Just got a sneak peek at the cover for one of my books coming out this fall: Four Word Self Help: simple wisdom for complex lives (Sept 2010). My other book this year will be Creative is a Verb: if you're alive, you're creative (Nov 2010).
Sometimes we make life more difficult than it need be, I feel. This book of 101 four-word actions might help clarify the simplicity we need (and crave) in an increasingly complex, fast-paced, global world. I hope so.
Like Life is a Verb, Four Word Self Help is illustrated by readers of 37days from around the world, including the four beautiful pieces used on this cover.
The art inside the book is still being selected by the publisher, so more details, including which art has been chosen for the book, is forthcoming. For the moment, thought you'd like to see what's brewing…
Artists whose work is featured on the cover include (clockwise from upper left: Sylvia Barnowki, Mary Campbell, Mary Harman, and Patti Tinsman).
Here's what the publisher has to say about Four Word Self Help:
Pithy, provocative, poignant advice on a variety of
self-help topics—in four well-chosen words
Is life really all that complicated? What if we could solve all our problems with just four simple words?
Four-Word Self-Help is a pithy nod to the fact that life is simpler than we try to make it. It shows how the truisms for most of our woes can be boiled down to four well-chosen words. Author Patti Digh (Life is a Verb) takes the issues of our busy, burdened day and proves that rather than “solving” a complexity with another complexity, the answer may well lie in simple actions.
Following an introduction reflecting on the power of words in self-improvement and self-discovery, Patti introduces twelve hot-button “issues”—each addressed by wise and witty four-word missives, 101 in total. Each concise nugget of advice has been interpreted in original art submitted by artists from around the world, making this book a visual feast for those who could, simply, use just a little bit of help.
be a surge protector
eat less, move more
use your own voice
give up toxic people
I hope it will resonate with you, in your life.
