My name is Lisa Picard and right now I’m simply bubbling over with excitement!
I have recently completed my first novel called, The Green Lady. This book of deeply spiritual and heart-centered stories from the forest to enchant your inner child is my most loving gift to the world. As the book was a free gift from my own inner self, I have made the e-book version available, absolutely free-of-charge. I do this because I want as many people as possible to have free access to these beautiful, transformative stories. I truly hope that you will enjoy (have enjoyed?) reading it as much as I have loved writing it. If you have, then please share my book as widely and as freely, with as many people, as you possibly can.
The writing of The Green Lady really was like a dream come true for me. I had always wanted to write a novel (well, don’t we all?), but this definitely wasn’t the book I had planned to write! This book just arrived, completely unexpectedly, one winter morning, already fully developed in my imagination. It seemed that all I had to do was to sit down in front of my laptop and take dictation.
Of course, the question arises, who was I actually taking dictation from? Who is the actual author of The Green Lady? I am absolutely convinced that the ego-mind-construct, Lisa, could never have written this book. These stories were like nothing I had ever written before and, at first, my ego informed me that they were simply too “sentimental” and “airy-fairy” to be shared with others. After all, how many adults still want to read fairy-tales? But, the more I engaged with the characters and with their stories, the more beautiful and meaningful they began to appear to me and I realized that I desperately wanted to share them with others. There is much heart-centered truth and deep spiritual wisdom to be found in the stories. I am pretty sure that they will appeal to anyone really seeking to connect with their most authentic self and to lead a purpose-filled life.
The goal of leading of a purpose-filled life is exactly what brought me to the forests of Knysna in South Africa’s Garden Route in the first place. Years ago, when I first had the idea of leaving my corporate job and city life and moving here, I was guided by a vision. In this idyllic vision, my partner, Arn, and I were sitting side-by-side on a sofa in front of a roaring wood fire in a small log cabin in the forest, each writing a book on our laptops and accompanied by our doggie children. Well, late one afternoon, in the middle of the process of writing The Green Lady, I glanced up from my keyboard for a moment and I suddenly realized that my dream had come true! There we were, Arn and I, sitting side-by-side busily writing our respective books in front of a roaring wood fire in our slightly-larger-than-cabin-sized wooden home, accompanied by two, gently snoring Dachshunds, each on their own cushion in front of the fire. It seems to me that, if you can fully imagine the dream in vivid detail, then the universe will conspire to make it come true.
But unfortunately, it’s not all just about dreaming and planning; there’s often a lot of hard work involved in making a dream come true. If I had thought that completion of the writing of the book meant that the biggest job was now done, then I had a rude awakening awaiting me! I hadn’t realized quite how much work would be required to edit, re-edit and re-re-edit, format, (and re-format!), create pictures, a cover, a website and the myriad of other tasks required to package my gift and make it freely available to my potential readers.
In the process, I have learned about the importance, and the appropriate role, of the ego. None of this work could ever have been accomplished without the tenacity and dogged hard work of my poor abused and despised ego. It’s quite simple, really: leadership and direction from the heart and then put ego to work, getting things done.
It’s all been an incredible learning curve for me and I would never have been able to do it without my wonderful partner, Arn, who had gained the necessary experience in order to guide and assist me, in publishing his own book, The Ascension Papers. Arn has the most unbelievably diverse set of skills and I have him to thank for the beautiful cover art and for developing my website.
As I write this blog, I am just about to commence writing my second book, The Story of the Green Lady, in which the journalist, Peter Allen, whom we met in the first book, captures the story of the mysterious Green Lady of the forest.
Who is she?
Where did she come from?
How did she become the Green Lady?
What is her purpose?
These are just some of the questions that will be answered in this new book.
If you loved The Green Lady, then I know that you will enjoy The Story of the Green Lady even more. Keep checking my blog postings, as I will update on the progress of my new book as I go.
In the meantime, please read about my transition “From Ego to Heart” in my online diary. There are also whimsical short stories and other writings that I will post from time-to-time, as my muse dictates.
And so the journey continues…