Today we talk about Poetry for the soul, a book by Charmaine Austen-Dreyer published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author, Charmaine Austen-Dreyer, to get to know her better, where she found the inspiration to write this book of poems, as well as what is the message she wants to convey to her readers with her book Poetry for the soul.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- Where did you find the inspiration to write this book?
Writing this book of poems came as naturally as breathing. Since I was a child, I loved the word. Writing and reading has not only been a hobby, but a calling, a gift. I have always had the yearning to reach out to people with words. I prefer to write than to speak. Words come easier on paper than spoken. The definition of poetry is that it evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. I love to write in rhythm and prose. The meaning always, with a mystery, tinged with emotion, after it is read. Not one person is the same, yet, somehow, poems reach out to every person in its own way. Poems reflect what a person reads in a poem. It touches a person in what he/she reads at any given time.
- What is the message you want to send out with your writing?
With this writing I want to speak to people’s heart and in doing so, to their mind. From my book:
‘What you think, you become
What you feel, you attract
What you imagine, you create
(Buddha)
“Poetry for the Soul” is a stream of consciousness about everything that concerns the human soul and even more about the life itself that flows in it’. It speaks of emotion, belonging and prose. If you can’t say it, the poem word brings it across with beauty and clarity of thought. For people that keep their inner life private and want to reach out to others, a written word, such as poems, gives them the ability to say more than with a spoken word. This is what I want to give to people: more said through beautiful words than what is necessary through spoken words. When you have no way to relate, do it with a poem.
- How did your passion for writing start?
Every person has been given a gift or two or more. My passion is the word. Poetry allows me to say it with beauty, emotion and clarity. I have always had this yearning to write, since a young age. I replaced it by reading. I am an avid reader and have to control the hours I spent on doing so. So, in a way, this helped to accept my circumstances, the good and/or the bad. Therefore, because of life happening, you somehow never get around to sit down and put words to paper. To write with a purpose. My passion came to the fore in times when I was in between jobs and after the kids left home. Finally, my life took a turn, with the freedom to be able to bring my passion to the fore and now I write. A lifelong dream –passion – now realised. My first book published!
- How was your publishing experience?
Europe Books is making it possible to only concentrate on my writing. Their expertise in the publishing world paves the way for a writer to get exposure at all levels, be it in editing,up until the end of the book, marketing and then being published. They have a large platform to give book exposure to book readers. I trust and hope Europe Books will publish the next book(s) I am writing. A writer cannot do it without the exposure and expertise that Europe Books bring to the book world.
- Are you planning to write more poetry books or are you working on a new writing genre?
When my book is accepted by the public and we have positive results, I will write another poetry book(s). I trust this will be sooner than later. Currently I am writing a novel, called Beyond Believe. I am hoping, aiming to complete the first draft by April 2022.
Europe Books thanks the author Charmaine Austen-Dreyer 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 Poetry for the soul. We wish her the best of luck for her future works.
To you, my dear reader, I wish you to cultivate the dialogue with your soul every day, to listen to it, to understand it, to accept it and to get excited with it when it wants to convey truths unknown or, if known, not yet properly available to your self-consciousness.
So, my dear reader, I just have to wish you to enjoy this illuminating and loving reading!!!
Your editor!