Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
I’m Georgie, until the lockdown I was a holistic health practitioner, exercise and lifestyle coach, I also did crystal and energy healing. I had taken that path and all its different facets in a bid to help myself manage a condition I was born with called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Type 3, a condition that affects the connective tissues and can be very debilitating, I’d spent a lifetime in and out of hospital with multiple problems until I adopted a holistic lifestyle. Remedial exercise and diet had helped me greatly, but there was a noticeable change in my health, I was no longer managing my predictable symptoms, my symptoms were lessening substantially, and my quality of life had vastly improved, especially from a pain and vitality point of view.
I built my career around my own physical needs and did many different classes all around health and wellbeing. On the Sunday evening that Boris announced ‘No groups’ I had a full week, and by the Monday morning I’d lost 95% of my business, I always struggled with technology and so, missed the ‘zoom’ gravy boat.
Since then, I’ve had to move and was unable to establish myself in the area I moved to, nobody was doing very well and not taking any freelancers on. I’d made the mistake of investing a chunk of money in a crypto scheme called ‘Hyperverse’ who suddenly stopped paying out my money (which was covering my rent nicely) and I’ve never been able to get through to them since, thieving *****, I had $42,000 in there, so now I ‘ve ended up living in a van!
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “The Fateful Text”?
I have ADD and had spelling difficulties at school, for years, right back when I was in my twenties, I wanted to write short romances, like Mills and Boon because I was always making up romantic scenarios in my head, I was a hopeless romantic, but I knew my English was very poor and just didn’t have the confidence to do it.
I’ve completely rewritten this novel last year after a lovely lady offered to tutor me with my English.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
I don’t really have a favourite author or influence, I mostly used to read educational books to do with my learning path rather than fiction to be honest.
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
I have many favoured places; we are blessed with a beautiful country. Now I’m looking forward to seeing more of it and finding new ‘favourite’ places, which is the upside of living in a van, every cloud has a silver lining.
Q5. Is there lots to do before you dive in and start writing a book?
I was challenged to write it! I was with a good friend, chatting and I can’t remember the exact conversation but `I can remember saying, “Oh, I could write a lovely book you know, it’s all up here”, tapping my head, to which she replied, “you’ve been telling me for the last 14 years you could write a lovely book, why don’t you go and write it?” The book wasn’t hard to do at all, it was just getting the confidence to do it.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘The Fateful Text’?
I started writing The Fateful Text eight years ago. Only it was called “The Retreat’ then. I wrote the basic love story and showed it to a client who was an English teacher, she had no encouragement for it what-so-ever, so it went in a draw for years until the lockdown. While I was under house arrest, as I had nothing to do, I got it out, read it, and decided to start working on it again. I really enjoyed revisiting it and added some chapters. I then had some help with my English and spent most of last summer rewriting it, so it’s been a long time in the making.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your book?
The Fateful Text is available from the BalboaPress website page http://www.fatefultext.com, also from the same website via my Facebook and Instagram pages ‘The Fateful Text’, on Amazon and available to order in most large stores.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘The Fateful Text’?
I changed both the title and cover just before I had it published. Originally it was called “The Retreat’ and the cover was a painting of the two main characters in an embrace out in the country hills, then, out of the blue I changed my mind and decided that, as the text was the catalyst in all of it, I’d centre the title around the text message.Then the painting didn’t go with the title, so I looked through lots and lots of photos until I came up with the couple in an embrace and then text on the phone.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
This is my first book, and I wrote it with an ‘intention’. I was so passionate about my journey to health and just how much of a difference it had made to my life, I was bursting with it, I wanted it ‘out there’. I’m also very passionate about cleaning up our planet, getting our soil healthy and living in harmony with Mother Earth. I never had any trouble writing it, because there was just so much, I wanted to put in. I had the idea to write it into a love story as a lighter, more entertaining way of getting it across, so I was writing about my favourite things, love and romance and health and wellbeing. It was a friend who had read it that suggested I write the appendix with the recipes. I loved the idea of this because I love cooking and now regularly put recipes and health tips on my social media.
Q10. Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
None of the novel was written from experience! That’s why it’s called a fantasy novel! It was my intention to start a healthy craze and draw awareness of our plight if we don’t learn to live in harmony with mother nature. I figured, if Fifty Shades could exhaust sales of nipple clamps and butt plugs, then there’s no reason why ‘The Fateful Text’ couldn’t have people wanting to look after themselves, practicing positive self-talk, mindfulness and meditation, exercising, eating healthily, reducing their personal exposure to chemicals, they could even start making Despatchos and start sending their positive intentions out to the collective, imagine that ❤
I just wanted to try do something positive and at the same time bring a bit of joy in what’s been a pretty harsh world for some lately.
Buy The Fateful Text on Amazon , BalboaPress, www.fatefultext.com
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