I was at my nephew’s 5th birthday party, shortly after my wife told me she was pregnant with our son, and I became inspired to write something that could help them navigate life with equanimity. 

Adam Luaces – 27 July 2020

The Back Flap

Art of Forgiveness is a self-coaching manual designed to engage your mind with insightful, self-remembrance visualization drills. This book has been developed as a mindfulness strength and conditioning training program designed to recalibrate your demeanor and expand your ability to counteract negative self-talk by dedicating mental devotion to family and friends.

Meditation cultivates an intimate relationship within yourself via various attention techniques (daily breathing techniques, thought management, and stillness modifications) – to train your inner state to become more aware, achieve mental clarity, and attain emotional calmness.

Traditional mindfulness instruction requires the practitioner to fixate their complete attention on nothingness or hypnotize themselves with a mantra until their mind wanders. This conventional method of concentration training easily breaks underneath a tidal wave of incessant, divergent, and convergent thoughts, obliterating your ability to remain still or attain presence.

About the book

What is the book about?

Self-coaching the mind to recalibrate inner demeanor through forgiveness. Expanding the ability to counteract negative self-talk and become a calmer person.

When did you start writing the book?

October 2019.

How long did it take you to write it?

​ 3 months

Where did you get the idea from?

I was at my nephew’s 5th birthday party, shortly after my wife told me she was pregnant with our son, and I became inspired to write something that could help them navigate life with equanimity.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Mostly the confidence to begin, continue, and finish writing it.

What came easily?

Presenting the content.  I’ve been keeping a journal of notes since I began the practice of spending time in quiet reflection.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

The only characters so to speak would be my pre-meditation self and the woman who introduced him to meditation. They appear briefly in the forward.

Do you have a target reader?

Anyone interested in developing a meditation, mindfulness, or self-reflection practice.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

​During the genesis of the book, I wrote 500 words a day, every day. Then, I got the idea to integrate mindfulness exercises and thought training techniques. The final step was calibrating and framing the content with context in the forward, prologue, and epilogue.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

I had a full concept of the inner structure of the book and outline of the chapter themes but wrote from the heart within that architecture.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I would have multiple engagements with each chapter until I loved the read.

Did you hire a professional editor?

Yes. Emma Moylan, extremely insightful and exquisitely professional. She gave me the title. I owe her a lot of gratitude. In addition, I worked with two masterful formatters, Faisal Adeel for the interior design, and Muhammad Bilal for the ‘free gift’ personal workbook.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

I listen to the same theta binaural beat at a very low level, almost a buzz, every time I write. It locks me into the trace flow-state of the artform of writing.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

Not yet, but looking forward to beginning that journey.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

I decided to go with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) which is fast, easy and free. It allows me to keep control and publish the book worldwide and provides the ability to offer free Kindle downloads for Prime members.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

Professional. The wonderfully talented graphic artist, Flor Figueroa, designed the cover art.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

I’ve developed a six month marketing plan with campaigns planned in two week intervals.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

Do the work. Take your time. Stay motivated. Then spend the money on professional editing the content, formatting for read, and designing the cover art.

About You

Where did you grow up?

New York.

Where do you live now?

Upstate, New York

What would you like readers to know about you?

​ That I look forward to hearing about the healing they will find by introducing these mental strength and conditioning techniques and recalibration practices into their daily lives.

What are you working on now?

A memoir about my father.

End of Interview:

For more from Adam Luaces visit his website, check out his blog posts on Medium, and follow him on Twitter.

Get your copy of Art of Forgiveness from Amazon US or Amazon UK.