My friend Amber’s children’s book 'Prince Edac and the Snail'
'Once upon a time there lived a special little snail. He was like no other for he had a rainbow trail.'
‘‘If you put your mind to anything, we can accomplish anything’’
Amber Dickinson
I interviewed my friend Amber Dickinson, self-published author of ‘Prince Edac and the Snail’. Amber explains how her determination and patience paid off to finally publish her first book 'Prince Edac and the Snail'. It’s published under the name of ‘Amberlina P’ - just for fun and to encourage herself to not take herself too seriously as she puts it! The book was over 10 years in the making, started when her children were small.
For Amber, she describes the book as a mammoth task and she would encourage everyone to do what they can. She loves being creative and writing, so the words come easily. Although, as Amber puts it ‘I’m not an artist but I love to doodle around and paint’ she found herself in a position where she needed to do the artwork herself to get to the finish line. This led to her doing the drawing and included learning to do digital art which she says left her with the utmost respect for people who can do that, learning how to layer, - Amber likes to keep things simple and in digital art there are so many choices so it took her a long time to do it.
The book is inspired by her own children and adventures in their local area, camping, exploring, walking,
She reminds us if there's a will, there's a way and encourages anyone who wants to write that book inside them to go for it!
“Divine timing! It came out at exactly the time it was meant to come out!”
Amber’s background is in holistic counselling and through her experience has learned about the consciousness and layers of consciousness. She mentioned how so many of us are externally located and that we’ve lost our connection to our inner world and knowing who we are. Amber says it’s about being within ourselves and that all her clients patterns stem from when they were under seven - the crucial ‘formative years’ - seven years old and under.
For Amber’s story, she tells me that she always told her children to treat people how you want to be treated and that kind of thing. The book reflects the way she brought up her own children. ‘There’s only love or fear and it’s about living love, accepting who we are - that we are just who we are - we are how we are born. About how you can become friends through extending ones hand, about parenting, a bit about bullying. We are each so unique in our own way and where it’s like you see a field of flowers, and it looks like one field and they’re all the same. But then you walk amongst it and every one is so beautifully, uniquely different and inspiring. And that we’re are all not meant to be the same though at the same time we are the same. We’re a human family. And it’s just about shining your light and appreciating other people’s lights as well’.
I asked her for any advice for people who have lots of ideas to write something or create something, but they never come to fruition because something happens or they don’t know where to start or they lose confidence. Amber encourages everyone to just keep going. She’d had so many ideas over the years and you get to the point where ‘it’s like we have nothing to lose and believe me; this took a long time!
In the big picture, things take time and she thinks ‘‘we’re taught to expect, especially the way we’ve gotten decades and decades of this convenience and things happening fast… Things take time!’’
She advises us all to just keep going and never give up and that there’s a Divine timing. ‘‘And even though, for me, this took… my son was 6 when I started - he’s 24. But I did it! I did it! I crossed the line! And if I can do it I think anyone can! I do believe that this little story for adults - the children inside and for kids of all ages… it’s the right time. And it was so fun to do and I hope that joy - I literally giggled and laughed, it was so fun! And I hope so many smiles come to so many children reading this book. I really do! Lots of love!’’
