Big Better Best Books

Do you have the magical capacity of awareness? Today’s guest is Diva Diaz, a woman of many talents who has also recently become a children’s book author. Her first book is called Magia and the Feelings That Flew...Away, a book with a melody, one that takes you on a journey that children and adults of all ages can learn from and enjoy.

Magia is a little girl who lives in a magical land where many things are the opposite of what they appear to be. The book follows Magia’s journey to school one morning as she encounters different things and takes on the same feelings as those things. But she realizes those feelings she has are not her; it’s just her awareness of the world around her.

In Diva’s personal life, she works with something in Access Consciousness called X-Men, which is about how aware we truly are. Listen to learn about the difference between sensitivity and awareness, and how what we think is so wrong about us is actually our greatest strength, power, and ability.

Key takeaways:

• The traditional form of rhyming: a melodious journey
• What’s the difference between sensitivity and awareness?
• Getting back to the core of who we were before we learned to be scared, doubtful, or untrusting
• There’s nothing wrong with any child, it’s about the capacity behind the behavior
• A huge door is opening for children labeled with autism, ADHD, and other “disabilities”
• Asking questions that empower your children
• The next Magia book: what new adventures will she go on and what will she learn?

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What is one of your best book experiences? Talking about your favorite books can be a difficult conversation, especially if you’re an avid reader like today’s two lovely guests, because books serve different functions in different times and different areas of our lives.

Rebecca Hulse and Marilyn Bradford join Katarina today to discuss the books that have made the greatest impression on them in different periods of their lives, and how these books have impacted their lives.

Listen to open up new possibilities with books, discover new books, and learn how certain books find you, change you, and show you that other realities are possible beyond this reality.

Key takeaways:

• Choosing the best book is impossible
• Opening up whole new worlds of possibilities with books
• Different books give us different things at different times of our lives
• What is one of your best book experiences?
• Characters who choose something greater
• It’s not always about how well-written a book is, it’s about a sense of something greater
• When the experience is over, what next?

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What is erotic literature? What is it that actually draws us to it and makes it so exciting? Erotic fiction has always existed, even in ancient times, and erotica is much bigger than a sexual act. It gives us something that makes the world bigger and pushes our boundaries.

Georgia Watson is an Access Consciousness facilitator, a horse person, a painter, and she also has a secret business as an online dominatrix. She is today’s expert, and together we will explore the topic of erotic novels, why we read them, and what makes them so enticing.

Listen to learn more about pleasure and exploring your fantasies through erotic fiction and how the things that turn you on can be empowering, fun, and experienced without shame and completely guilt-free.

Key takeaways

• Erotica versus porn: what’s the difference?
• Fantasies don’t have to mean anything about you
• Why do women write erotic fiction?
• The seduction and flirtation of build up and anticipation in erotica
• What if this topic didn’t have to have a stigma attached to it?

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If you have a manuscript in a drawer that wants to get out, this episode is full of tips and inspiration for you to get started again. Today’s guest is Jan Bertoft, Swedish author of the book Minnets slutna rum, which in English translates to The Memory’s Locked Room, or The Locked Room of the Memory.

Jan has been writing his whole life and worked in journalism before starting a career in consumer issues for a Swedish NGO, but in his spare time, he began co-creating a fiction project with a friend. When his friend got ill and he was no longer able to work on the book, it went into the drawer for several years before coming back out again.

Listen to hear this author’s journey to publication, what it was like co-creating with someone, and the details of the process from idea conception to working with a publisher and then finally holding the finished product.

Key takeaways:

• Why did the book go into the drawer?
• How one book led to another
• Feedback from the publisher: having a good editor and receiving criticism
• Creating the time to write
• What it’s like co-creating a book
• Choosing a publishing company
• Advice for taking your book out of the drawer

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How can you receive a book in different ways? Actually having the time to pick up a book doesn’t always happen, which is why audiobooks can be such a gift to those who have busy lives and still desire to receive books.

Today we are talking with two audiobook narrators, Max Zoulek and Megan Hill, and an audiobook listener, Laleh Hancock. Narrating an audiobook is not just about reading the words, it’s about getting the energy behind them, and listening transports you to a different world.

Join us as we explore what gets created and what happens when we listen to audiobooks and when we record them. If you have never listened to an audiobook, it may be time!

Key takeaways:

• Being the voice of a book changes you
• Getting the energy of the words
• Listening to a book is a different experience from reading a book
• When authors read their own book
• Preparation and feedback for narrators
• Including your body in a different way when you listen

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What is being you to you? Today is a special storytelling episode, as we talk about a book called “The Very Greatest Adventure is You Truly Being You,” a compilation of stories and quotes from people all over the world about what it really means to be you.

This conversation is an invitation to see the difference of you and acknowledge and celebrate it, not from separation, but really getting the gift of you that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Listen to hear from some of the contributing writers from the book share their inspiring stories on the podcast and discuss the experience of creating the book together and learning about each other and themselves through the process.

Key takeaways:

• Being you is something you create
• Storytelling with the authors
• Are you going to a party?
• Coloring outside the lines
• Why don’t they get it?
• No need to hide
• Being you, changing the world

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What if being happy in this reality was just a choice? Today’s guest is a multi-talented, multi-tasking artist, Rüdrani Devi, who has written a book called “Choosing Happiness.”

“Choosing Happiness” is about the things that keep us from choosing to be happy in this reality and the tools we can use to navigate our own journey to happiness. In the book, Rüdrani shares experiences from her own life and how she has changed her awareness.

Listen to learn about Rüdrani’s personal journey, the struggles she has overcome, and the many things she is working on as an author, shaman, film producer, facilitator, singer, and aromatherapy company owner.

Key takeaways:

• Why did she choose to write Choosing Happiness?
• In the book, Rüdrani shares her journey of changing her perspective and choosing something different
• The circumstances surrounding her other books, the Mumbai Massacre, and how the books chronicle her journey
• Rüdrani highlights her favorite tools from Choosing Happiness
• What is her writing process and how does she see her books as entities?
• Her personal life and how it has been affected by her writing

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How do you live beyond a tragedy? My guest today is Vladica Djordjevic, who shares her experiences and the process of writing her beautiful book “You are the Power: Choose to Create the Life You Desire.”

The book tells the story of the devastating murder of her son and how she made a choice to live and be a change and contribution to consciousness through this experience. “You are the Power” is an invitation for everyone, not just those who have experienced tragedy, to wake up and to be present with their life and choices, whatever occurs.

Listen to learn how Vladica found a different kind of empowerment than what is expected and projected in this reality, how she discovered the strength to choose to live beyond the experience, and the ways in which writing the book was her healing process.

Key takeaways:

• Writing this book was a healing process for Vladica
• What it means to be empowered to go beyond a tragedy
• Being grateful is a practice
• Tools for choosing to live after tragedy
• Vladica wants to help others understand and use their powers and capacities to generate their lives in a totally different way

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Welcome to the last episode of the Big, Better, Best Books podcast. We are saying goodbye as Katarina takes a break from the amazing world of books and goes on some other wonderful adventures.