Jill Jepson is a traveler, professor, and transformational life coach, and the author of three books and over sixty articles. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago as well as degrees in writing, psychology, social science, and Asian studies. Using her extensive travels to places as diverse as Guatemala, Syria, Siberia, and Afghanistan, her writing explores spiritual traditions, history, culture, personal growth, and the writing process. Through her business, Writing the Whirlwind, she offers coaching and online workshops for writers, activists, and others.
Jill will be on virtual book tour in August ‘09 to promote her latest personal growth/writing book, Writing as a Sacred Path: A Practical Guide to Writing With Passion and Purpose. We interviewed her to find out more about her wonderful new book.
Q. Thank you for this interview, Jill. Can we begin by having you tell us why you chose to write a personal growth and writing book?
A: I think I could best answer the question by saying the topic chose me, rather than vice versa. The book was a natural outcome of a lifetime of writing, teaching writing, and coaching writers. It was also the result of a long spiritual journey that took me all over the world and through many spiritual experiences. When I found those two threads of my life coming together, the book seemed to appear in my consciousness, practically asking to be written. It was a very organic, very instinctive process.
Q. Did you outline before you wrote your book or just went with the flow?
A: I put my fingers to the keyboard and let the words come. As I was working on the book, ideas would come to me at all hours of the day and night—it was all I could do to get them all down. The book is organized around four spiritual practices—that of the shaman, the warrior, the mystic, and the monk and how writers can use aspects of those practices in their lives and their work, but that organization grew naturally out of the material itself, not as the result of an outline or a conscious attempt to organize. It was only in the last stages of the book that I sat down and looked at organization, making sure to get everything in its proper place, to be as clear as possible.
