Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Book Reading and Interview – Sue Vincent

Welcome to this week’s Book Reading and Interview that features the authors on the shelves of Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore. After setting the cafe up last year I intend now to use as the focal point for all book promotions here on Smorgasbord. Once in the cafe, authors can be updated in the twice weekly posts with their new releases and also excellent reviews… but they can now also do a book reading and interview as they might do in a real bookstore.

This is intended to be an interactive interview with you the reader and it would be wonderful if you could therefore ask guests your questions in the comments section.

My guest today is Sue Vincent who has supported my blogging and writing efforts almost from the beginning of my life here online. Very supportive of other writers, you will find guest posts as well as wonderful features on some of our spiritual and ancient parts of Britain. Ably assisted by her office manager, a small black dog called Ani.

Sue is a prolific author and has also co-written a book with Dr. G. Michael Vasey and over recent years a substantial number with Stuart France.  Here is a small selection.

 

Sue Vincent is a Yorkshire born writer currently living in the south of England, largely due to an unfortunate incident with a map, a pin and a blindfold. Raised in a spiritually eclectic family she has always had an unorthodox view on life, particularly the inner life, which is often reflected in her writing, poetry and paintings.

Sue lived in France for several years, sharing a Bohemian lifestyle and writing songs before returning to England where the youngest of her two sons was born. She began writing and teaching online several years ago, and was invited to collaborate with Dr G Michael Vasey on their book, “The Mystical Hexagram: The Seven Inner Stars of Power” (Datura Press).

Stuart France and Sue Vincent are also the authors of the Doomsday series.

Find out more about their work together: http://www.franceandvincent.com/

Sue, along with Steve Tanham and Stuart France, is a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, an international modern Mystery School that seeks to allow its students to find the inherent magic in living and being. http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk

Also by Sue Vincent

Discover all of Sue Vincent’s books: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sue-Vincent/e/B00F2L730W

Now it is time for Sue to join us with the three questions she has chosen from the menu and her three personalised questions I have asked her.  Please add your questions in the comments section and Sue will be delighted to answer them in the next couple of days.

Do you have a favourite quote? What does it means to you as an individual?

A few years ago I would have said that my favourite quote was one that is generally attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” When I first read those words, they put pretty much everything into perspective. These days, I’ll credit my co-author, Stuart France, with my favourite quote and say simply, “Find the path and stay on it.” Whatever path speaks to your heart, what else is there to do but follow it from the heart?

If you were offered three wishes to change the world, what would they be?

Three wishes to change the world? I would wish that humankind would look into the mirror of their own being, collectively and as individuals and see ourselves as we truly are, the good, the bad, our origins in earth and our origins in spirit. I would wish for us to have the courage to acknowledge what we see in ourselves and each other… and for the clarity of vision that lets us see ourselves looking out from every pair of eyes that we meet. I think that would change humanity’s perspective and shift the focus towards compassion and understanding.

What is your definition of success?

Finding the path and staying on it. We all know, in our heart of hearts, who we should be. We all have dreams… as well as the responsibilities that come with living in society. Success, to me, cannot be counted in terms of fame and fortune, but only in whether or not you have been true to yourself. Most of us spend a large part of our lives in casting around for the path we need to take, making side-trips, hitting dead ends…and making a lot of mistakes along the way, if we are honest with ourselves. Success, to me, is the ability to learn from that journey enough to recognise the right path for you… then allowing it to lead you forward.

Has your style as a writer changed since your first book Sword of Destiny and if so how?

I started writing Sword many years ago. I would like to think that my ‘formal’ writing style is now more confident, less wordy and more open. The less formal style that I use with most blog posts is the biggest change. I stopped writing how I thought I ought to write and started writing as me instead. This has found its way into everything that I write; even writing as a character, you have to write from the centre of yourself. I must have written more than five million words in the past five years; the words soon add up when you write every day. With that kind of volume, you can’t pretend to be something you are not for long and expect to get away with it!

You have co-written several books with Stuart France – what are the key elements of working with another author?

I have never found it difficult to work with other writers. My first collaboration was ‘The Mystical Hexagram’ with G. Michael Vasey, a project very close to his heart.

Working with Stuart is easy; we talk a lot and share many of the experiences about which we write. If I had to name the qualities you need to write with another author, they would be respect, trust and communication. I cannot see how such a collaboration could work without them. I have the utmost respect for Stuart’s knowledge and abilities as a writer, trust him absolutely and … we talk a lot.

It is clear that you have a huge amount of respect for the natural world and our ancient heritage. Is there a specific time in our history that you would have liked to have lived and if so why?

Only if I could remember it now! Ancient Egypt would be a must, Paris in la belle époque and here, at the time the great stone circles were built. There are scenes in my mind that feel like memories and I am a believer in reincarnation, so who knows? Perhaps they are no more than dreams and images crafted by the imagination around acquired facts and ideas. Perhaps the memories are genetic, as recent research suggests we carry many of our ancestral memories at that level of being. Or perhaps I already did. If so, I wish I could remember more!

Sue has chosen to share this poem with us.

Tall the cliffs of stone
That mark the entry to my heart’s domain,
Wild and empty in its vastness
The solitude of living earth.
The wind lifts the heart
And bears it through the storm
Where the lichen crusted rocks
Cling to the clouds.
Part of my heart remains there
Scattered with the ashes of a lost love,
Mingled with the joy and pain of memory,
Of childhood wonder and a lover’s kiss.
Deep the roots which bind me to that land,
As weathered pines that cling for life
To the purple hillside…
Genuflecting, but standing, still,
Naked in the mist.
Great stones,
Ice carved in aeons past
Into a landscape of dreams,
Marked by ancient hands
With figures of Light,
That I may stand beside them,
Millennia apart,
And recognise my kin.

A reminder of where you can discover all of Sue Vincent’s books and read the reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Sue Vincent/e/B00F2L730W

Connect to Sue Vincent

Blog: http://scvincent.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scvincent
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/S-C-Vincent/17967259931?ref=hl
Silent Eye Website: http://thesilenteye.co.uk/
Website (books) : http://www.franceandvincent.com/
Silent Eye Authors FB: https://www.facebook.com/silenteyeauthors?ref=hl
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sue-Vincent/e/B00F2L730W
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Sue-Vincent/e/B00F2L730W
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6551588.Sue_Vincent

Thank you for joining us today and I am sure you must have some questions that you would like to ask Sue about her life and work.. Please leave your questions in the comments section and Sue will answer them when she is popping in. Thanks Sally.

If you would like to do a book reading and interview you will find the details in this directory.

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/sallys-cafe-and-bookstore/