All my life I’ve written poetry. I feel it is the only way, sometimes, to get ‘everything’ off my chest. At times I’ve written how I feel. Other times it’s about my experiences. I feel once the words are out of my mind and either on paper or typed on a keyboard, I can think a lot clearer and this in turn allows me to ‘get on with life’. I always swore I would one day be an author of my own book and my words would get out there… and now, I have… I just needed to live my life and keep on writing… Please enjoy what I’ve given here, they’re only a few of what I’ve written and I’m sure there’ll be many more before I die. From my heart to yours… I Thank You x My cover was Created and Designed, perfectly, for me by Katie W Stewart Artist/Writer, Freelance Illustrator/Designer at Magic Owl Design Thank you Katie you’ve certainly captured me in the perfect image of who I am…
This cover depicts a woman, once hiding from the world, emerging from the unsightly egg she was born inside of, enduring the period of being a caterpillar, encircling herself and her family inside the protective coating of the chrysalis and in the end, spreading her wings, and emerging as the beautiful butterfly, she is! The waves depict the years she’s been alive, like that of the rings you’ll find on the inside of a tree trunk after it’s been cut down. This woman is me! The horror I’ve seen and the malice I’ve been a candidate for… is all revealed within the pages of my books…
By me writing these books and putting it on the shelves, I’m hoping to not only change my own life and pave a better future for my family, my children and my beautiful partner but for it to help others who have a similar life to what mine used to be… You do not have to stay somewhere, where you aren’t being valued… You do not have to remain in a toxic relationship or situation… be that a marriage, partnership, Family or even a workplace… Bullying is not ok! Violence is not a solution to anything… Violence breeds violence… What you show your children will mark them for the rest of their lives and what you teach them will mold them into who they’re meant to be… we all make mistakes and we all should learn from them but if you make it once it’s an error and if you keep making it, it becomes a choice… so that’s me! In all my glory…
Please enjoy what I’ve written and I do not want anyone to pity me… I am who I am because of these events that took place.
Come with me on a journey to Finding My Soul… Thank You for being here x
Share In my journey to becoming a published author, it begins with a series of miraculous events.
Once I had almost completed my manuscript in its entirety, using a program on my iPad Pro, I received a mistaken identity email from a media services in Manhattan New York. The email was sent to me mistakenly by my now publicist. The initial email was meant for another writer and was meant to ask her if she was ready to republish her book… I replied stating he had in fact sent the email to me by mistake and that he had best send it to the intended recipient so that she would not miss out on his offer. In his second reply to apologise for the error, he asked me “Is there anything I can do for you?”. I didn’t even realise what had actually happened and I replied with no, not anything I can think of but thank you for considering me .. derrrrr, not realising I had in actual fact been approached by a publicist who, hello! Was into producing BOOKS! This set off a series of miraculous events to follow… Oliver, my now publicist, asked me, once I had revealed to him I was in fact writing my own book… 50 years of poetry, journaling and blogging. If I would please send him what he called a synopsis. I didn’t even know what that meant lol ? being new to all this author stuff… so I listened to what he told me and I set about writing my synopsis… little did I know that in actual fact, I had already written one… once he read this he said he was very interested, indeed, to help me put my book into print and that he would present what he had to the panel of content advisors in his firm, depending on their opinions, he said, he would love to help bring my book into existence.
I was beside myself, here’s me! Rebecca Jane Henley, who was led to believe I didn’t mean much to anyone in this world… having a publicist in NEW YORK!! I couldn’t contain my excitement and Oliver could feel it… after a little while, we were in the compilation stage… all the while Oliver was asking me to send him copies of my poems etc and then he asked me to please transfer files to him using a program, which would not work, couldn’t get any joy from trying to make this happen… but knew these were the challenges which came along with the fact I was on my way with my dream of being a published author… I accepted everything that came with this opportunity… soon it proved to be the hardest part of my journey to come. After about a dozen tries and many more other programs in which I attempted to transfer files to him, we decided to possibly use something we could transfer files into and share from … the universe decided on drop box… the reason why I say the universe decided is because when I opened my desk top computer, the very first thing to appear on my comp screen was, yep! You guessed it, the file which contained drop Box… I didn’t even know I had this let alone knew how to use it… but! The universe did!
The next thing we decided on was, once all the files were accessed, that my book would definitely serve as an inspiration to many others looking for peace and direction. We began to compile all the pages and Oliver was able to access them through my drop box :). Once we had completed the file transfers and Oliver had the majority of my works, he then presented it to the contents advisory panel. They loved it! They all agreed it would be a wonderful asset to their firm to have me onboard and so the real journey begun. It took months of transferring back and forwards and emails and phone calls to get it to where it is now… almost at the point of being ready to print. Not only did Oliver work tirelessly on this but he also took away the financial stress that came with it by approaching his heirarchy and getting them to agree to financially backing each book at the cost of $2000 ea USD. This being approx $8000 USD in total.
Oliver has said my books are a source of inspiration and as the manuscript is way too big for only 1 book and I had written it in the 4 stages of the butterfly, that it would be suitable to divide it into 4… each stage being a new book… therefore my 1 book I was hoping for has now turned into a book series of 4… this is so much more than I could ever have hoped for…
The fact that this all came from a mistaken identity email is miraculous in itself. The fact that my publicist has the names of Oliver Hurst is another story completely. One I’d like to share with you all here.
The name Oliver Hurst is actually quite ironic. The young man I met in Perth on a night shift, he is mentioned in my book, who told me to do something no one expected, has the same surname as my publicist. The same name as my publicist‘s first name is the street name of the little book shed I will, at some time in the near future, be utilising to launch my book in my little town I live in… how ironic! Oliver Hurst, you’re mistaken identity email was destined to reach me.
Now for the rest of my story as to the irony it reveals in publishing my book… many years ago I approached a publishing company and many more times, over the last few years, I have approached many different companies to handle my book. Each one I have paid a deposit to of $100 ea but none of them sat right… until I opened my fb one day and I saw this ad for Balboa Press. I filled in the required spaces and hit send. Little did I know that when the lovely lady rang me back in response to my enquiry, I was already on their data base, 12 YEARS AGO!! The same amount of time it took for me to actually start getting serious about my book. Ironically, this company is a division of Hay House Publishing, the same Hay House founded by Louise Hay … this beautiful soul gave me the very first step into my spiritual journey with her book ‘You can heal your life’…
I truly believe my whole entire life can be described as nothing short of miraculous. My books will take the world by storm and be an integral part of many souls lives. They will give a lot of insight into the world of Domestic Violence, Sexual abuse, Child abuse, Suicide, School yard bullying, Adversities, challenges and many more topics that we all have to endure to become the butterflies we are destined to be.
This story of my desiny is to be continued…
Book 1
Book 4