A room without books is like a body without a soul
Marcus Tullius Cicero
I have always been a keen reader, I have a love of book shops, proper book shops that is, ones you can take your time in, preferably have a coffee in a quiet corner. I read every day; it helps to switch off my very busy mind! I never read ‘business or lifestyle’ books in bed, I can’t think of anything worse at that time of day it has to be fiction and a form of escapism.
Despite early academic decisions being based around writing, I never planned on writing a book. I studied to become a journalist until I went on work experience with a TV studio and found that I hated it! It took another 15 years before I took a change in career completely to become a Personal Trainer and Nutritional Therapist before I found I had any real inspiration or inclination to become an author.
I studied Advanced Nutrition for Children’s Brain Development and became even more fascinated with the links that formative nutrition has on future health, we are literally shaping the health of a future generation with what we are feeding our children. On completion of this course, I shut myself away in a frenzy of post-it notes, scribbled drawings, hastily thrown together team meetings with designers, copywriters, proof readers and printers and three months later I had a book! To say it was a rush is an understatement, to say I planned it all would be a lie but I ended up with a book! My book - How Food Shapes Your Child.
It was important for me to involve my son in the book, children can be very involved in food choices and one of my aims is to give children a voice when it comes to shaping their own health. He was my chief taster (highly critical) for the recipes and came up with Captain Red Pepper Pants when let loose in the design studio.
With my designer Mikki Longley https://mikkilongleycreative.com/ Owen aged 4 coming up with one of the characters for the book.
I didn’t know what to expect with the book. Someone described it to me as being ‘the most expensive business card you will ever own’ and that is very true!!! It’s very hard to sell a book (no one mentions that) it’s practically impossible to sell with retailers unless you have very wide financial margins! But what it did do in many unexpected ways was open doors for me and create opportunities.
· Keynote speaker
· Speaker at events
· Provided content for other books
· Provided content for apps
· Hosted a Food Channel on Early Years TV
Whilst I was in London doing a two-day speaking event I received the news that my book had won an award, which was particularly exciting given there was this amazing panel involved in Judging. One of whom, Dale, https://www.dalepinnock.com/ I inadvertently was judging alongside at The Nourish Awards https://nourishawards.org/ and didn’t recognise him!
It’s hard work having a book, it is a full-time job to promote it and I have many full-time commitments so it was amazing when I was invited to join Sue Atkins book club. This is a wonderful author community led by Sue Atkins ITV This Morning, Disney Junior. We support each other and there’s so much I don’t know and so many author goings-on that I would never have found out about!!! https://sueatkinsparentingcoach.com/category/sue-atkins-book-club/
Recently one of the book club members; Ian Gilbert a educational innovator, award-winning writer, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker, hosted a virtual Children’s book festival, we did author interviews and had a lovely chat with the host Ian Gilbert, the link to mine is below: -
The full list of all of the author interviews and books is here, this is well worth a look if you work with children, there is a host of relevant CPD here.
I am glad to have finally found my way to being an author, especially as I feel this is a very important subject and one that needs addressing. My book is a combination of nutritional science, facts such as how to build a brain but also it’s a colourful user-friendly, engaging family cook book.
Louise Mercieca
Nutritional Therapist
Personal Trainer
Early Years Nutrition Consultant
Award-winning Author
Food & Health Writer
Presenter on Early Years TV Food
Keynote speaker
www.thehealthkick.co.uk