New release! Book 4 – Soul

Soul is the fourth book in the series of my poems written as a young girl, Memories from another Lifetime. It was published on 12 August 2023, and it is dedicated to all old souls – may you find your Truth in this lifetime.

When I first started planning and setting up this poetry blog back in August 2021, I did not imagine that, just 2 years down the road, I would be publishing my fourth book of poems! I published this fourth volume five months after Desire, which was released in March this year. Here is the story of how Soul came into being.

But first, a bit about me for those visiting my blog for the first time or who are not familiar with my story. I am not a professional writer, in fact, I have a long career in the corporate world. Poetry is my passion, and I now believe, my true calling in life.

Vanita the Poet

I started writing poems in 1981 at the young age of 13, following a deep personal trauma. I needed an outlet for my raw and powerful emotions, to find relief, release and ultimately, redemption.

The topics I wrote about were very personal, private, and at times, dark – unrequited love, desire, pain, betrayal, and my budding sexuality. Many of my poems also had a spiritual undertone. The maturity and depth of my poems written as a young girl belied my age, and I now believe they might have been memories from a previous life.

After a hiatus of almost 4 decades I started writing again, and I launched this poetry blog in November 2021. Memories from another Lifetime is a series of my poems written as a young girl.

Needing a break

After the release of Desire in March 2023, I realised I needed a break from publishing and promoting new books.

I had published three books – Pain, Love, and Desire – in the short span of only five months. All the work was done during evenings and on weekends, on top of a demanding week at work. I was, to put it mildly, exhausted.

I decided to focus on marketing my three books for a while and expanding my audience on social media. I believe in doing my marketing myself, since I wish to engage with my readers and to communicate with them in my own, authentic voice. Besides being active on Twitter/X, which I joined in December 2021 to promote my new blog, I relaunched my Instagram account and also joined poetry groups on LinkedIn.

I started connecting with new authors, poets and readers, which was exciting and invigorating.

The making of Soul

Sometime in late May I felt ready to jump back into the creative process and start working on the next volume of poems. I decided I would get the book ready during our annual summer holiday in France. Surely this would be a relatively fast and easy process, since this would be my fourth book, right?

Wrong.

In some ways, I felt as if I was compiling my first book again.

I had selected the poems based on spiritual themes, but for some reason, they did not speak to me. There was no emotional connection, and I started doubting if there were enough good poems to publish in a book. I read them again and again, and a few poems did not make it to the book finally.

But I felt stuck.

My reprieve came unexpectedly. I read a post on Twitter/X, where the person wrote that writer’s block is often due to the fact that the author is trying to force the book or meet some deadline, rather than letting the book develop organically and at its own pace.

This resonated with me. I decided to put the poems away for a while and relax – I was, after all, on holiday! I would let the book come to me, so to speak.

And indeed, it did. After about a week, I looked at the poems again, this time with the respect and attention they deserved. They started speaking to me and the emotional connection was ignited. Before my eyes, the book started taking shape. I started arranging the poems in order, to get the right flow. And I started trusting the process as the poems guided me. They became my friends.

What’s in a name?

The next challenge was what title to choose. Many of my poems have a spiritual undertone, and the poems I have selected for Soul are particularly spiritual in their themes.

I considered calling the volume Spirituality, but I considered that too broad a topic. Conversely, the other candidate, Karma, would have been too narrow. I finally decided on Soul, and when I read my poems again, I realised it was the right title for this book.

Thank you!

Writing Soul has been a spiritual journey for me. I learned to trust my inner voice again, and to let it guide me through my poems. I also dedicate this book to all old souls who are on their spiritual journey.

My mission is to make the voice of my younger self heard. I wish to touch the lives of as many people as possible with my poems. Please help me by sharing this post and Soul with friends and family.

If you enjoy my books, please do leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads – this is more important for authors than most readers realise. Your review will help other readers find good books to read. My books can also be found on BookBub.

Please also leave a comment here in my blog, it will make me very happy to hear from you.

I believe we are all on a spiritual journey in this lifetime. I wish you great success on yours.

Vanita Shukla Hork, August 2023