Patricia Mendez has catered and coordinated special events in the Los Angeles area since the early 1990’s. Her experience also includes coordinating a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) community group for three years and working with women of all ages as a Director of Women’s Ministries for eight years. She met many “new nesters” who had the desire to entertain family and friends, but lacked know-how and experience. It was for this audience that she wrote her first book, EASY ENTERTAINING FOR BEGINNERS.

She has taught many cooking classes and currently teaches “Easy Entertaining for Beginners” cooking classes for novice hosts/hostesses in Torrance, CA. She speaks/teaches at women’s groups and has written articles/menus for website newsletters. She was recently a guest chef at Torrance Citicable Channel Community Cooking Show, airing in October 2008.

When Patricia is not writing or teaching, she is a home chef who loves to throw fun parties!

You can visit her website at www.ezentertaining.net or her blog at www.ezentertaining.blogspot.com.

Welcome to Beyond the Books, Patricia. Can you tell us whether you are published for the first time or multi-published?

I have an autographed copy of a published collection of Haiku poems from my second grade class. (Ha-ha). Yes, it’s true; I was published in the second grade. However, this is my first time being published as an adult.

Can you give us the title(s) of your book(s)?

The title of my book is Easy Entertaining for Beginners.

How many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?

I researched very carefully whether the best course for me was a mainstream trade publisher or if I should consider self-publishing. After several months of reading, researching, asking questions, etc. I decided the best thing for me was to get behind the learning curve and self-publish my book. While I realize there are pros and cons to both traditional publishing and self-publishing, I felt I could put in the effort to promote my book and make a return for longer period of time if I self-published, especially with my genre of book – cookbook. So, I read, read, read and then I read some more. I did however pay a fee to a reputable consulting firm to give me an objective critique on the manuscript. I felt this was an important step before investing in the production and promotion of the book.

How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?

The critique of the manuscript from the consulting firm was very favorable with a few suggestions for minor polishing. I did send the manuscript for advance comments to several people. Of course, all of the well-known authors ignored my requests and one author who I had never heard of (I found in the Yearbook of Experts) agreed to look at the manuscript. The menus and music suggestions in the book were not to her liking and skewered me on several points. She was blunt and expressed her opinions very freely. I felt like I had been slapped in the face but reminded myself that if I asked for comments/reviews, I had better be prepared for people to give them. So I tried to learn from it and moved on. Thankfully that has been to date, the only negative comments the book has received.

When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?

My husband and I started Maple Heights Press in August 2007 and chose to publish the book ourselves. From that point on, I moved on from author to publisher and strove to learn everything I could about publishing and bringing a book to market. I set my goal to produce the highest quality book that would compete with books from major trade publishers. So I hired the best editor and book designer that I could find. I also hired a reputable advertising copy writer for the back cover matter, researched and found a competent book printing company and laid all the ground work within the publishing system to bring the book to market.

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

It felt great and I was very thankful for all the support and help I received along the way. I acknowledged the many people that helped and supported on an acknowledgement page in the book. They each received a thank you note and autographed book. On the publishing date, August 1, 2008 we dined at a local restaurant owned by a celebrated five star chef with some friends of ours. With all the work of publishing the book it was very enjoyable to “stop and smell the roses” so to speak and just enjoy the moment.

What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?

I received the printed books 4 months before the publication date and immediately sent out review copies. I sent them to newspapers, trade journals and internet reviewers. I felt this was an especially important task because I was self-published. I could personally think that the book was helpful and useful and accomplished its purpose, but I really needed other people to review it and give their opinion for the book to appear legitimate. After all, it can be viewed that the person closest to the work (i.e., author), may not have the ability to be objective about it. Independent reviewers do have that ability. Since I am not a celebrity, all of the major newspapers and trade journals did not choose it for review. I was able to get several reputable internet reviewers to review it and they all loved it. Recently I have had a few small newspapers review it and their reviews were favorable as well. I had a good size newspaper in Florida contact me about featuring the book in a special “Entertaining” section of their newspaper this coming November along with 5 other titles.

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

For me, it is too early to tell. Self-publishing has been challenging and overwhelming and satisfying. It is many things and I think time will tell if I can fill that role effectively. I am certainly willing to give it my best effort! And by the way, there are so many other micro and small publishers who are very generous with their time and experience in helping others. Their articles and seminars have been a tremendous help to me.

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?

Since my book has only been on the market for a couple of months, I am concentrating my full attention on promoting this one and not yet thinking too much about writing a future book. On top of all my publishing duties, I am as well, promoting the book as the author. This includes writing lots of internet articles, newsletters and I have been writing and querying articles for print magazines as well. I feel I have something to contribute to the scores of people who want to start to entertain their family and friends, but may be overwhelmed at where to start. I am so convinced that entertaining adds extraordinary quality and enjoyment to life that I want to help beginners gain confidence and pull off successful casual entertaining.

Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?

In my particular case, I think everything moved along just about as fast as it should have. I needed to take the time to understand what I was getting myself into (self-publishing), count the costs (not just financially) and make sure I understood as much as I could and would be able to see it through. I was very careful about getting lots of estimates and taking my time when making financial decisions about the production of the book.

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

In the area of book promotion, I would say pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I have really had to have the courage to try new things. While this can occasionally cause stress, ultimately, I feel like I’m growing and becoming more refined and able to relate to and help beginners learn to entertain much more effectively.

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

I’m pretty content right where I am. I loved being a stay-at-home mom for the years I raised my three boys. I always enjoyed being creative and catering and coordinating special events was a way to express that. I take pleasure in teaching beginners in my “Easy Entertaining for Beginners” cooking classes. In between promoting my book, teaching classes and writing, I love spending time with my husband, Augie and spending time with my 6 young grandchildren. Wow, I’m tired, just thinking about all of this. What can I say? I am blessed.

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?

Balancing all these things is a challenge. I ask the Lord every day to bless my work and I do my best to be wise with my time and fruitful in my life. There are so many good things to enjoy.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

Good question. Older and wiser for sure. Lord willing, helping a new generation of beginners find satisfaction and enjoyment in showing their love and care to those near and dear to them.

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

Throw out your pre-conceived notions of what it is like to be a published author because most folks have an unrealistic, romantic notion of what it is like. If you think you have something to contribute and you aren’t afraid of hard work, then try your hand at it. Lean on authors and publishers who have gone on before. They have a wealth of helpful information. And last but not least, pray about it. We can muster up furious energy and generate all kinds of activity; we can make all the plans we want, but ultimately it is God who determines our steps.

For many years Dyan Garris has been counseling clients in order to help them positively move forward in their lives.  She is clairvoyant, clairsentient, and clairaudient.   In addition, Dyan is also what is known as a voice recognition psychic and trance channel.  This means that she can help her clients via phone, which is how she conducted her readings throughout her career. 

Dyan became aware of her clairvoyance, and other gifts, at a very young age.  She spent years learning how to use these gifts to help others. 

In 2005 she created a CD series of music and meditation for self-healing, relaxation, chakra balancing, and vibrational attunement of mind, body, and spirit.

Her interest in music began as a child.  A blind piano teacher who taught her to “feel” music and “see” through different eyes influenced her at a young age. 

Dyan continued her music studies with the violin.  Through the violin she learned how easily music vibrates throughout the body and, hence, all of the chakras.  This was her first lesson of how the power of music and sound could be used for healing. 

In 2005, while sitting at the piano, she heard specific songs and titles coming from her psychic connections.  Writing them down as fast as she could, the result was “A Healing Journey – The Voice of the Angels” CD.  This is the first in the series designed for vibrational attunement of the mind, body and spirit.  There are six CDs in the series (all available separately) plus two radio version music-only compilations and two meditation-only compilations. The radio version music compilation “Spiritus Sanctus” Volume 2 was a 2006 NAR Lifestyle Award qualifier in two categories and is still charting well over a year and a half later.  Her new CD of instrumental relaxation music with the angelic vocals of award winning recording artist Amber Norgaard titled “Release” was released in September 2007. 

Dyan’s music can be heard nationally and internationally on numerous radio stations and was recently in the top ten on Music Choice’s “Soundscapes” cable TV channel.  

Dyan is also the author, developer, and artist of “Voice of the Angels-A Healing Journey Spiritual Cards.” These are a thirty card deck of angel cards based upon scenes from “A Healing Journey Guided Fantasy,” which is the guided meditation found on the last track of “A Healing Journey-The Voice of the Angels” CD. Each card has its own channeled message in verse from the Angels.  

Dyan writes a “Daily Channeled Message” which posts on her website every day. Recently, she authored “The Book of Daily Channeled Messages,” which is 180 uplifting, inspirational angelic messages. 

Her new book “Voice of the Angels Cookbook-Talk To Your Food!-Intuitive Cooking” is now available at the author’s website and Amazon.com.  This is an adventure in opening the creative centers and communicating with your food so it can transform from raw ingredients into what truly nourishes you on every level. The book includes twelve food-related channeled messages such as “The Secret Recipe of Life,” and “The Measure of Success,” plus several “Intuitively Speaking” paragraphs which explain how to prepare the recipe using one’s own unique creativity.   For more information log onto www.voiceoftheangels.com.

Welcome to Beyond the Books, Dyan.  Can you tell us whether you are published for the first time or multi-published? 

Thank you for having me as a guest! I am a multi-published author.

What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?

The very first book I wrote is not published and probably never will be. It’s more of a family book now. I wrote it and illustrated it for my younger brother when I was nineteen years old. It’s called “The Adventures of Shaggy and Shannon” and is about two adventurous and quite mischievous sheepdogs. I had an Old English sheepdog at the time. My brother was fascinated by him. My mother had instilled a love of books and reading in us.  She read to us every night even when we could read for ourselves. There were no books commercially available for children at that time about sheepdogs, so I just wrote one for him. It was fun! I think he still has it. 

For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?

The first work I published was “Voice of the Angels – A Healing Journey Spiritual Cards.” I developed and drew them in 1993. Each came with its own channeled message in verse; and each card was based on scenes from “A Healing Journey Guided Fantasy,” which is a meditation I wrote and had put to music as a companion CD. They were meant to work together as an integrated “healing journey.” At the time there were no cards of this nature on the market and the publishing field was quite different than it is today. To get anything published one had to go through the appropriate channels. I wrote up a book proposal and began to shop the cards around. There was a book that went along with the cards and a journal as well.  This type of work was not considered mainstream at the time and producing decks of full color cards was expensive. I received at least fifty rejections.  In the meantime, eventually someone did come out with decks of angel cards with channeled messages and that was good because it opened doors that were previously closed.  Over the years I reworked the cards, instruction book, journal and CD; and when technology caught up I was able to showcase the cards as a free interactive angel card reading on my website. I also self-published them.  It  all worked out much better this way.  

I don’t think most people process rejection easily. The key is to not take it personally.  So I tried to gain an understanding of the bigger picture. It was still difficult and I did keep trying for thirteen years.  During this time I saw more and more cards of this nature come out into the marketplace.  I decided that there had to be more to my body of work because otherwise the publication of the cards through traditional channels would have all come about more easily. It would have just flowed if it was the right time.  So focusing on the big picture I knew that someday the entire plan would reveal itself. Now I can see how much larger in scope the whole thing is. My work is vibrational attunement of mind, body, and spirit and all of my products, cards, books, music, meditations, all work together with that goal in mind. It is so much more than developing decks of angelic spiritual cards. 

I self-published and I chose that route because over the years I came to be able to clearly define my goals. I thought about them for thirteen years. I came to realize that I really didn’t care if a large publisher picked me up or not. It wasn’t about money, fame, or prestige. It became a matter of being able to get my work out into the marketplace in the order that it needed to be in and in the timeframe that it needed to get out there. The way I did it allowed me to effectively accomplish that goal. It seemed the natural and easiest route.  

After waiting thirteen years to see my project come alive as an integrated “healing journey”, the feeling was indescribable. The cards were more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. It was a great feeling of accomplishment. I celebrated by being extremely grateful and thankful that after such a long birthing process they were finally here! It was very exciting and inspired me to greater heights in every other area of life.   

What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?

The very first thing I did was to print some flyers and I did some direct mail marketing. I can’t say that it was tremendously successful in terms of monetary return. However, I still do use the flyer in my press kit. I did other things along the way that worked better. Life is a learning process. You have to have a clearly defined set of goals and know exactly where you want to promote and why and know what you are trying to accomplish.  And then you figure out the most effective way to reach the goal.   

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

No, because I believe that without having traveled the route that I traveled in the journey of trying to get the cards published, my work would not be the complete body of work that it is today. And it certainly gave me the gifts of patience and fortitude. Also, I think my visions would have ultimately been limited by doing this the traditional way.  I didn’t understand all of this at the time. I do now though, and I can say that it has been an amazing journey.  

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?

Yes, since that time I’ve published several books and am working on one more.  One of the books I’ve published since that time is “Voice of the Angels Cookbook – Talk To Your Food! – Intuitive Cooking.” That was great fun to create. I made and photographed all the food and then had a big party. Another book I just published is “The Book of Daily Channeled Messages.” It’s one-hundred-eighty messages for when one needs angelic guidance.  The book I’m currently working on is about money and how to manifest it.  Many people have challenges in this area and I think it will help a lot of people.  I’ve grown in so many ways as an author because once you realize that you aren’t limited in any way, you can create and produce and express anything that you can “cook” up!  

Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up?  What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?

I’m not sure that I could have done anything differently because the technology that I needed to complete the project in the way that it was supposed to be done was not there yet.  So much of everything is timing. I believe that mistakes are opportunities for learning in disguise. So I wouldn’t change a thing. Everything that happened, including rejection, led to where I am now. I don’t know that I could have avoided anything in this process by doing anything differently. To me it seems as if it’s a divinely inspired plan. However, it did require trust, patience and the willingness to go with the flow.  My journey required that I walk my own talk.  I did it.  

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

I’m not just an author. I’m a musician was well. The biggest accomplishments so far have been charting in the top 20 of the New Age music charts, qualifying for two awards there and being in the top ten on Music Choices “Soundscapes” cable TV channel; and I was #1 on another radio program.  It’s been very exciting.  I’m hoping to do even better with my new CD “Release.” And I feel there is always something new to accomplish in life.    

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

By profession I’m a psychic and clairvoyant. I did private readings for a lot of years. Growing up it was challenging to be so different at a time when the majority of people viewed these gifts as completely non-acceptable or frightening or evil. People have a natural fear of the unknown or the unexplainable. It’s better now, but still looked upon with suspicion sometimes.  I learned along the way how important it is to validate your own parking ticket rather than try to get the stamp of approval on yourself from the outside. These days I don’t make any apologies for just being myself. I just do my best.  I can’t change who I am or what my gifts are. So I accept them wholly and unconditionally, just as I accept wholly and unconditionally those who do not understand as well. If I really think about these gifts, they are really rather awesome. So I am grateful for having them and being able to use them to help others when called upon to do so. I do not know that I would want to be anything else. The only other thing I’ve ever wanted to be was a musician and that dream has already manifested. But you’re asking what else I would have picked, so I think I would probably have chosen the restaurant business, catering or personal chef. I’m a gourmet cook. It feels wonderfully relaxing to me to cook and it is a fabulously creative outlet. For me it’s a completely joyful experience and that’s part of the reason I wrote the cookbook. I tried to keep most of it easy, but I also wanted to try to translate some of that joy to others.   

I believe I’ve combined the best of all the worlds. I believe in taking everything you have in your refrigerator of life and making something wonderful with it all.   

How do you see yourself in ten years?

I see myself as pretty much the same. Hopefully I will still be creating, making music, and writing. I have no plans to sit and do nothing. I love to create and it’s when I am most happy.  

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?