Today we talk about HEALING WORDS, a book by Dawn Beasley published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author, Dawn Beasley, to get to know her better, the moment she found the inspiration to write her autobiographical book of poetry HEALING WORDS, as well as if how her suffering experience affected her writing.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- Where and when did you find the inspiration to write your autobiographical book of poetry?
Wherever I might be I can scribble a few lines if I am inspired to do so. Often of a morning I tend to journal after I have spent time in prayer, in reading and taking time to listen and meditate. When I am out and about I might overhear a conversation with someone in a state, expressing events in their lives that I can relate to and I feel the need to write about it. I started writing back as far as 1998. My husband and I had traversed a journey of childlessness, miscarriage, adoptions, bereavement and much more. It wasn’t an easy number of years to say the least including endless medical conditions, a near death experience and major surgery too. I needed to let out my grief and began to do so in words for myself and for others. Over time I realised that I was able to express these emotions in a poetic form. In reciting some of these reflections I would be told ‘You need to write a book!’
- What is the message you want to convey to your readers?
I really want to convey hope to people, for them to know they are not alone and that God really cares for them in whatever state they might find themselves. I came to believe at the age of 16 that it is possible to know God personally and to have a real relationship with Him. That was a revelation to me. It is not a futile journey to follow God and find out His purposes for your life. Sometimes the trauma people experience is too much for them to bear and they may think there is no possible way forward. I believe differently. The personal tragedies and also trauma that I have experienced over the years have only brought me nearer to God. By sharing in these things of life confidentially with people, even strangers, I have found they often come to realise that there is hope, even healing for their grief and a way forward for them.
- How did your suffering experiences affect your writing?
There was a time when I completely lost the use of my right arm. I had to be in a fixed sling for months. I was about to take an A Level that I had been studying for in an evening class I attended in my 20’s tutored by a minister at a local church. What was I to do? Well, in this instance I had to dictate my answers to a friend who wrote on my behalf for the examination. That was one of my physical disabilities! When I went through the trauma of cancer, the numerous scans and investigations, 200 hours of intense chemotherapy prior to the huge operation and having to be without any people contact for endless months, I found it very difficult to write. Trauma and heartache have affected my writing the most. However, they have actually released in me an ability I did not know that I had. Yes, for many years I was involved in caring for people through social work, prison visiting and counselling but the recording in words myself of the pain and the hurt I felt in people’s lives resounded with my own experiences of suffering and has been for me a release of creativity.
- What sensations did you feel by ‘reading’ your life on the pages of your book?
I felt a real sense of achievement and release of joy reading through the pages of my book HEALING WORDS. To have finally completed writing a book at my age seemed beyond belief! I am 70 by the way! I had been encouraged so many times to do so and I am really pleased that I finally made contact with a publishing company (which happened to be Europe Books) to see what they thought of the content and style of my writing. To actually be able to convey in words a journey of sadness and trauma so that others may have the opportunity to link into such grief or release of anger for themselves and yet be steered towards hope and faith in God was and still is my aim. We are not alone because God is with us and I hope my readers will discover that truth for themselves.
- Are you working on a new writing project you can tell us about?
I really haven’t thought about a new project but I am continuing to write so… let’s see what will emerge!!
Europe Books thanks the author, Dawn Beasley, once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside her on the editorial path that led to the publication of her book HEALING WORDS. We wish her the best of luck for her future works.
To you, my readers, may this book give you hope in your life journey, let you feel you are never alone and that God has a purpose for all of us that is important to discover and act, despite of life’s tragedies or traumas. There is always hope and a way out!
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your editor!