https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X76H2B4/
2I Need to Stay Faithful, Else Y’all Gonna F.A.A.F.O. looks like a great journal. What can you tell us about it?
This journal came from my Manuscript to Market Process. I took attendees from concept to market in a month! My students were surprised, but I was confident, and happy to show them how easy it was to do. I thought the title was provocative enough, and I walked them through the process of making it into a book ready for the sale on the published market.
But this book is also important to me because I really feel that way. I serve women who have escaped or walked away from a life of sex trafficking, and sometimes their trauma recovery doesn’t come with PG-13 language. You don’t want to know me without my faith to guide and ground me, so I can only imagine what people feel and process who have suffered in such a way.
I want any person or group who uses (or even looks at) the
journal to feel that sass, that strength, but, most of all, that invitation to
be as bold and honest within the pages as the title is on the cover.
How did you come up with the idea for I Need to Stay Faithful, Else Y’all Gonna F.A.A.F.O.?
I was beta testing Manuscript to Market Process and
asked the students if they’d like to watch me make this book happen as proof of
my claim to bring a completed manuscript through to tangible book proof within
a month. Idea conception took place March 3rd, and on the final
meeting (March 31st), I was holding the proof in my hands. I
published the paperback a few days later, and the hard cover will soon be
available for purchase. Now, as far as journals go, I think hardback books are
better, but I am a writer, and I have benefitted from all kinds of journals.
How long did it take you to write I Need to Stay Faithful, Else Y’all Gonna F.A.A.F.O.?
The dedication and invitation took three days to write (after years of life experience), but the design for the images within the book took a little longer to design. Each part of the book was used as a teaching tool, walking the clients through the self-publishing process.
It was fun, too!
What will readers get out of your book?
Hopefully, my niche will make use of the sacred space within
the pages to release the thoughts, dreams, and plans for diving deeper within
their faith and healing. There is doodle space, blank lines for writing, and
coffee stains (because coffee stains are proof of life). I hope people use this
journal to help them feel ALL their feelings and use those feelings to heal and
live authentically.
What motivated you to become a writer?
I have been a poet my whole life, because it is in my blood.
But it wasn’t until 2015 (when I walked through the valley of the shadow of
death) that my first book was published by A Word With You Press. So, the short
answer is DNA, but the professional part of that journey is fairly recent. I
did get my master’s degree in Transformative Language Arts, so I should have
known I would go after getting published sooner or later.
Did anything stick out as particularly challenging when
writing I Need to Stay Faithful, Else Y’all Gonna F.A.A.F.O.?
Teaching a live course about publishing while publishing my
book was something I loved doing, but it came with some things. There were challenges
(lesson preparation, answering questions, my kids’ bedtime, etc.) but I am so
happy with the results.
What do you like to do when not writing?
I have two small children, so my knee-jerk response to that
is “sleep”. I am also an editor, and believe it is a calling often more
important than writing. But I find my happy place creating in pretty much any
artistic way.
Where can readers find out more about your work?
My books are all available on Amazon.
To learn
more about my editing, writing, speaking, or the Manuscript to Market
Process, you can check out my website: www.tiffanyvakilian.com.