Author interview with Mimi Emmanuel of ‘Mimi’s Eulogy to-be & Legacy’

Author Interview With Mimi Emmanuel

Read what happens “When you get a kick up the bum from your Guardian Angel…”

 

One of my favourite things about promoting books is following the growth of the authors who write them, and today I’ve been lucky enough to be joined by one of our returning authors Mimi Emmanuel. Mimi, it’s wonderful to see you back at ItsWriteNow.com, this time for your fifth interview to chat about ‘Mimi’s Eulogy to-be & Legacy’. Alike your other works this book is a very personal work about what you have learned through life, but this time turned towards eulogies and legacy. Eulogies aren’t generally your typical book topic, so can you kick off today’s journey by taking us through what drove you to write about them?
My Guardian Angel told me to go and ‘help some folk.’ Nice one that… when you’re on your back in a dark room and can only stand up for minutes at a time. I had no connection to the outside world either, other than the occasional doctor (home) visit, who insisted on keeping me, ‘comfortable.’ I quietly raged about this. Wouldn’t have been surprised if smoke plumes were emanating from the top of my head. ‘Help some folk.’ Righto. Eventually, I decided to write about my experiences. We’re now six books later.

 

Okay, so this book came as a more natural progression from your previous works rather than something that you setout to tackle in its own right. In all of your books, you have a wonderful sense of character and voice. How has this voice and character come to you?
Real-life-characters. Easy peasy.

 

Something that often is less easy peasy is that central idea that you want readers to take from a book. What do you hope readers take from this book?
Live your best life NOW. Don’t wait another second. Your story creates a legacy; Make it the best it can be!

 

I’m sure you’re making your life the best it can be!  In writing’Mimi’s Eulogy to-be & Legacy’ and living your life it’s best, what rewards have you found?
The book started off as a relatively stressful project and turned into a fun project. All of a sudden I’m looking forward to having 11 (ELEVEN), grand kids. Haha! This happened after my daughter told me that she did not think that she featured enough in my eulogy to-be. So I fixed that for her.

 

Eleven! Grandma has her work cut out for her! That’s fantastic and I’m sure you are having a blast with each and every one of those kids. What have you learnt by taking the time to think about your eulogy and legacy?
Listen to your inner voice and FOLLOW UP on it!

 

*Laughs* I know that you listen and follow that inner voice of yours, so I’d love to know what it told you to write next.
Letters to My GodSon.

 

I’ll be looking forward to seeing that one come out soon! Six books later, and a seventh on the way. Almost one for every grandchild! Apart from levelling the grandchild/ book count, what keeps you coming back to write?
I started writing before I went to pre-school. It’s just one of those things. It is also a nice way to get a message across, to get things off my chest, build a relationship with the next generation before they are even born, leave a legacy and to communicate with people that otherwise you would never.

 

When you are in the midst of writing, are you visualising these people that you want to communicate with?
Yes, my audience. I tend to talk to certain people when I write. Like my first book was written to anyone who had health problems specifically related to dietary issues. My second book was written for my book launch team. My third book was in gratitude and to give hope to those whose situation seems hopeless. My fourth book was written once more for my launch team and other Indie Authors, Self Publishers and Entrepreneurs. My fifth book was pretty much my inner voice urging me to get on with it…

 

Each of these books has taken a different direction to cater for the audience at hand. At the beginning of each book when you are just setting out on the communication journey, do you know where the book will take you?
Its direction pretty much unfolds during the writing, research and/or creative process. I only have a broad outline in mind and take it from there.

 

What does a day in the writing chair look like once the outline is done?
I just write and write and write and then sleep and do it all over again.

 

*Laughs* That certainly is effective! Are you also an effective editor, or do you like to get a little outside help?
I edit much myself and after this, I get help from beta readers, family, friends and eventually a professional editor.

 

With five published books and a wealth of knowledge about in the ins and outs of writing, editing and publishing now under your belt, do you feel that your author voice has improved or progressed?
Don’t know if I’m the right person to ask about that. My audience would possibly say something such as, that I have a recognisable voice and am thorough with my research and quite organised with some books and not so much with others. My latest book was a little tongue in cheek so I’m probably loosening up a little.

 

So, it sounds like the central voice is still the same, you’re just showing a little more of your fun side now! Now, the next two questions are on branding and self-publishing which I know that you’ve tackled in books two and four so I’m certain that you’ll give fantastic advice to our readers and other authors who are looking at self-publishing with trepidation. Let’s look to reduce that trepidation with: Have you consciously thought about creating your own author brand as a part of your self-publishing strategy?
What you see is what you get with me. I write on various subjects as they come to me and cannot really imagine having to define myself or confine myself to only writing about certain subjects. That would not work for me. As it stands I write about Book Publishing and Launching, Health and Healing, Faith and Memoir style. The other day I asked a knowledgeable person about ‘branding’ and the answer that came back to me was ‘Mimi you are the brand!’ I don’t know if this will work for my audience but that’ll work for me.

 

It may not work for them, but it does show a concrete example of an author who became their own brand and is owning it, which I think is so powerful and should be shared. Other than becoming your own brand, do you have any top tips for authors looking to self-publish?
There is so much information available on the web nowadays about self-publishing is that honestly, the best advice I have is to google for information. Whoever comes to the top of the search engine at least has a clue about implementing SEO and is probably a good bet if you like their style. Some of my favourites are Chandler Bolt, John Kremer, Paul Brodie, Michael Hyatt, Dave Chesson, Mark Dawson and of course download The Holy Grail of Book Launching and Mimi’s Book Launch Plan. That goes without saying.

 

I’m glad to see that you plugged your own books there, I wouldn’t want to take away your thunder introducing them. If you had to boil it down to one sentence, what is your best tip for authors?
Write, relax, enjoy, have Fun.

 

Writing should be all about the fun! And so should interviews. So let’s be creative and have some fun with the quick fire question round. The first question to be shot out today is: why is lemon juice made with artificial flavour and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
It is a test to see you could spot a lemon when you smell one.

 

*Laughs* It sounds almost like a standardised test for grocery shoppers! Keeping ourselves in the supermarket if you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?
Only if I ate it together. Not if I ate it in the right order.

 

If you’re in a vehicle going the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights?
There will be a break through for sure.

 

Why isn’t there mouse-flavoured cat food?
There is … my cat has it every night.

 

There is? Well, that just shows that I’m behind on the cat food world. Now last time I asked you this question you had an awesome answer about a creature called MINE. Given that you’ve already created MINE if you invented a monster what would it look like and what would you call it?
Soft furry muzzy wassy lovely. It would look exactly like its name.

 

Awww, that sounds so cute. Just a little furry lovely. Oh, how lovely. Moving on to something less lovely, what happens if Batman gets bitten by a vampire?
He’ll get fired up.

 

Are you left or right handed?
Both whatever I need, whenever I need it.

 

That’s very handy! *Laughs* What an awful pun! Moving on, what happens when you get scared half to death twice?
You look like a wooz.

 

That’s unfortunate. If nothing ever sticks to TEFLON, how do they make TEFLON stick to the pan?
It has to do with upside down gravity and way beyond the ordinary human’s comprehension.

 

Upside down gravity, no wonder I couldn’t comprehend! What is your favourite word?
It’s awesome!

 

*Laughs* That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest! Before we round out this awesome-ness, is there anything that didn’t come up?
I want to say thank you for providing such an excellent service. I always enjoy coming here to this site, it is like visiting an old friend and having a bit of a yarn.

 

Awwww, I love having a yarn with you too! Now we need to end our fifth interview with an awesome bang, so what’s your most awesome line from ‘Mimi’s Eulogy to-be & Legacy’, that will get readers onboard?
When the author got a kick up the bum form her Guardian Angel

 

*Laughs* Let’s hope we can all get that kick up the bum from our own guardian angels and start living the awesome too!

 

Excited to read the book we discussed today? Find it here on Amazon: ‘Mimi’s Eulogy to-be & Legacy ( ASIN: B07582R13S )‘.

Want to find out more about Mimi Emmanuel? Connect here!

Author interview with Mimi Emmanuel of ‘God Healed Me’

Author Interview With Mimi Emmanuel

Whilst experiencing major life challenges Mimi discovers the power of God’s Holy Word and falls head over heels. She describes how God’s Word helps her cast out bad spirits that are trying to keep her down. She relates how these 24 Scripture verses, as well as an abundance of other verses, lift her spirit, turn her life around and get her back on her feet.

 

 

Mimi you’re back again! I do love catching up with authors multiple times but seriously maybe we should space them out more in the future! This time we’re going to have a little chinwag about ‘God Healed Me’, your discovery of the power of God’s word through scripture. Can you elaborate a little more of this discovery for us?

You know how sometimes you k n o w something but it has actually not as yet manifested 100% in your life the way you imagine it? Well it was like that. A knowing that had to be put into words.

 

 

Where in your life were you at this point in time when you were working through documenting this ‘knowing’ that you describe?

I was very broken and (it felt like) being thrown on the scrap heap. When I called out to The Lord for help the answer was pretty much immediate and there’s nothing I like better than sharing the phenomenal love and healing power that comes from above.

 

 

Was writing this book simply a matter of writing down your experiences of love and power that you felt? Or did you need to add context or work through these feelings and emotions by investigating their depths through research?

I researched a little bit about the power of prayer and was pleasantly surprised to find that the medical industry acknowledges and even applies the power of prayer in certain hospitals and situations. Random trials have shown the power of prayer to be very effective.

 

 

It really is interesting to see what the effects of things like prayer, faith and personal attitude towards treatment really have on the body in additional to western medicine. I do find this a fascinating subject as things like this are repeatedly showing up in journals as positive treatment factors. I love thinking about how these finding could be used to improve medical outcomes. Speaking of outcomes, what was the positive outcome for you after writing this book?

The responses from readers warm my heart and made all the effort worthwhile.

 

 

I’m very happy that your efforts were rewarded. And for our readers what rewards do you hope they find from your efforts?

Trust in The Lord for he is good. And with God all things are possible.

 

 

Mimi thank your for sharing your journey of faith and trust and I hope that your words can inspire our readers to go and discover their own faith walks.

 

 

Want to find out more about Mimi? Connect here!

Author interview with Mimi Emmanuel of ‘My Story of Survival’

Author Interview With Mimi Emmanuel

 

Ten ingredients only for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mimi lived on ten ingredients in total for a period of five years; for breakfast, lunch and dinner, every single day. Her diet contains no gluten, eggs, sugar, fructose, grains, flours, nuts, seeds, meat, beans, soy, and no legumes. Initially, her diet contained no dairy either.

 

 

Mimi Emmanuel is back to chat with me today about her first published work, ‘My Story of Survival’, which documents her journey through the challenges of eating, surviving and thriving on a limited diet and contains the ultimate low-reactive diet for allergies, gut problems, food intolerances and chemical sensitivities. Mimi, thanks for joining me today. I’m a little bit blown away by what this book is about and I really don’t think I can do it justice so can you tell the audience in your own words, about your story of survival.

The entire book is based on a true-life experience that I lived through. I lived on ten ingredients only, for a period of 5 years. I did this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. After I ruptured my appendix and had septicemia the doctors refused to operate, deeming the adverse risk to be too high. After this medical emergency, where I did not tolerate the antibiotics very well, it was a case of trial an error with large servings of oodles of faith mixed in, to come to solutions.

 

 

This really is a very personal story about your health. What made you feel compelled to share these challenges with the world?

I thought, ‘If one person would benefit from hearing my story, it is worth telling it.’

 

 

Did you find at least one person who benefitted?

As it turned out, many people told me that they benefited from reading my book. That made it all worthwhile.

 

 

That’s wonderful that you found many people who gained and found worth from your experiences. As this is a largely personal experience did you find yourself delving into a little investigative work to make sure that you were communicating the scientific and medical facts corrected?

Yes, I did a little bit of research but not an enormous amount. I wanted to back up a few facts with scientific research. Such as for instance the fact that our gut gets hugely affected by emotional upheavals and what can be done about it.

 

 

What do you feel is the most important takeaway that you really hope that a reader can take away from your personal upheavals?

Don’t give up hope. The fact that the medical industry may not have all the answers or solutions to your situation does not mean that there are no answers. Keep looking, keep trialing, keep testing. Do not give up!

 

 

Never give up is always great advice. And use the oodles of faith of course!

I love the oodles of faith because in the end this is what got me through.

 

 

And I’m very glad that you did get through. Mimi, I appreciate the time that you took out of your day to chat with me about your story of survival and I hope that readers can connect with your survival and find their own oodles of faith.

 

 

Want to find out more about Mimi? Connect here!

Author interview with Mimi Emmanuel of ‘Mimi’s Book Launch Plan’

Author Interview With Mimi Emmanuel

Mimi’s Book Launch Plan was written for Mimi’s Launch Team and provides a diary of what she did when launching her first book; My Story of Survival.  Mimi is convinced that her book did so well thanks to the support she received from all her writing class mates and buddies and the self-publishing school she is studying with and she promised to share all her insights and links and tips with them.  You can now benefit from the insights she gained and if you plan to publish your own book Indie style you’ll be hard pressed to find a guide more comprehensive than hers.

 

Mimi Emmanuel is back with me today discussing her very first experiences in the self-publishing world which lead to the creation of ‘Mimi’s Book Launch Plan’. This book gives the reader a daily log of Mimi’s experiences and additionally provides an actionable thirty-one day plan to a successful launch. Mimi, thanks for sitting down with me again to chat about your this book. Firstly, I’m intrigued about why you felt the need to share your very personal experiences launching your first self-published book. Many other authors would not be so brave as to fully document and distribute their experiences, why did you feel like this story was important to share?

I promised my launch team to share all my notes with them and Mimi’s Book Launch Plan contains all the notes I made and resources I collected whilst launching My Story of Survival.

 

 

What kind of notes were you recording during this period?

Every single day I was browsing the web for resources and I signed up to a variety of courses to learn all there is to learn about publishing and launching a book.

 

 

Parsing through all of that information alone sounds like a mammoth task. Did annotate or add your personal opinions to this research to guide yourself through your notes if you had to use them again? For example did you note down your experiences with particular promotional ideas to make sure you emphasized what worked?

Good question. Yes, I did, 100%. I shared with my launch team my experiences when launching my first book.

 

 

What do you hope that your readers take away from this wonderful melding of personal stories and research into this single volume?

Have FUN whilst you launch your book. If you’re not having fun, find something else to do.

 

 

I love that advice :). Because you’re right, if you’re not having fun you’re doing the wrong thing! For you personally, what did you find the most satisfying aspect of communicating your ideas of fun and success in the self-publishing world?

The positive feedback I received was overwhelming. So much so that, to answer all the questions, I followed this book up with a sequel; The Holy Grail of Book Launching.

 

 

The Holy Grail of Book Launching has recently been promoted and I have to say is another jam-packed tome on how to win while self-publishing. Finally, I’d just like to know if you could sum up your book in a single line or quote what would it be?

My favourite quote is in the title which promises, ‘How-to launch your e-book easy-peasy.’ And the continuing feedback shows me that this is a true statement.

 

 

Mimi, thank you for spending a little time with me today to share your easy-peasy publishing resource and I hope that you are able to improve the success of many other self-published authors.

 

Want to find out more about Mimi? Connect here!

Author interview with Mimi Emmanuel of ‘The Holy Grail of Book Launching’

The Holy Grail of Book Launching will show you how to skyrocket your success and find your Holy Grail as an author. My Fun and Easy Marketing Plan and step-by-step Guide make sure that you will have fun and enjoy your book launch. No more overwhelm!

 

 

Mimi Emmanuel has kindly joined me today chat about her book ‘The Holy Grail of Book Launching’ to give all of the indie authors in the audience some of her top tips for increasing the success and reducing stress when releasing a self-published book. Mimi, this book is jam packed with an incredible amount of helpful hints, tips and ideas for new and established authors. Where did the idea to collate all of this information into a single resource come from?

The book is in response to questions I received from readers and fellow authors.

 

 

Had you been doing much of your own writing and self-publishing at the time when this idea first started?

I’ve been writing for a couple of decades. It was not till I felt the need to share My Story of Survival that I became serious about publishing. I followed Michael Hyatt, Penny Sansevieri, Tim Grahl, John Kremer, Paul Brodie, Dave Chesson and signed up for a course with the Self-Publishing School of Chandler Bolt. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

 

Can you tell us a little about your self-publishing and writing history both in and outside of this book?

Everything is based on first hand experience which makes my tutorials more real. For instance in The Holy Grail of Book Launching I go into detail about all the things that went wrong with my first couple of launches (which still became bestsellers). It helps aspiring authors to avoid the pitfalls.

 

 

Other than avoiding the pitfalls or better yet let’s include them too, what do you feel was the main takeaway that you hope others find from reading this book?

Launch time can be very stressful because there are so many elements that need to be juggled all at the same time. I aim to prevent overwhelm and make it fun to launch with cheat sheets, plans and stacks of links to resources and promo sites. This makes it easy for authors to plan their launch without stress and some readers already have reported back on a more enjoyable launch after going through some the steps as outlined in my book.

 

 

Giving such solid advice to others must be gratifying.

It is enormously satisfying that people read my material and benefit from it. I can hardly think of greater joy than helping people with the titbits of knowledge that I have accumulated over the years.

 

 

I’m sure with your accumulated knowledge you’ve already started working on your next writing endeavour. Can you tell us a little about it?

There are a few projects that I’m working on. One is ‘Living Forever’ and that should come up soon.

 

 

Good luck with your progress on these projects. As you have multiple projects on the go, it is clear that you are an eager writer. Why do you write?

I love writing. I love being able to contribute in this way and help people make their life a little more enjoyable and a little easier.

 

 

As you write for a clear end goal to make someone else’s life easier do you always know the direction your book will take?

I have an idea as to what I’m writing about and who I am writing to and then it all unfolds from there. No plan other than a big rough outline.

 

 

Does the use of that big rough outline help you get past writers block?

Have not experienced that, Praise The Lord.

 

 

You are very lucky indeed. As you haven’t been burdened by writers block yet, do you have any practices that you engage in that helps you write?

I write till my arms and shoulders ache. Then I rest and do it all over again.

 

 

That works too. When you write do you listen to any mood music to keep your head in the game?

The sound of silence. I work with earplugs in and head mufflers on.

 

 

With that much sound protection you must feel like you’re working in a little cocoon. Do you also edit in your cocoon, or do you have a third party edit your work for you?

I edit and edit and edit and then give it to the editor.

 

 

It sounds like your editing process is down pat. Now, your book is all about writing and self-publishing. What are your top tips for other authors in the self-publishing arena?

Read Mimi’s Book Launch Plan and The Holy Grail of Book Launching. It has all my tips, trick and secrets and some of my friends’ also.

 

 

*Laughs* I love the shameless self-promotion, but I do have to agree that reading your book is a very good tip for indie authors. Do you have an overall top tip for authors at any stage in their writing process?

Read my books. No seriously. I held nothing back. Stick with it. Give it the best you have and then let it go. Perfect only exists in your mind. One step at a time will get you there. Have a plan, stick with it.

 

Today we’ve stuck with the first part of my interview plan rather well, and since our time hasn’t run out yet, I’d like to ask you a few of the random questions that allows me to attempt to dissect my authors guests without the use of a scalpel. Let’s start with a nice simple one, are you a valuable asset on a quiz team?

Yes

 

 

Awesome, another contender for my pub quiz team! What is your favourite ocean?

I love them all. I love the hue and I love the feel and I love the smell and I ADORE the sound, the spray, the energy. What is there not to love about the ocean? A complete love affair with all of them.

 

 

I haven’t personally visited all of the oceans yet, but I wonder if they all feel different. With your keen descriptions of them I kind of want to go and compare each and every one of them now. In lieu of that I’m going to ask you another question. How about: if you invented a monster what would it look like and what would you call it?

It would be softer than cottonwool and louder than a mere whisper with the colour of nothing, called MINE (spoken with a husky voice)

 

 

I want to see this monster in action. It sounds like it could be incredibly creepy. Are you introvert or extrovert?

Extreme introvert.

 

 

Have you ever danced in the rain?

I ALWAYS dance in the rain.

 

 

What is your favourite quote?

With God all things are possible. He sure is showing this in my life.

 

 

If you ruled your own country, who would you get to write the national anthem?

The breeze rustling the trees, the ocean, the birds and the nightlife.

 

 

That’s a really neat idea, and really brings in the unique sounds of the physical location. Are you left or right handed?

Right

 

 

How are the colours in rainbows made?

God sprinkled them on humanity as a promise.

 

 

I like that answer. The idea of rainbows in saltshakers is pretty cool. What color socks are you wearing?

White

 

 

Do you have a ‘do not use’ or ‘most hated words’ list when you are writing?           

I use yet a lot and just and must watch out for that.

 

 

What’s the most unusual name you’ve ever come across?

Zig Ziglar

 

 

I have to admit I did wonder if that was real name the first time I heard it too! What is your favourite flavor of ice-cream?

Rum raisin

 

 

What is your favourite word?

Awesome!

 

 

I always have to make sure that one doesn’t get overused, but it is a very handy word. Do you have any philosophies that you live by?

Be of good cheer. If the day sucks and you are of good cheer this will make the day a little better. If you have a great day and you are of good cheer this will make the day better till. Win/Win.

 

 

Win/Win, I think that should always be the aim of the game in life. Mimi, thank you for joining me today, I appreciate your self-publishing advice, tips and tricks and I hope that all indie authors pick up a copy of your book to get them past the overwhelm.

Thank you so very much for having me, it was lovely having a chat with you. And I love your site!

 

 

Want to find out more about Mimi? Connect here!