00:00I felt like it was divinely inspired as soon as I started to have a near-death
00:08experience and I learned many, many, many things during my recovery. So it's all
00:13about compassion and the people that helped me to recover from a heart
00:17surgery. It's basically the story of my life, all of the different things that
00:21were going on, questions that I had about how life should be lived, how you can
00:25heal, what is your purpose, what happens after we die, you know, questions, really
00:29big questions that we all have. The biggest challenge was that I worked for
00:34so long on this book. It got published, it got a very good critical reception and
00:39it got some really great endorsements and I've gotten really positive feedback
00:43from readers. So it made me think that it was a worthwhile book and it was
00:48helping people and it was what I thought that it was. But at the same time
00:52commercially it's not really become mainstream in the marketplace and I'm
00:56not yet making a living as a writer but you're in that space where you're like
01:00this could work, I can see this happening, this is growing. So I would
01:06say that really for me the biggest challenge was not before the book
01:11got published but it's the period of between it when it was published three
01:17years ago and now when you don't really see what you believe yet. More than
01:22anything I think that the deepest impact is when I get a note or a letter from a
01:27reader and I just know that it's heartfelt. They're not contacting me for
01:32a favor and they just said, hey I read your book and this is what it did for me.
01:36I connected to it too. It's something that makes me feel like it was all worth
01:40it and that it's very, very, very purposeful. So I think that's the most
01:45incredible reward actually from the book being out there and the impact it's had
01:50on me. My advice for aspiring writers is to read, be original, take your time, be
01:57patient, keep going, be consistent and then look at what other people
02:03are doing and start to see it as a craftsmanship.
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