Angela Lauria’s latest episode of Book Journeys featured author Lisa Culhane who wrote the book, Discover the New G Spot (or How to Unfriend Your Guilt). Lisa’s book came out of her own experience of feeling “mama guilt” when she had her child and was then a working mom. She felt guilty when she was at the office so she decided to quit and be a stay-at-home mom, only to feel guilty again, thinking that she should be out there working. She wrote the book for people who experience guilt in their own lives and find it difficult to move forward. She counsels readers to consider guilt as a messenger and to take time to listen to the message because once they do, the guilt turns into gratitude, which is a much better feeling.
Lisa’s book journey started out as a dream to have more gratitude in her life. She then began blogging about the things she was learning on gratitude with the goal of helping others feel more grateful in their lives as well. When she met Angela, that goal became a quest which was to write a book about it so she could help even more people and coalesce all that she has learned into one place. Lisa said that she dreamed of becoming an author but it took Angela and her process to turn the dream into a quest, making it into something very specific. The program gave her the direction she needed, providing the scaffolding to the process of writing so that what seemed overwhelming before, simply disappeared because somebody else knew the answer or could help her find the answer. She said she appreciated the fact that she had something due to somebody else once a week. “That was the scaffolding that I needed,” says Lisa. “I needed somebody else saying, ‘Ok, this is what you do now. Go do it.’”
Lisa admits to having experienced writer’s block or getting stuck somewhere along the way of her book journey. She said that sometimes, when she would look at what the whole chapter was going to be like, she would feel overwhelmed and couldn’t write. But she would push herself to write one more sentence, then the next sentence, until she had something substantial. And sometimes she would feel that her output was terrible, but she would send it in anyway. She likens the experience to running and getting a cramp, and what a runner does is to stop and walk and take it slow, not looking two steps, but just one step beyond.
One of the favorite things for Lisa that has come out for her as an author was the confidence — feeling like she really knew her subject area inside and out. “It’s fun to feel like you have an area of expertise,” Lisa quips. And her advice for people who want to write a book is to get a support system on speed dial, like Angela’s program. While one could decide to do it on their own, she says it’s much easier and faster and becomes a joy to do it when you get the help that you need to move you forward.
Listen to the Lisa Culhane interview on BlogTalkRadio
DOWNLOAD Book-Journeys-Author-Interview-Lisa-Culhane-Sept-1-2015
Watch out for Angela’s interview with another exciting author.
