FEATURED BOOK GENESIS OF MAN by June Austin ISBN 9780755202362 (Paperback)  Genesis of Man details the unknown history of Earth from 35 million years ago, interlaced with spiritual philosophy and truth. It brings together many different subject areas, including the Nephilim, Egypt, Atlantis, the Knights Templar and various themes from the Da Vinci Code, including the so-called Jesus bloodline. The underlying theme, though, is the need to integrate and balance our own light and dark sides and use both aspects to help us grow. The information is presented in an easy to read format, in chronological sequence, utilizing both mainstream and esoteric sources. “Genesis of Man covers some highly topical and controversial subjects regarding religion and science. If you have read and liked The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, then you will love this book because it serves the opposite viewpoint.” -- The Self Publishing Magazine -- A definite must have to add to one's collection! AMAZON and/or direct from the author herself. INTERVIEW WITH JUNE AUSTIN I first met you online in 2002 through James Twyman, the Peace Troubador. In February 2003, I uploaded your first Genesis of Man column piece entitled Gnosticism - Ancient Tradition or Modern Un-Mystery School? to my Gateway To The Soul ezine. What propelled you further to actually write this book? I did not actually set out to write a book at all, but it just kind of crept up on me. After my mother died at the end of 1999, I decided to enrol on a crystal therapy course. About halfway through the course, in early 2001, we were all asked to write a thesis on a crystal related subject to be presented to the rest of the group. The aim of this, as much as anything else, was to gain experience in doing presentations. I decided to do mine on crystal skulls, since I was at that time a guardian of several of these fascinating objects. As time went on, and I started to write, I found I started to find all sorts of links with the skulls and other areas of interest, until it became obvious that this was to be a book, linking all the different subjects together. The book itself then took a total of five years to write. For the first two years I wrote more or less full time, but then my partner became ill, and I had to return to full time work, so no longer had the time to write. This was a very frustrating and difficult time. Thankfully though he is now better, and I have since resigned from that job, due to a few problems. After I left, I did a complete rewrite in less than 5 months, managing to complete the book by Christmas 2005. It had by then changed beyond all recognition from my original concept, and most of the crystal skull material was taken out as it was no longer appropriate. I made the decision to self publish (via print on demand) early in 2006, and the rest, as they say, is history.  What do you want readers to get from this book? I have observed, during my many years on the spiritual path, that there are many people who seem to be searching for something that they cannot quite define. Organised religion is very clever in that it tries to tell people (often quite successfully) that the answer lies with embracing their particular religion, or at the very least, their view of God. In some ways they are right, since the void does indeed come from a yearning to understand where we came from, and what life is about, but religion is not of course the only path to God. This is the mistake that Richard Dawkins makes in his book, The God Delusion. My own book was recently compared to his as presenting the opposite viewpoint. My book, however, is subtitled the answer to life, the universe and everything in between, because it does cover so many of these important topics, and perhaps more importantly, explains these things in simple terms that people can understand and relate to rather than couching them in psychological or scientific jargon. Don't get me wrong, science has its place, but there needs to be a meeting point between science and spirituality. We are all searching for God, including the scientists, even Dawkins himself is, or he would not written that book, it is just that they approach it from a different angle. What was the most difficult part about writing this book? What was the easiest? The easiest part was part two, where I talk about Atlantis and Lemuria, simply because there is such a vast amount of information already out there that I could use in order to gain inspiration. There is also of course a lot of my own stuff as well, but I do find that when reading others’ material on a given subject such as this, ideas 'drop into your head' and you see connections between the different sources that you are working with, that perhaps would not have been obvious to other writers who cannot see the bigger picture. The most difficult part though was undoubtedly part four, where I talk about Gnosticism and the origins of Christianity, simply because it is such a weighty subject and there was so much material to wade through and research. Truth be told, this was the main reason that I did not write for over a year after I went back to work, because I simply did not know where to start. Once I did start though, I found it very difficult to stop, and I have to say what when I read that material now, it is definitely my favourite part of the book, and my best writing. It is, to some at least, also the most challenging. How did you go about conducting research for the wealth of knowledge contained within the this tome? I used a variety of different sources, all of which are listed in the book. Other people's books (all writers have to do this), newspaper and magazine articles, spiritual cinema, and science fiction (I am heavily inspired by Babylon 5 in particular), television documentaries and, of course, channelled information. What was your favorite thing about writing this book? Why? I think my favourite thing about writing the book has actually been the promotional activity that has followed afterwards, because it has been such a wonderful opportunity to push against my own comfort zone and put myself out there in the world, teaching me an awful lot about myself, and, in the process, discovering strengths and resources that I didn't know I had. I did not, for example, realise how good I was at writing press releases, or that I could be such a persuasive saleswoman. It is amazing what you can accomplish when you have to, and when you have that much faith in your product. It took a second edition of the book, and a change of cover, before it really started to take off. Just this week I had a major breakthrough in that Gardners, the largest wholesaler here in the UK, have agreed to take the book on sale or return, which only a handful of other POD authors in the whole of the UK have managed to achieve. This is not normally possible, since the books have to be paid for at the time of printing, but my editor had faith in the book, and agreed to talk to Gardners on my behalf. The publicity machine then is once again whirring into action, and I have been busy contacting book stores up and down the country, as well as radio stations and the press, both locally and nationally. At least one national newspaper has already expressed some interest, so in the future you may be hearing a lot more of me (keeping my fingers crossed). As a collector of crystal skulls, like myself, are there any other subjects about which you plan to write? I want to emphasise here before I go any further that although the book started out as a thesis on crystal skulls, and was in the beginning at least, heavily inspired by them, most of that material has, in fact, since been taken out. I do still have a large collection of skulls, but have been selling them of late, since I no longer work with them in the way that I once did. They are fascinating objects, but are now for me a little past their use by date. I do, though, have several ideas brewing at the moment for possible books. One of these is a children’s story about some pigs. These are actually soft toys that I own, for which I have constructed a life history. I also have several ideas for more religious/spiritual books, but these are still brewing in my head, and it is best not to discuss them until the ideas are more concrete. I do of course write shorter articles though all the time, many of which can be seen on my website. |
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AUGUST 2007