The month of August has become a big handle turning exercise. September augurs more of the same.
The reason being is that 35 of the 100 chapters of Soulwaves are now narrated. I make no bones about it, it is a huge task and big ask, with no shortcuts.
While it might sound like a lot of hard work, it does feel I am taking my hands off the wheel and coasting down hill to a glorious destination. Apart from anything, I am really enjoying reading my own book back and remembering things I’d forgotten I’d wrote.
Reading a book out loud is simply the best and most thorough way to proof read a book. Here’s why:
#1. If I can read it out loud, a reader can’t read it ‘in loud’. It won’t scan well.
#2. I am spotting forward references I set up in earlier chapters I wrote many months ago that I can pick up and develop subtly in later chapters.
#3. You spot errors even the best editor/proof reader may not have spotted. I’ve found loads and suspect there are more.
August also saw two weeks off with some family support commitments. Due to ongoing support commitments, I plan to have the next third of the book narrated by the time I blog next and the final third completed by the end of October.
This will lead to print and ebook production in November which in turn means publication should be early December.
One of the tricks I use, which is also one I use in writing, is to record the very ending words first. This is the poem I wrote many years ago to describe the essence of what a Soulwave is. It wraps up the book but there’s no spoiler alert as it gives nothing away about the actual ending. Merely it describes how Soulwaves are the fabric of the Universe.
In 2012, on September 3rd, I started writing what became my quickest book called This We Know. 14 days later, on the 17th September (that same year), a copy of the print version arrived in the post – and it was available worldwide.
This blog tells the story of the slowest book I have written. It is novel which foretells the end of life on Earth, as we know it, within 100 years. While it is channelled fiction, some the events I first wrote over 14 years ago have already come to pass.
Genesis
Back in 2005, I was on holiday in South Africa, on the Garden Route at a place called Hog Hollow near Plettenberg. I had a shock when I ended up sharing a shower with a tarantula. A strong G&T later, I calmed down. At the time I was reading a book by Teilhard de Chardin called The Phenomenon of Man – it is deep and profound but also a little inaccessible.
A combination of tarantula shock and the G&T brought a light bulb moment along. What if I was to die when I know a lot of useful ‘stuff’ that could be shared? I had a pile of books that went some way to explaining the Universe and how we came to be. Many of them were as complex as Teilhard’s.
The idea was, what if I was to decode them, distill them and explain them?
I started mind mapping what I could share, along with imbibing a second G&T. The memory is still so vivid, I can even remember we were playing this amazing album, African Groove.
The Light Bulb Moment
This idea came in. What if the Universe was built on soulwaves? They were waves of energy that connected everything to everything. This was the missing dark energy and dark matter. I had no proof and no theories, just intuition.
So what if I shared what I knew in a novel? No proof would be needed, it would just be a story.
A few months later, I had about 60,000 words written. Then it ended up sitting on my hard drive for what would be 12 years, until I picked it up again.
What happened next was that 16 other books came along. I did release a short story version of a snippet of the book for Kindle in 2011. That got some good reviews that told me I should really finish it some day. At that time, the Universe was busy making an unexpected meditation guide out of the unsuspecting author though – and This We Know was about to arrive!
Winding on several books later, I ended up spending my 59th birthday, in 2017, at my best friend from school’s funeral. I resolved then to get this story our before my 60th, just in case I wasn’t around for much longer.
I ended up rewriting it from the ground up, and inserting some new intertwining plot lines, but I only got 90% of it done. Just the last 20 chapters or so need finishing off.
The reason I only got 90% of the way last year was that yet another book project that I didn’t plan came along. The Big Ü is done now and was published on the 8th August 2018.
Of course, these diversions are not irritants. In a Universe connected by soulwaves, all is ‘meant to be’. Apart from anything, I know more stuff now than I did back in 2005 and I hope that I have become a better writer. I am certainly more internally confident at the very least.
So the latest planned schedule is to get the print, ebook and audiobook published on the 21st September – all in 2019 that is.
Tuning into cosmic timings is one of the many memes touched on in the book!
What’s It About?
I have now discovered that the book now has a genre – post-dystopian cyberpunk.
It starts in 2059 when humanity has got its act together after the excesses of the last few centuries. Sadly, it is all a little too late as something triggered off in 1959, 150 light years away, that would lead to the end of life, as we know it, on Earth.
Our hero is sent from the ‘gods’ to help at the time of transition – as often happens cf Jesus, John Lennon, Kermit the Frog. Like all such characters, he doesn’t know this. He hatches a plan at the last minute to save some of humanity. All along though the dolphins, knew so, so much more.
So the book explains how the cosmos goes through cycles and how death is an integral part of life. Even stars have to die to create more stars … and us!
The Earth travels over a half billion miles each year as it orbits around the Sun.
So today, on the Summer Solstice, we’re 1/4 of a billion miles into that journey. It’s a good time to reflect on the journey so far and make some plans for the remainder of this year’s orbit.
Here’s mine … do feel free to share yours by way of comment below :
My book The Authority Guide to Mindfulness explores how we can use the practice of mindfulness meditation for real world outcomes. Being a practical book too, it doesn’t just talk about the subject but it comes with the 10 minute guided meditations so you actually experience the meditative state.
You will learn how mindfulness is not a box ticking exercise where you go on a course and that’s it. It is a way of life and a way to be which is less stressful, more graceful and easier all round.
When I finished the book, it got me thinking how I run my own business ‘mind-fully’ and how that has brought success my way without any associated stress. Here’s five tried and trusted aspects of how I go about it :
Method #1 : Give Stuff Away
It’s a general maxim in life that what goes around comes around. When we offer a free gift, the obvious bonus is the capture of an email address so we can market to people. With a little extra effort, there is a more subtle and mindful benefit to be had still. I have written a series of daily nuggets of mindfulness that appear in peoples’ In Boxes each week day. They are called Just for Today and a month’s worth takes me around an hour to write. As a result, you keep in your potential customer’s minds each and every day.
Method #2 : Shout Quietly
As mentioned in the new book, it’s not a good idea to market your products and services by being disparaging about your competitors. Neither is it a good strategy to push your products in peoples’ faces. A much better way is what I am doing here and that’s to share valuable content that others can use and then to mention your own products and services in passing and in context. So my way of ‘shouting quietly’ is by posting content on my blog and also by interviewing like minded people on my podcast. These days it is my main marketing tool and it seems to generate all the business I need. In addition, when on social media, my policy is to only be positive and to share wisdom, successes and celebrations.
Method #3 : Share Your Wisdom
The writing and publishing of my books has not only opened many doors for me but it has also opened the hearts and minds of many readers. As an unexpected spin off, it also lead to a career I didn’t plan as an author’s mentor. More importantly still, when you encapsulate your wisdom in a book, in a small way you immortalise yourself. It’s said, “The only thing you can take with you is your evolution and the only thing you can leave behind is your art”. It’s also a good idea to leave the world a better and wiser place than how you found it just in case you have to come back again.
Method #4 : Increase Your Promise
The way to get more money into your world is to make promises and keep them. Promise to deliver on time and within budget and clients will come back and refer others to you. Learn something new each day and you will increase your promise and be able to deliver more and more with increased value. This podcast from the Zone Show [an example of #Method 2 explains more].
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Method #5 : Be Philanthropic
If you are living in the developed world and actually have a business, you are considerably better off that the vast majority of people on the planet. So one smart way to move money energy around is to align a relevant product or service with a ‘good cause’ and give a percentage of your earnings away. I had my cataracts removed this year and ended up starting a philanthropic initiative as a result of a light bulb moment I had on the operating table.
Vicki Wusche is already the author of three best-selling books on property investment. She explains how she came to publish her fourth book – The New Estate: Insights from the 22nd Century
“Now I first met Tom Evans was at a networking group I joined back in 2007. Shortly after I attended one of his book writing workshops. I have always wanted to write a book. My first books then followed primarily as a way to promote my business. They gave me a way to share the answers to questions I was being repeatedly asked – namely how I got started in property investment and how I have grown my business.
Early in March this year, I phoned Tom, as I occasionally do, for a chat. As we spoke, I explained that the first quarter of 2015 had lacked my normal focus and clear determination. He invited me over for a session and an opportunity to see if he could help me gain some more clarity.
When I left after three hours I had not only more clarity, but the outline and publishing strategy for a new book. A story. A major departure from my normal style or content.
Emerging from our session came The New Estate – a story about the future. It is a story about how we can change the future. A story of hope, and I hope inspiration.
Surprisingly, Tom not only helped me gain clarity in my business, but a better sense of a new direction that I was looking for personally. Even more than that, because of his experience as an accomplished author in his own right, Tom understood how the speed and power self-publishing process could help me get to where I was going in ‘no time at all’.
Tom suggested that rather than publishing this story through my existing publisher, I could create a wave and movement with more momentum with indie publishing. From the first conversation with Tom, the writing of the book, its editing and design, through to its appearance on the Kindle store took just five weeks.
Along the way, I found an easier way to write. I discovered that there are no (writers) blocks but just learnings. As a result of using Tom’s methodologies, the book literally just flowed as if I was taking dictation.
Time itself took on an ethereal quality. I would sit down to write and the next thing I knew, another 3000 words had popped out. I could not stop the words flowing once I’d truly connected to my Muse.
Everything just arrived perfectly formed. As a result, I now know that The New Estate : Insights from the 22nd Century, will play a key role in developing my business. At the same time, it will broaden my speaking profile to being one of a divergent thinker, thought leader and inspiration to business owners.”
I am thrilled and honoured to have been selected as one of the ten authors of CompletelyNovel’s One Big Book Launch on the 3rd June.
The new book that I am launching, New Magic for a New Era, explores how we can live a magical life where opportunity turns up around every corner and serendipity lands at our feet.
The book was inspired by the most amazing and incisive business coach I have met in recent years called Lea Woodward. Lea pointed out that although I’d written 10 books (at the time), I had not told my story. This was at the end of October 2014.
My initial reaction was that my life was boring as nothing particularly bad had happened to me and that I had lived a rather charmed life. Lea pointed out that the secret of how I had pulled this off was exactly what was worth sharing.
Thanks to CompletelyNovel, and a bit of time bending, by the end of February 2015, I had print copies of the book in my hands and it was available on for Kindle and in print worldwide. The flood of five star reviews that followed on Amazon quickly convinced me that there is an appetite for a book on this theme.
As it says in the book, “There is no need to go to hell and back, unless you want to”.
The book tells of my transition from being a BBC broadcast engineer to author, author’s mentor, meditation guide and temporal alchemist. It’s involved a transition from one side of the camera and microphone to the other.
In the early 80s, as part of this journey, I left the BBC, spent some time at Sony and ended up forming an independent engineering company in London. The launch of Channel 4 had created a huge demand for independent production companies and their equipment needed servicing and maintaining. I ended up at the right place at the right time.
My offices were located at AKA Film & TV Studios at 60 Farringdon Rd.
Roll the clock on over 30 years and I’m now ‘engineering’ books not cameras. So imagine my surprise when I discover the location of the One Big Book Launch. It’s only at the Free Word Centre now based at 60 Farringdon Rd!
We’re used to trailers for films and TV programmes. They tantalise and tease us to the delights the main feature will hold.
Nowadays multimedia trailers are being increasingly used to promote books and the technology to do them is accessible to all.
Seven elements that make a good trailer
1. Short – less than 5 minutes, ideally 1 minute
2. Sneak preview of book’s content – but adds something additional to the book
3. Link to buy book – but not a heavy sell but do include the book cover for recognition
4. Impactful – if the book has a point to make, this should be contained in the trailer
5. Fully informative yet enigmatic – it should be self contained in its message and encourage the viewer to want more
6. Potential to go viral – include humour or make a point that people want to share
7. Must work on mobile devices – if the trailer includes text, check that it works on mobile devices
Keen as ever to get my feet wet, I’ve had a go at a couple …
This We Know – short and enigmatic …
This We Are – somewhat longer and gives a snapshot of each chapter in the book …
Big Thanks to Lea Woodward and Jackie Walker for pointing me earlier this year at the most fabulous animation tool called Powtoon.
It allows ‘numpties’ like me to put together pretty amazing trailers for product and book promotions – there’s just a few examples below of what you can do with it.
And even better still, they have invited me to do a animation series on how best to communicate a message in Just a Minute … watch the trailer here
Powtoon Application #001 : Product Promotion
I prepared this short trailer to promote my Bending Time ecourse
Powtoon Application #002 : Web Site Landing Page
Here’s a trailer for a new web site for the marvellously talented Sue Warwick
I even used Powtoon to build a whole Udemy training course based on an earlier book called Flavours of Thought. This animation is just one of 30 in the course which comprise over 160 minutes of animated content – phew !!
In 2012, on September 3rd, I started writing what became my quickest book called 
Genesis
The journey so far
The next 1/4 billion miles
We’re used to trailers for films and TV programmes. They tantalise and tease us to the delights the main feature will hold.
I am really thrilled that my new book, This We Know is seeding new thoughts and forming a new movement.
