Friday, February 11, 2011

URGE, SUBMERGE, VERGE, EMERGE: THE BIRTH OF MY BOOK

I’m back!!! I know it’s been nine months since last I wrote and I apologize for this. The final stage of manifesting my book into this reality has taken all my creative focus.

And yes, success!!! I am proud to announce that The Nigel Sessions . . . Unleashing Sacred Desire will be ready in just a few days for your biblio consumption. What a fascinating, fabulous journey this has been! I am presently on the threshold of the next phase of this authorship process-- promoting and marketing. In other words, now that the baby is born, I’ve got to raise it.

But first, here’s a mini-synopsis of the process thus far. Many years ago-- at least fifteen I believe-- I began saying that I wanted to write a book. People would always tell me that I had really good stories, so I figured that one day I’d sit down and write about my unique perspective on life. The imaginary book had a working title of Sophia Agapedis on Sex, Yoga, Belly Dancing and Autism. In format, it would be loosely based on Mae West’s memoir that I have always loved and read way back in the 1970’s, Mae West on Sex, Health and ESP.

The inspiration to write, however, never happened until my sexual relationship with Nigel began in 2004-- yes, for sure, he was my muse. That first year of our affair, I was on an adrenaline roller coaster ride of such dramatic proportions that I knew that I had better start some intense journaling to chronicle it lest I forget the details. This was the URGE to write, that first diligent, constant effort to get pen to paper. I think I must have filled at least ten thick journals in the five year span of our affair, which ended last spring (sad, but true! I’ll talk about that in another post) right after that phenomenal Session #20 (a few posts ago, read it, hot!). Even though my sex with Nigel was my inspiration to write, my book actually does include a lot of my ideas on yoga, belly dancing, autism, and some phenomenal sex scenes with my husband Will and others as well.

I began the actual Nigel Sessions book a year into the affair and that was the beginning of the SUBMERGE part. The process of write, rewrite, write, rewrite has been one of self-actualization to say the least; memoir as a Buddhist practice! I’ve learned so much about myself with every revision. Actually, I've gotten nicer and nicer as I stripped away my angst and uncovered the core truth of what I wanted to say. What an adventure! I have felt on the VERGE of completion now for quite awhile, with me thinking that each of these last revisions was the final one. Yeah, it feels like it's been a long, long awaited cum and I’m about to shoot for the moon!

The last three weeks have been especially challenging because the book was actually published online for several days and some friends have already bought it. But when I got my galleys (two prototype books, soft and hard cover) for final approval before the big printing, I found some small changes that needed to happen (spelling, grammar, couple of needed sentences here and there). So I am awaiting those final corrections to be done and it should be available online next week sometime. It’s kind of like having a newborn in the neonatal unit; I want to take that baby home!!!

Still, I couldn’t wait to let you all know that The Nigel Sessions . . . Unleashing Sacred Desire is about to EMERGE! In a few days I’ll also have a 7-page excerpt up for you to read-- but you know you want to buy it! Right!!!

Here’s the URL so you can at least check out the web site.

http://www2.xlibris.com/books/webimages/wd/75656/

I have to say I am very proud of this baby. It’s been five years in the making and I’ve never put so much energy into one art project. So please, buy it, read it, and if you like it, TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO BUY IT! (only the open-minded ones, of course.)

Now that the book is done, I’ll be writing in this blog more and will keep you posted about future book readings and signings.

Namaste,
Sophia

2 comments:

  1. I can see the head crowning! One last push! It's out!!! Yea! It's a BOOK!

    ReplyDelete
  2. yes, it came out and went back in! The labor, the labor!

    ReplyDelete