The
Book Launch of 'The Day I Found Him'
The
end of a journey and the beginning of a new one. Those were my
thoughts on Saturday 6th February 2016 at the St Vincent &
Grenadines High Commission, for the launch of 'The Day I Found Him'
by Doris Charles. Let me rewind a little a few weeks, in fact the
last month of 2015. It was the morning of November 30th 2015 and in
my usual routine of checking my emails, I noticed one from Doris
Charles, it simply said, I’ve finished the corrections to my book.
Can we organize the launch for December 2015?
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| Doris Charles in the centre with her newly published book 'The Day I Found Him' |
I
thought, wow great, I’m so pleased that Charles continued and did
not give up. But the time that she Had suggested was limited and
limiting given that minor additional editing was necessary. This was
to give the best quality for publication and the enhancement of a
professional product. I feared that the timing was too short. That
said, I decided we would do our very best to make it happen, simply
because we realized that Charles was pregnant with this story, it had
done its term and needed to be delivered. You have to remember that
she wrote a first draft a few years previously.
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| Doris Charles in Conversation with Cindy Soso |
A
couple years ago Charles had attended the 'BIS PUBLISHING COURSES
1-Day taster course' and then our '2-Day Master Class' for authors
followed by some online 1-2-1 coaching sessions with us. She was very
enthusiastic and wanted her book out but on top of a heavy Ph.D.
programme that she was completing, she also had some tough personal
issues that she was going through. Now for many potential authors
this would be enough reasons to give up. Charles would not allow
these challenges to stop her from attaining her dream. Her watch
words were don't quit. She just would not GIVE UP! This is a message
we teach on our self publishing courses, "don't give up
and keep going until you complete".It is only upon
completion that One would gain the desired results. Whether One
considers the end result a success or failure it is still a RESULT.
If you think it's a failure then at least you can look at where you
went wrong and then make the necessary adjustments to put it right.
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| A packed hall listening to Doris; only standing room left outside. |
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| Authors & BIS Team Members Manyonyi Amalemba & Chimaijem Ezechukwu. |
Charles
is a great example of a person who does not accept failure. She would
not allow the curve balls that life sometimes throw at us to stop her
realising her dream. Her spirit and belief would not and could not be
broken regardless of her many challenges over the last few years. One
of my editors, Manyonyi Amalemba who worked on the book with Charles
said “she has put everything in to this” and my head of
production Cindy Soso said after reading the manuscript “I cried
with tears of joy.”
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| Prime minister Dr. HON. Ralph E. Gonsalves, gives congratulating message to Doris and audience. |
The
result of this commitment to complete this work is the publication of
arguably one of the finest novels to be published so far this year. The
launch of 'The Day I Found Him' took place on the evening of February
6th 2016 at the St Vincent & Grenadines High Commission, in
London England to a full house.
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| Prime minister Dr. HON. Ralph E. Gonsalves With C. Soso and M. Williams CEO of BIS Publications. |
It
must be said that when you decide to make the decision to act on a
God given idea and complete it to its manifested fulfilment; you will
be blessed with openings and friends from all walks of life, I
witnessed this in the case of Doris Charles. Friends from all over
the country, the Caribbean, Africa, Malta and as far as the Czech
Republic flew in for the launch. Best of all was that the current
prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. HON. Ralph E.
Gonsalves took time out of his busy schedule to fly in to attend the
launch. The Prime Minister gave Charles some word's of encouragement
and praised her on her hard work. An avid reader himself he quoted
some authors that included Derrick Walcott and the late Chinua Achebe
who both left an impression on him. He said to the audience that it
is important to document your story, he went on to quote Winston
Churchill saying '...history will be kind to me, how do
I know, simply because I will write it...'
It
is my sincere hope that potential authors will draw encouragement and
inspiration from Charles' self publishing journey and take a leap of
faith, by making a decision today AND take ACTION and make a start.
Join
the BIS Publishing team on Thursday 18th February, and start the
journey of telling your story. Register now HERE Or on Eventbrite
Here.
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| Part of the BIS Publication's team that helped Doris realise her dream 'The Day I Found Him' |
