attracted the illustrator, Siri Stiklestad Opli, and ended up in a book I didn’t plan to write and the formation of a contribution currency initiative on Patreon.
#5 : my new found status has lead to co-authoring a new book called The Big Ü and the creation of an advanced personal development programme called The Biggest Ü. It has been immensely useful in giving credibility and authority to this initiative.
#6 : a steady stream of new clients for my more esoteric self-study courses and 1-2-1 mentoring.
#7 : giving me confidence at the grand old age of 60 to finally put my head fully above the parapet.
Above all it has been the most enjoyable journey and gives me such pleasure to know that 3000 or so people each day are calmer, more relaxed and hopefully a little more enlightened.
All because Maddy Gerrard reached out in August 2016 to ask if I’d like to upload a meditation.
“It only takes one domino to make many others fall down …”
Big thanks to Maddy, Chris, Nico, Bayley, the rest of the team and the generous benefactors who make the impossible possible. Thanks also to the 4 million and more meditators and all my fellow meditation guides for making the best by far free app on the planet.
The two pillars in the High Priestess card in the Tarot represent Involution and Evolution.
Soulwaves will be back from the editor today and I’ll be spending the next three months getting it ready for publication. This will involve incorporating the edits, updating the science (thanks brother John) and narrating the audiobook as the final process of the edit. If I can’t say it “out loud”, readers won’t be able to experience it “in loud”.
After over 20 years in our wonderful house in Surrey, this month it came under offer and we’ll (hopefully) be permanently moving to the new ‘passive’ and eco-friendly house in Wiltshire in July. This passing represents a huge transition too, from living in a 100 year old energy inefficient house to one which virtually runs itself and in Summer sends energy to the grid. 
