Connie Howell's Blog
December 31, 2022
New e-book
I am happy to announce the publication by Deep Read Press of my first volume of verse entitled Soul Deep. I have wriiten poetry for most of my life and am excited to share it with all who love reading poetry. Available on amazon as are all my books.
August 20, 2022
Perfectly Imperfect 2nd edition
The 2nd edition of Perfectly Imperfect, How to be Imperfect and Remain Lovable was published by Deep Read Press in June 2022. It has been expanded and has a new cover. I am happy to be one of the Deep Read Press gallery of authors.
October 26, 2019
Announcement
I have terminated my contract with Balboa Press so my book Perfectly Imperfect, How to be Imperfect and Remain Lovable will start to disappear from sale.
I plan to extend the book and put out a second edition under a new imprint sometime in the future.
Thank you to all of you who bought the original book, thank you for reading it and for the reviews.
Connie Howell
I plan to extend the book and put out a second edition under a new imprint sometime in the future.
Thank you to all of you who bought the original book, thank you for reading it and for the reviews.
Connie Howell
June 16, 2019
New Book
I am happy to say that my new book Spirit Matters, Gateways to Healing and Higher Dimensions has now been published and is widely available. To read a sample chapter go to: https://onethousandwordsplus.com/read...
May 25, 2019
Reviews Matter
For an indie author like myself Reviews are a vital part of being noticed so that the books can move up on the index of booksellers such as Amazon. When a book receives enough reviews they become recommended for reading.
Personally I spend thousands of dollars to produce a quality book and I have four to date. I have not recouped the cost of one book so far never mind any profit.
My books help people, I know this because of feedback from readers yet few people take the time to write a review or give the books a rating.
A review can be as little as one line, it doesn't have to be elaborate and if nothing comes to mind you can still rate the book with a star rating which takes one click of the mouse.
Indie authors don't have the backing of a traditional publishing house so we have to do all our own marketing and PR. Most of us are good at writing but not so good at marketing. Also we are all usually working on a shoe string budget so we can't afford elaborate marketing.
There are four things you can do to support indie authors, they are:
Buy a book
Review
Rate
Recommend
Please support indie authors like me 😀
Personally I spend thousands of dollars to produce a quality book and I have four to date. I have not recouped the cost of one book so far never mind any profit.
My books help people, I know this because of feedback from readers yet few people take the time to write a review or give the books a rating.
A review can be as little as one line, it doesn't have to be elaborate and if nothing comes to mind you can still rate the book with a star rating which takes one click of the mouse.
Indie authors don't have the backing of a traditional publishing house so we have to do all our own marketing and PR. Most of us are good at writing but not so good at marketing. Also we are all usually working on a shoe string budget so we can't afford elaborate marketing.
There are four things you can do to support indie authors, they are:
Buy a book
Review
Rate
Recommend
Please support indie authors like me 😀
August 30, 2018
Reflection in the mirror
I am privileged to be taking part in http://kaymacleodbooks.com/summer-blo... and my contribution is a short story that I wrote some time ago but have revamped especially for this event. My day is 31 August
Reflection in the Mirror
Toni sat at her dressing table gazing at her reflection in the mirror. What she saw was an ageing woman with lines drawn on her face like a road map. She could see the remnants of the joys, worries and sadness from the past etched around her eyes and mouth. The once supple and firm skin now sagging as a result of losing weight then finding it again. What once were cheeks now seemed to be hollows and the supple neck of her youth was gone. It grieved her to think that her youthful looks had disappeared and that she couldn’t remember exactly when that had happened. Did she pay so little attention to herself that what must have been a gradual maturity over the years seemed to have occurred over night? Where had those years gone where she had looked pretty and her skin glowed with the exuberance of youth?
Her body, long past its prime, had succumbed to gravity with a passion, the only passion her body felt now. She remembered seeing the movie Shirley Valentine where Shirley’s lover kissed ‘her jiggly bits’. If Toni were Shirley she would be showered with a thousand kisses all over because she didn’t have any bits left that weren’t jiggly.
Toni had adult children, long gone from home, so she had a lot of time to ponder on things. She was glad she wasn’t bringing up a family now with so much technology to distract them. She was too set in her ways to ‘get with that program’ – she preferred to do things the old fashioned way and she resented being dragged into the ever evolving world where people communicated mainly through devices. Then there were the drugs and the binge drinking problems, all of which she was relieved to know were now beyond her parenting days. She couldn’t understand the mentality of drinking for the sole purpose of getting drunk; she had never been drunk in her life and for many years had not even touched alcohol at all. As for drugs she had to push herself even to take pain killers for a headache.
As much as age caught her by surprise she was glad that she didn’t have the anxieties and pressures of youth any more. The lost loves, the hormonal rages, the curfews, the rules, the mistakes. But then on the plus side of being younger there was the never ending energy and lust for life that promised to be there forever, but the reality was that it wasn’t there for her anymore. Why hadn’t she prepared herself more for getting older, taken better care of herself?
Life for Toni was different now, slower and less exciting perhaps, but on the whole it was a good life if not a little lacking in excitement. She was reasonably fit and could out walk many people in her age group. She was fortunate to be married to a kind gentle man who loved her very much and never mistreated her. Though the future was unknown there still appeared to ‘be’ a future so there were many things to be grateful for.
She wasn’t totally unhappy but she did need to grieve for the woman her mind still believed her to be but who the mirror couldn’t seem to find anymore. If life was a fairy tale and she was Snow White her mirror would tell her that she was the ‘fairest of them all’. But life isn’t a fairy tale and she was no Snow White but perhaps tomorrow she would go to the shopping mall and look for a mirror that might be able to offer her a better reflection!
Reflection in the Mirror
Toni sat at her dressing table gazing at her reflection in the mirror. What she saw was an ageing woman with lines drawn on her face like a road map. She could see the remnants of the joys, worries and sadness from the past etched around her eyes and mouth. The once supple and firm skin now sagging as a result of losing weight then finding it again. What once were cheeks now seemed to be hollows and the supple neck of her youth was gone. It grieved her to think that her youthful looks had disappeared and that she couldn’t remember exactly when that had happened. Did she pay so little attention to herself that what must have been a gradual maturity over the years seemed to have occurred over night? Where had those years gone where she had looked pretty and her skin glowed with the exuberance of youth?
Her body, long past its prime, had succumbed to gravity with a passion, the only passion her body felt now. She remembered seeing the movie Shirley Valentine where Shirley’s lover kissed ‘her jiggly bits’. If Toni were Shirley she would be showered with a thousand kisses all over because she didn’t have any bits left that weren’t jiggly.
Toni had adult children, long gone from home, so she had a lot of time to ponder on things. She was glad she wasn’t bringing up a family now with so much technology to distract them. She was too set in her ways to ‘get with that program’ – she preferred to do things the old fashioned way and she resented being dragged into the ever evolving world where people communicated mainly through devices. Then there were the drugs and the binge drinking problems, all of which she was relieved to know were now beyond her parenting days. She couldn’t understand the mentality of drinking for the sole purpose of getting drunk; she had never been drunk in her life and for many years had not even touched alcohol at all. As for drugs she had to push herself even to take pain killers for a headache.
As much as age caught her by surprise she was glad that she didn’t have the anxieties and pressures of youth any more. The lost loves, the hormonal rages, the curfews, the rules, the mistakes. But then on the plus side of being younger there was the never ending energy and lust for life that promised to be there forever, but the reality was that it wasn’t there for her anymore. Why hadn’t she prepared herself more for getting older, taken better care of herself?
Life for Toni was different now, slower and less exciting perhaps, but on the whole it was a good life if not a little lacking in excitement. She was reasonably fit and could out walk many people in her age group. She was fortunate to be married to a kind gentle man who loved her very much and never mistreated her. Though the future was unknown there still appeared to ‘be’ a future so there were many things to be grateful for.
She wasn’t totally unhappy but she did need to grieve for the woman her mind still believed her to be but who the mirror couldn’t seem to find anymore. If life was a fairy tale and she was Snow White her mirror would tell her that she was the ‘fairest of them all’. But life isn’t a fairy tale and she was no Snow White but perhaps tomorrow she would go to the shopping mall and look for a mirror that might be able to offer her a better reflection!
June 19, 2018
Winds of change
As the winter wind blows furiously here in the Blue Mountains , it symbolically blows away the cobwebs from my mind and lets new ideas for my current writing project Spirit Matters come to me. Even though I write about my own experiences sometimes I am pleasantly surprised at what emerges. What amazes me is how a blank screen with no words other than a title evolves into thousands of words that become a book.
April 27, 2018
Radio Interview for Lifting the Veil, Raising Consciousness
Many thanks to Barry Eaton for interviewing me on my latest book Lifting the Veil, Raising Consciousness. To listen click on the link www.radiooutthere.com prog 703
January 22, 2018
Sample chapter of Lifting the Veil
To read a sample chapter click on the link
http://onethousandwordsplus.com/read-...
http://onethousandwordsplus.com/read-...
November 25, 2017
Latest book available
I am excited to have my latest book Lifting the Veil, Raising Consciousness published and available right now. It is a great honour to have my work read and appreciated. it makes it all worth while.
I love the fact that I get to share my life experiences and offer help and insights about walking the spiritual path. I believe that we are all seekers each in our own way. I try cover the subjects and questions that may be useful in moving the reader forward or at least to get the mind to expand its search for individual meaning.
I love the fact that I get to share my life experiences and offer help and insights about walking the spiritual path. I believe that we are all seekers each in our own way. I try cover the subjects and questions that may be useful in moving the reader forward or at least to get the mind to expand its search for individual meaning.
