Corrie Woods Writes a Valentine for Women

I had a serendipitous meeting with Corrie Woods of Tryon about her new book The Woman’s Field Guide to Exceptional Living published by Morgan James, New York. She left me a copy at the theatre to puruse and when a cast member opened it the first line read “Just imagine, the stage curtains are drawn and you are standing backstage, alone in the darkness. The house is full.” We were backstage and the house was full, but you don’t have to be an actor to relate easily to the metaphors and ideas she presents in this book. The pages are filled with quick and easy ways to help kick start your motivation and joy for life.

It was with genuine interest that I sat down with her to learn how this little gem of a guidebook came into existance.

Is this something you ever dreamed of doing?
I’ve always jotted down notes and dreamed of writing a book, but it wasn’t until recently that it became the time to do it.

Do you remember when you actually started working on this book?
It was a over a year ago in the fall. I think the biggest barrier was the thinking “I’m not a writer.” So I just started with the thought, “Okay I have something to share,” and started the process of collecting a bunch of random notes. Some really supportive people helped me through it.

One of the catalysts for the book was my last conversation with my grandfather. I knew it was the last and I was really sad. But he said to me, “Corrie, I have lived a great life. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.” Wow, imagine being over 90 and having that attitude even though his life wasn’t easy. What would I have to do differently to live a life of no regrets? It shows up in my life and my coaching and this book. That jazzes me. What would it look like?

How did you start collecting these particular ideas?
I do a lot of life coaching for women. Many of things come up in my own life as well as the lives of people that I coach. I picked the common themes. There were far too many of these ideas to put in one book. It’s going to be a series, and this is book one.

Knowing many women have busy schedules, I kept the chapters short. You can read any one chapter or a few pages to get yourself started. Ask yourself “What’s this one thing that I can do today?” and flip through until you find an idea to try.

Once you collected the pieces how did you proceed?
I thought I would self-publish and learn the process. I learned about cover design, and interior design and then publicity. I had my book at the printers ready to go and one synchronicity after another led to a conversation with Morgan James. I did no submissions, but still learning the next steps in the process and phoned to talk to a public relations person for books. He was affiliated with Morgan James and thought they would be interested in seeing it. So, he emailed them while I was on the phone, and told me to call them. They wanted to see the galley and so I call to stop the press.

Morgan James is pretty unique publisher that deals with business and self-help books. They do a lot of back end work helping you learn the process. I’m recording myself reading the book now and they will be publishing an audio version on CD.

When I talked to the publisher I gave them a finished product. Normally the publisher will handle the illustration and cover. They said they’d review it and ended up not changing anything. The woman who did the illustrations worked with me on it from the beginning. I’d send her a chapter and she’d send back what she created. That was really fun getting to see what illustrations she created.

Any concept of how long to put this together?
Whenever I was working on it time would just fly. It was hard to drag myself away from it. I had the advantage of setting my own hours with the life coaching business. I wrote it organically as I felt called to, in the hours around my schedule. I really spent three months working on it consistently every day. Then I spent tons of follow up time with editing and design and all. When you really are excited about something and are having a blast with it, even if you felt really busy, suddenly you find time for it. That’s what happened with writing the book.

What happens next?
A variety of things. This is one of many things I do. I have a women’s self-care retreat in April, called “The Savvy Savory Self Care Retreat” April 18-20 at Bend of Ivy lodge north of Asheville.

What are these retreat about?
To relax and learn how to take better care of yourself while having fun. We have an evening retreat at the Yoga studio coming up “The Women’s Self Care Café” Feb 26 from 6-8:30pm. This is an introductory Yoga session and a circle of self care.

This is a great thing for local women in the community, while the Asheville retreat brings women from all over the US and Canada.

What are the women like who come to your retreats?
I’d say the average age ranges from 35-85. Really women looking for support who are burnt out and at a crossroads or women who are taking care of themselves and looking for community with other women and some new ideas to do things differently.
Most women are really good at taking care of other people, but when it comes to taking care of ourselves we don’t do it as well. It’s okay to do that. People think it’s selfish to buy themselves flowers or take themselves out when really that is self love.

If you’re not taking care of yourself, then you don’t have the energy to take care of the rest of people in your life anyway. This is what I do in all facets of my life. It’s dramatic, and life changing when you see the impact this has on people. And it’s fun.

What are your plans with the Field Guide?
My goals are to do self-promotion and prepare the second book to come out the same time next year, as well as make my website a resource, not just a publicity page. The website will have 52 ways to love yourself without spending a dime. There will be 20-30 different expert women who helped with the book to create a forum on the web supporting people living the principles I talk about in the book. It should be up within a few weeks and I’ll launch my blog at the same time.

Is it ready for Valentine’s Day?
The publish date is not until April, but there are a few places that already have it like The Bookshelf in Tryon.

It’s a twist on Valentine’s Day to love yourself. We often sit back and wish for someone else to make us feel loved when we can do that ourselves.