During the next few months I’m looking forward to being at a number of book events. Indeed, last Saturday I was at a Book Fair in the Gloucestershire town of Stroud. Footfall was very good (due in no small part to the Pride Festival in the park next door). I had some good conversations with fellow authors and also potential customers who stopped for more than ten seconds by my particular stall. It’s a case of the ‘eyes have it’ and then engaging where possible.
The eyes of customers at a Book Fair tell stories too: many don’t even look at any of the various authors’ wares as they pass through. Some will focus on one side of the layout of tables. Invariably, that seemed not to be mine. Indeed, not for the first time, only one of my books was sold – and that was to another author (not the first time).
But as I have often said, it’s not the number of books one sells but the conversations and the comments from people who like them or find them helpful that make it all worthwhile.
Given the propensity of fantasy, dystopian and romantic novels available on such occasions, perhaps, by comparison, my contemporary fiction stories are not as appealing to the general populus. At non-church Book Fairs I learnt quite quickly not to bother taking the faith-related books: as one customer said at an event where I had taken both genres: ‘I don’t like religion,’ and walked swiftly on!
As I sit at these events (another one tomorrow as I write this), it would be easy for me to be thinking, ‘Why don’t you look at my books?’ or ‘They obviously don’t like them’. I could even go as far as, ‘It’s not my books: it’s me they don’t like.’
Thankfully I know not to do that.
But such times are in themselves a reminder of Jesus’ words: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:31). It’s one of Jesus’s most well-known and often quoted sayings.
Probably most of us feel comfortable with the ‘love your neighbour’ part: thinking of others, being kind to people. But what about, ‘as yourself’? To have love for ourselves in the same way as we love others? Umm… more tricky, that.
This month sees the publication of a new book, Loving Yourself. This explores how our love for both neighbour and ourselves stems from God’s love for us. It considers the background and context of Jesus’s words; what it means (and what it doesn’t mean) to have love for ourselves; and how we can love ourselves in a way which enables us to love our neighbour. The book offers practical suggestions – and, yes, wrestles with some of the trickier parts too.
In the Foreword, my friend and colleague, Canon Deborah Parsons from Exeter Cathedral writes:
‘This is a book to linger with and to apply to daily living and spiritual practice. It is a book that is compassionate and realistic, honest and accessible, offering down-to-earth tips borne from lived experience and forged in the furnace of life.
‘There is something in it for everyone. Drink deeply from this wisdom well and trust that the living water it contains will nourish the parched or dry places in yourself.’
I hope your eyes might linger over this book (and your hands reach for the necessary card…) but more than that I hope it may be helpful to you in having love for yourself.
Loving Yourself is published by SLG Press and available at my online shop. And as an eBook.
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Details of all my books can be found at richardfrostauthor.com.