Introduction
I was introduced to Tom’s work by Debbie Jenkins. When his book, ‘Blocks’, was published, I requested a copy of the book and wrote a review for it. I wanted to interview Tom and asked Debbie to put us in touch. I am so glad he agreed to this interview and I hope that you’ll enjoy reading his story as much as I did. Without further ado, I have great pleasure in introducing to you, Tom Evans …
Aneeta: Tom, thank you for agreeing to the interview.
Tom: and thank you Aneeta for such an erudite review of my new book – much appreciated.
Aneeta: Let’s start with a little information about you. Can you please share some of your history with us? For instance, where were you born, where did you grow up, what do you do for a living and where do you live now.
Tom: What a lovely way to start a conversation. I was born in Manchester in the North West of England. I was the third of seven children with appropriately Irish Catholic parents. I studied Electronics at Uni. After spending 30 years in the hi-tech worlds of broadcasting and the Internet, I ended up writing a book by accident. This led me to walk around London in a bra at night with 15,000 women at night to raise money for the Walk the Walk breast cancer charity. This in turn directly led me to being a full time author and author’s mentor. I now live in the lovely Surrey Hills, 30 miles South West of London with the best aid for any writer – two Labradors that need regular walking.
Aneeta: I have had a look at your website, http://www.thebookwright.com, and it gives a comprehensive detail about your work. One aspect of your biography, so aptly called ‘Tomography’, fascinates me: you are a student of both the esoteric and exoteric. Can you please explain what these words mean?
Tom: Sure, the exoteric is that which is known, explainable and suitable for widespread sharing. Science kind of falls into that category. The esoteric refers to things that are hidden and either not understood or misunderstood. One of my aims is to make the esoteric into the exoteric when the time and place is right, with the people are ready.
Aneeta: Now, please describe your books to me.
Tom: I’ll answer that in the chronological order that I wrote them.
100 Years of Ermintrude came first. I wrote it sort of by accident on a plane flight in one go. It grew from an ebook into an audio book, then a Vook (or video book) and finally a printed trilogy – and the walk in the bra. It’s written in 99 stanzas and tells of three interlocking life stories and it can be read in less than half an hour. The point of the book being that, if you let live go by and don’t take it by the horns, you will blink and miss it. It will be gone in a flash and you’ll have to come back and do it all over again. It was when I learned what channeling was and from there I have learned how to teach it to others. I found out recently that each stanza was presciently less than 140 characters so I Twittered the story and am planning to make it an iPhone app in 2010.
The Spirit of Collaboration was the last summarising chapter of a book of business wisdom I wrote with people on the social networking platform Ecademy. It took me less than a day to write and the whole book was conceived, written and published within three months by Ecademy Press. It’s a real testament to the power of the collective wisdom of crowds and how to collaborate on social media platforms.
Wordlube is both a technology demonstrator and a method of market testing before you write and publish a whole book. I took five steps from my writer’s workshop that help with writer’s block and compiled them into an interactive ebook on the amazing Myebook.com platform. It allows you to mix text, graphics, audio and video into a composite book. The feedback I got convinced me that there was a market for my novel approach and a bigger book on the subject.
The resulting book then took me less than two weeks to write. The publisher found me from a blog I wrote on karma rights management and we went from 1st draft to published book in less than six months. It is based on three years experience of my work with writers that are stuck. In all cases, writer’s block turned out to be a life block. Using my new found skills in hypnotherapy, past life regression and future life progression I found I could tackle virtually any block. From the then unblocked state, I then introduce the skills of Whole Brain and Whole Mind Thinking to help my clients tap into unlimited creativity. Blocks is a summation of these principles. It also comes with six guided visualisations that use brain entrainment to get the reader into ‘the zone’. The main point to learn from Blocks is to start to love your blocks for the experience and challenge they bring to help you grow and evolve.
Aneeta: Clearly, you are very much into the work of Tony Buzan and Mind Mapping. Why Mind Mapping? What fascinates you about his work? How, do you think, it would help a storyteller?
Tom: Let me paraphrase from Blocks about the power of a Mind Map which I think explains all.
“Where Mind Maps really come into their own is in the area of creativity and especially free-flow brainstorming where previously hidden associations appear like magic.
The left brain is your navigator through life and says to the right brain, “Aha, a map! I like maps, leave this to me, I’ll handle it.”
While the left brain is thus kept busy, the right brain seizes the opportunity to sneak under the left’s radar to unleash its full creativity.”
I also have recorded a visualisation that embeds the Mind Map in the brain’s visual cortex such that anything associated with the map becomes more noticeable. In short, the Mind Mapper becomes luckier.
Aneeta: Tom, as you know, this website caters for storytellers. What advice would you give those who would like to become storytellers?
Tom: First of all, I advise that you add value in your writing. That involves either coming up with something entirely new or adding a new angle to something existing. Secondly, always write with your reader in mind and play with perspective. Finally, it’s to make extensive use of metaphor and hypnotic language so you get your message into the heart of your reader and entrance them such they can’t put your book down. And, of course, so they can’t wait for the sequel.
Aneeta: Tom, this is all I have to ask. Is there anything you’d like to add?
Tom: All I would add is that I love the serendipitous way that we connected and I will treasure every new connection that comes as a result of it. I also wish that we meet in person in the not too distant future.
Aneeta: Let’s see … Tom, thank you.
Tom: And eternal thanks to you Aneeta.
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