Where Do You Hang Your Hammock?: Finding Peace of Mind While You Write, Publish, and Promote Your Book
Where Do You Hang Your Hammock?: Finding Peace of Mind While You Write, Publish, and Promote Your Book Paperback – June 1, 2021
by Bella Mahaya Carter
Publisher: She Writes Press (June 1, 2021)
Language: English
Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN-10 : 1647420652
ISBN-13 : 978-1647420659
Item Weight: 1.11 pounds
Dimensions : 5 x 8 inches
In Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? seasoned coach and author Bella Mahaya Carter shows writers how to use their present circumstances as stepping-stones to a successful and meaningful writing life, navigated from the inside out. It encourages writers and authors to rethink their ambitions (which may be fueled by the tyrannical demands of the ego) and trust in their heartfelt purpose and values in the journey to becoming, or continuing on, as authors. Many writers believe their self-sabotaging thoughts are trustworthy and true. They take rejection personally. They surmise that if they don’t achieve their goals they have failed, and lose sight of who they are and what matters most. This book is for writers looking for inspiration and for authors daunted by the publishing process, who might lack the requisite author platform to get published the way they dreamed, or whose careers may not be unfolding as expected. It aims to be the friend and trusted expert writers turn to when hijacked by their own thinking. Ultimately, it reminds authors that they are infinite creators.
Review: Where Do You Hang Your Hammock?: Finding Peace of Mind While You Write, Publish, and Promote Your Book
I was sitting here looking at an email I received from my mother about the best-deviled eggs when I looked down at our coffee table and saw I'd received the advance reader copy of the book Where do you Hang Your Hammock? Finding Peace of Mind While You Write, Publish, and Promote Your Book.
I picked up the package, opened the book and did a quick leaf through, and started reading chapter 31, Journal Writing is Good for Your Writing. I have a few journals I write in and this speaks a good bit about the importance of keeping an authentic voice. When I completed the chapter, I then reverted back to the beginning of the book.
The book is divided into five parts, Dream, Nourish, Write, Publish, and Promote and each ends with a helpful prompt. I won't go into a lot of detail as you will need to see for yourself but it speaks about the need to nourish your soul by reading and the need for baring your soul while you write.
This book is inspiring! It is relatable and offers good exercise. When you struggle through something, be it illness, death, divorce, or relocating, you learn from it or perhaps you don't, either way, it can be a vehicle for your writing. The gist of writing is writers do self-examination and give themselves time and start with something that inspires them.
While I tend to like complicated writing with extremely long sentences embedded with complex subordinate parts, other readers may prefer brief to- the- to-the-point sentences. So, write, however, you want.
A couple years back, I started the book series Shatter Me. The author, Tahereh Mafi, had a unique writing style. There was a lot of crossing out left in the manuscript that depicted how the character was censoring herself. While I liked the book, the dystopian storyline wasn't a grabber. For me, it was the writing style that kept me reading.
The best line in Where Do You Hang Your Hammock is, Do the Best with What You've Got!
I received an advance reader copy from Anna Sacca Senior Publicity and Branding Manager at FSB Associates
About the Author
Bella Mahaya Carter is a writing teacher, developmental editor, and coach with a lifelong passion for creativity, health, and healing. She is the author of the forthcoming (May 22, 2018) memoir Raw: My Journey from Anxiety to Joy and Secrets of My Sex, a collection of narrative poems. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in MindBodyGreen; The Sun, Lilith; Calyx; Literary Mama; and elsewhere. Her work has been anthologized in The Magic of Memoir: Inspiration for the Writing Journey; Grandmothers’ Necklace; and Writing Our Way Out of The Dark: An Anthology of Literary Acts of Bravery. She’s a featured columnist on SheWrites.com and maintains her own blog, Body, Mind, Spirit: Inspiration for Writers, Dreamers, and Seekers of Health & Happiness.