Renée Paule's Blog, page 9
May 5, 2017
'On The Other Hand' Free Ebook
Hi Everyone,
If anyone is interested in receiving a free ebook copy of On The Other Hand: The Little Anthology of Big Questions in exchange for a review or rating, please let me have your email address in an IM or reply to me here. This offer will remain open until the end of June.
The versions I'm offering are .mobi or .epub.
All the best as always,
Renée Paule
If anyone is interested in receiving a free ebook copy of On The Other Hand: The Little Anthology of Big Questions in exchange for a review or rating, please let me have your email address in an IM or reply to me here. This offer will remain open until the end of June.
The versions I'm offering are .mobi or .epub.
All the best as always,
Renée Paule
April 19, 2017
'Stepping Out of Time' - ebook released
I've now released my ebook versions of 'Stepping Out of Time' on Smashwords
and on Amazon
The illustrated paperback will be available from Friday 21st April.
I hope you enjoy it. All reviews and ratings much appreciated.
Just a reminder that until the end of this month I am offering ebook copies of 'On The Other Hand' for free. See my Blog post
Much love as always,
Renée Paule
and on Amazon
The illustrated paperback will be available from Friday 21st April.
I hope you enjoy it. All reviews and ratings much appreciated.
Just a reminder that until the end of this month I am offering ebook copies of 'On The Other Hand' for free. See my Blog post
Much love as always,
Renée Paule
April 16, 2017
'On The Other Hand' Free Ebook
Hi Everyone,
If anyone is interested in receiving a free ebook copy of On The Other Hand: The Little Anthology of Big Questions in exchange for a review or rating, please let me have your email address in an IM or reply to me here. This offer will remain open until the end of this month.
The versions I'm offering are .mobi or .epub.
No information will be passed on.
All the best as always,
Renée Paule
If anyone is interested in receiving a free ebook copy of On The Other Hand: The Little Anthology of Big Questions in exchange for a review or rating, please let me have your email address in an IM or reply to me here. This offer will remain open until the end of this month.
The versions I'm offering are .mobi or .epub.
No information will be passed on.
All the best as always,
Renée Paule
April 11, 2017
Smashwords Questionnaire / Interview
I asked a friend to come up with some questions for my 'Smashwords Interview' and these are what he came up with. I've written my answers to each of them.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You have written five books - one for children - and have a sixth in the pipeline on the human condition. What drives you to write?
What makes a flower grow, a heart beat or the sun shine? I don’t know the answers to these questions or to what drives me to write. I only know that I’m driven and that the ‘drive’ grows stronger with each book.
Many people who read your books are looking for answers yet your books provide none; isn’t this rather a contradiction to being a self-help book?
No it isn’t. If I provide answers to questions people have then some of them will listen to me and I may be wrong - it has never been my intention to become a ‘guru’. Self-help means just that; we need to help ourselves and not rely on others to find solutions for us - which leaves us none the wiser; our strength can only be found within. We must look for our own answers and I can only show you how I’m looking for mine. Having said that, I actually have no answers - just fewer and fewer questions and this has made my heart less heavy to lug around.
What age group are your books aimed at, if any?
When I wrote ‘On The Other Hand’ I thought my audience would be in my own age group (over 50s). I was surprised to discover that younger people like them very much too, so my answer is from around 15 or so upwards.
Why did you start to illustrate your books after ‘On the other hand’ and how did the idea of ‘Dilly’ come about?
I never thought about illustrating ‘On the Other Hand’. Quite frankly, I didn’t even know I had the ability to draw so it never occurred to me - I wasn’t artistic in my youth. When I was writing ‘Just Around the Bend’ an idea popped into my head of a ‘thought bubble thinking’ and I decided to draw it - it was just a bit of fun. From then on Dilly - a thought form that thinks - became a character in his own right and he was good at demonstrating points that I made in the text. I use ‘he’ when I talk about Dilly but I really don’t think of him as either masculine or feminine - it’s just for the sake of convenience.
You do your own illustrations; how do you decide what aspect to illustrate? Your earlier books have fewer illustrations than ‘Stepping out of time’, which has 27; one short of the previous two books put together. Why is this?
Sometimes the Dilly illustrations pop into my head before I’ve even written the point I want him to demonstrate, and sometimes the ‘point’ comes first; I have no hard or fast rules about this and let the illustrations develop as and when they want to. For this reason I can’t really answer the second part of this question. I can tell you however, that the images for ‘Stepping Out of Time’ came to me so quickly that I began to wonder whether my next book would be in comic strip format - as it turned out it was to be a children’s picture book.
Why did you write a children’s book and do you have plans to write more of them?
Again, an idea just came to me and I shared it with a friend and we decided to write and illustrate this book together. Yes, I have plans - and ideas - for more. Our children need to learn to think independently (outside the proverbial box) as much as we do. They learn from us and will become the future leaders of our world, so it’s important that we teach them not to be afraid of it.
The latest book you are working on; is this in the same tone as your previous books; will it have more or less illustrations?
I don’t believe that my tone changes, so my answer to the first part of this question is ‘Yes’. To date, I’ve not yet made any illustrations for it or designed the cover, so I can’t answer the second part of this question yet.
Is there much more that you can write about on the human experience before you run out of ideas?
I’m far from short of ideas. If anything, there’s a problem writing them down fast enough before I forget. Because the genres of my books are ‘self-reflection’ and ‘observation’ it follows that my ideas will only run out when I do! But, who is this ‘I’?
If you had to sum up your books in a ‘Hollywood pitch’ for example, ‘Sci-fi Meets Supernatural’, how would you describe it?
‘Beds of Nails and Other Comfortable Places’.
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
I can’t answer that question - I may not be around.
Your books have no mantras to repeat, no exercises or meditations to perform and no means of tracking progress made; in fact, on the face of it there is nothing for the reader to do. How do your books work, how do they help people who read them to help themselves?
Oh but they do have a mantra to repeat - ‘Who am I?’ Ask it and keep asking it. There are three ‘do’s in this question and this ‘doing’ has got us into enough trouble already. There really is nothing to ‘do', as such. We make life so complicated when it should be simple. My books aim to help people to think differently and to let go of all that holds them back from being the best person they can be - from becoming a responsible and mindful person in society. I’m told that my books are both a mirror and a lens, and I believe that to be true. If my books teach anything at all then they teach us the truth about ourselves - steering us inwards - and this is all too often a difficult place to visit.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You have written five books - one for children - and have a sixth in the pipeline on the human condition. What drives you to write?
What makes a flower grow, a heart beat or the sun shine? I don’t know the answers to these questions or to what drives me to write. I only know that I’m driven and that the ‘drive’ grows stronger with each book.
Many people who read your books are looking for answers yet your books provide none; isn’t this rather a contradiction to being a self-help book?
No it isn’t. If I provide answers to questions people have then some of them will listen to me and I may be wrong - it has never been my intention to become a ‘guru’. Self-help means just that; we need to help ourselves and not rely on others to find solutions for us - which leaves us none the wiser; our strength can only be found within. We must look for our own answers and I can only show you how I’m looking for mine. Having said that, I actually have no answers - just fewer and fewer questions and this has made my heart less heavy to lug around.
What age group are your books aimed at, if any?
When I wrote ‘On The Other Hand’ I thought my audience would be in my own age group (over 50s). I was surprised to discover that younger people like them very much too, so my answer is from around 15 or so upwards.
Why did you start to illustrate your books after ‘On the other hand’ and how did the idea of ‘Dilly’ come about?
I never thought about illustrating ‘On the Other Hand’. Quite frankly, I didn’t even know I had the ability to draw so it never occurred to me - I wasn’t artistic in my youth. When I was writing ‘Just Around the Bend’ an idea popped into my head of a ‘thought bubble thinking’ and I decided to draw it - it was just a bit of fun. From then on Dilly - a thought form that thinks - became a character in his own right and he was good at demonstrating points that I made in the text. I use ‘he’ when I talk about Dilly but I really don’t think of him as either masculine or feminine - it’s just for the sake of convenience.
You do your own illustrations; how do you decide what aspect to illustrate? Your earlier books have fewer illustrations than ‘Stepping out of time’, which has 27; one short of the previous two books put together. Why is this?
Sometimes the Dilly illustrations pop into my head before I’ve even written the point I want him to demonstrate, and sometimes the ‘point’ comes first; I have no hard or fast rules about this and let the illustrations develop as and when they want to. For this reason I can’t really answer the second part of this question. I can tell you however, that the images for ‘Stepping Out of Time’ came to me so quickly that I began to wonder whether my next book would be in comic strip format - as it turned out it was to be a children’s picture book.
Why did you write a children’s book and do you have plans to write more of them?
Again, an idea just came to me and I shared it with a friend and we decided to write and illustrate this book together. Yes, I have plans - and ideas - for more. Our children need to learn to think independently (outside the proverbial box) as much as we do. They learn from us and will become the future leaders of our world, so it’s important that we teach them not to be afraid of it.
The latest book you are working on; is this in the same tone as your previous books; will it have more or less illustrations?
I don’t believe that my tone changes, so my answer to the first part of this question is ‘Yes’. To date, I’ve not yet made any illustrations for it or designed the cover, so I can’t answer the second part of this question yet.
Is there much more that you can write about on the human experience before you run out of ideas?
I’m far from short of ideas. If anything, there’s a problem writing them down fast enough before I forget. Because the genres of my books are ‘self-reflection’ and ‘observation’ it follows that my ideas will only run out when I do! But, who is this ‘I’?
If you had to sum up your books in a ‘Hollywood pitch’ for example, ‘Sci-fi Meets Supernatural’, how would you describe it?
‘Beds of Nails and Other Comfortable Places’.
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
I can’t answer that question - I may not be around.
Your books have no mantras to repeat, no exercises or meditations to perform and no means of tracking progress made; in fact, on the face of it there is nothing for the reader to do. How do your books work, how do they help people who read them to help themselves?
Oh but they do have a mantra to repeat - ‘Who am I?’ Ask it and keep asking it. There are three ‘do’s in this question and this ‘doing’ has got us into enough trouble already. There really is nothing to ‘do', as such. We make life so complicated when it should be simple. My books aim to help people to think differently and to let go of all that holds them back from being the best person they can be - from becoming a responsible and mindful person in society. I’m told that my books are both a mirror and a lens, and I believe that to be true. If my books teach anything at all then they teach us the truth about ourselves - steering us inwards - and this is all too often a difficult place to visit.
April 10, 2017
Update - 'The Frightened Little Flower Bud'
'The Frightened Little Flower Bud' is all packaged up and sent off to a few publishers now. If they don't like it I shall publish it myself, but I thought I'd give them a go first.
Co-written and illustrated with G R Hewitt, The Frightened Little Flower Bud. Is a lovely little 39 pager in full colour. Its messages are simple; don't believe everything you hear and don't allow fear to control your life. With these messages in mind the illustrations show the life cycle (thereby touching on the subjects of birth and death) of a Goat's-beard plant (Tragopogon - for the botanically minded) so there are some lovely nature lessons in it too. Suitable for all ages 4-99.
As always,
Renée
Co-written and illustrated with G R Hewitt, The Frightened Little Flower Bud. Is a lovely little 39 pager in full colour. Its messages are simple; don't believe everything you hear and don't allow fear to control your life. With these messages in mind the illustrations show the life cycle (thereby touching on the subjects of birth and death) of a Goat's-beard plant (Tragopogon - for the botanically minded) so there are some lovely nature lessons in it too. Suitable for all ages 4-99.
As always,
Renée
April 1, 2017
Children's Book - 'The Frightened Little Flower Bud'
To self-publish ... or not to self-publish - decisions ... decisions. I'm almost finished with this book. Co-written and illustrated with G R Hewitt, which has been fun. It's a lovely little 39 pager in full colour. Its messages are simple; don't believe everything you hear and don't allow fear to control your life. With these messages in mind the illustrations show the life cycle (thereby touching on the subjects of birth and death) of a Goat's-beard plant (Tragopogon - for the botanically minded) so there are some lovely nature lessons in it too. Suitable for ages 4-99.
As always,
Renée
As always,
Renée
February 21, 2017
New Release Update
Stepping Out of Time is currently being edited and made ready for publication. It's due be released on the 21st April 2017. So far there are 27 illustrations that enforce points I make, but mostly they're in the book for a bit of fun - I love making them.
There's a giveaway up for Stepping Out of Time
Link to Giveaway
I'm still looking for reviewers, so if you have a record for reviewing - or just rating - please contact me.
There's a pre-order ebook version available at various outlets including Smashwords and iTunes Sorry, but my ebooks are not illustrated.
Chapters:
Hello World
Know Thyself
Assimilation and Dissemination
Memory and Thought
Taking Stock - A Perspective:
Holding You Down (poem)
The Control Conundrum:
Plan B
A Little More Taking Stock:
A Touch of Feeling
Gratitude
Wrapping Up
If I Told You (poem)
Much love as always,
Renée
There's a giveaway up for Stepping Out of Time
Link to Giveaway
I'm still looking for reviewers, so if you have a record for reviewing - or just rating - please contact me.
There's a pre-order ebook version available at various outlets including Smashwords and iTunes Sorry, but my ebooks are not illustrated.
Chapters:
Hello World
Know Thyself
Assimilation and Dissemination
Memory and Thought
Taking Stock - A Perspective:
catching up with my thoughts.Relationships
Holding You Down (poem)
The Control Conundrum:
Is anyone in control?Endurance
Plan B
A Little More Taking Stock:
When writing this sort of book my mind can be full of stuff I want to let go of.Stepping Out of Time
A Touch of Feeling
Gratitude
Wrapping Up
If I Told You (poem)
Much love as always,
Renée
January 29, 2017
The Inconceivable Nature of Nature
A little Feynman science and wisdom - in 5 minutes. "The inconceivable nature of nature". For those who like to see how magical life really is. Watch video
January 25, 2017
UCLH Neo-Natal Babies Charity
I would like to post a link to this page as recently this hospital have been looking after my new grandaughter, Lucie. Lucie was born very early (27 weeks) because it was her mother's time to leave this world. The care at this hospital is exceptional and their neo-natal department is highly specialised. Lucie weighed in at just 998gms. I should like to help this hospital to support other babies like Lucie in any way that I can.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraisin...
With much love as always,
Renée
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraisin...
With much love as always,
Renée
January 21, 2017
Stepping Out of Time - Giveaway
I now have a giveaway up for my new book Stepping Out of Time which will be released on the 21st April 2017.
Link to Giveaway
I'm always looking for reviewers so if you have a record for reviewing please contact me.
I’ve also made a pre-order ebook version available at various outlets including Smashwords and iTunes ebooks are not illustrated.
This is the blurb, written by my editor:
Much love as always,
Renée
Link to Giveaway
I'm always looking for reviewers so if you have a record for reviewing please contact me.
I’ve also made a pre-order ebook version available at various outlets including Smashwords and iTunes ebooks are not illustrated.
This is the blurb, written by my editor:
Enquiring further into the subject of human conditioning - and beyond - Renée Paule takes us past another milestone on her continuing journey of self-reflection, wherein she looks at and discusses the society created and sustained by us. As with Renée’s previous books, her unique perspective gives no answers and is self-help in its purist form - sympathetically encouraging you to think for yourself. Have you ever wondered ‘What am I doing here?’ or ‘Who am I?’, if so this book may help you to realise that you’re not alone with these thoughts or in being frustrated by the maze of conflicting information we’re directed towards when we ask questions. Illustrated throughout with the author’s original character ‘Dilly’, topics including ‘The Control Conundrum’, ‘Endurance’ and ‘Know Thyself’ are considered in a non-conventional way that is both refreshing and thought-provoking. Stepping out of Time reaches into where we hide and invites us to tread, if somewhat reluctantly, where we fear to. Ultimately, you may discover that it isn’t answers you are looking for, but yourself.
Much love as always,
Renée
