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Hello all my beloved friends,

I did my first Zumba class in ages last night - as a student, not a teacher, and it made me remember so many things I learned in what is almost 9 years since I did my training (and I taught a few classes before I actually did my training - did not know what I was doing and the real instructor hadn’t turned up,) and one of the most important was that we sometimes need that group energy - that union to help us move forward, and it’s given me the push I needed to say, yes, I am going to share a lot more with my friends (that’s you) via blog and newsletter. I’m not sure whether it would be best to do two separate newsletters - one for Zumba and Pearl Escapes type things and one for publishing stuff - and I’d love it if you let me know what you prefer, but for now I’m just going to add in a few headings, so you can skim right past anything that you’re not interested in.

And please let me know your other news too! Because I respect your confidentiality PLEASE let me know if you’d like me to share or not, and I’ll also be posting about my clients’ releases, so please shout out to them - on social media, or back through me. This group thing is just as powerful as one to one coaching and this group, or as a Buddhist monk would call it, sangha, or as we in Zumba would call it - family, is so incredible, and if I can share half of the things you get up to, it will inspire everyone else!

Zumba News

Still got a dodgy ankle - strained my ligament last year and it has been the slowest recovery! I couldn’t even get through the whole class as a student last night which makes me sad, but is also a great reality check that I need to focus on rehab and my health in general to get back to peak fitness. It’s a coming!

I also got contacted last week by Go Sweat (anyone heard of them?) who want to put me on their books for corporate clients. Right now they really want me to post drop in classes, which I can’t, (or I could for meditation and that sort of thing) but in September they’ll be posting “by arrangement” classes and I might be up to it by then. (And yes, I probably could teach chair class... hmmm...)

(And if you want to know it was Georgie Overington’s class at the Chichester Racquet Club - such a lovely club and you don’t need to be a member to do it. Wednesday 6:30-7:15pm. Only her third ever class - she is so much better than I was when I first started!)

It’s Zumba Convention next week, which I sadly won’t be attending, it would be wasted on me with this ankle, right, and sadly they won’t be doing Zumba Cruise or Vacation next year - but I’ll be keeping my eyes open for what next, and hoping to be able to do a training or maybe just a masterclass soon. There have been some great sessions in the UK, but I’ve found out about them too late to join in! Selina Wedderburn and I have also been talking about doing an African masterclass - maybe in London or on the beach... I know all the good spots down here to stay if anyone is interested, and it’s only an hour or two from London!

Yeah, Zumba on the beach... let me just find out from Selina if she’s prepared to risk sand in her speakers?!

Publishing News

Luckily I can do this with a dodgy ankle!

Hooray for my wonderful client AM Hellberg Moberg aka Anna Maria Espsäter, who has published not one, but two!! fiction books this summer. (I only worked on the short stories.)

Boldly Into Darkness Go

How Pat Got Her Five Cats

Anna Maria is an incredibly experienced travel writer (much more than me) and is fluent in several languages (I’m so glad I didn’t know all that when I started working on her book)! This is the review (completely impartial) that I wrote of “Boldly Into Darkness Go” as one of her first readers. You can Follow her on Amazon or find her on Instagram... and, of course, please find, read and review her books online!

"The short story is notoriously difficult to master, many prize-winning novelists have tried and failed to conquer it, but in this collection AM Hellberg Moberg succeeds. Each story has a unique reward, whether it is in making you laugh out loud, think twice or just feel the pure emotion of her truthful coming of age stories. What I loved is that the author doesn't write for one stereotypical reader, but for the whole world; the young old person, the teenager with an old soul, the straight and gay, the innocent and the vengeful, the pragmatic and the mystical. The Northern Lights are a powerful theme within 'Boldly Into Darkness Go,' but if I can steal another piece of Scandinavian culture I would say that AM Hellberg Moberg has, in this collection, served up a delicious smorgasbord."

I also want to shout out to the incredible Joyce Chiu Broadbent who got me into working with other writers at the end of last year. She is one of my greatest teachers, and I hope she won’t mind if I say that I learned a lot from working on her book:

From The Heart: Poems of Love and Loss

I learned that I actually prefer cream paper to white, that hardbacks look lovely (and I can do a wraparound cover) and that even the most well balanced human being struggles when they become an author to have their name as big as it should be on the cover! (In stark contrast to business owners who, when you do any design work for them, always ask “Can you make the logo bigger!) In fact, I think many people hide behind their logo and business - something my new novel is all about...

I’ve also just started releasing all of my travel stories as incredibly short books... and, guess what, they hit the Best Seller lists immediately! I even got a new tick/label on Amazon - #1 New Release for my Durban book. How cool is that! I’d just updated my website Books and DVDs page - and now I have to do it again! because Venice is now a Best Seller.

These were my heights from the last week:-

10th July 2019

Durban

US paperback

#1 New Release in General South Africa Travel Books

Venice

US Kindle

#33 in Literary Travel

#54 in Venice Travel Guides

#34 in One-Hour Travel Short Reads

Japan

US paperback

#51 in Kyoto Travel Guides

You’ll also see that I list whether it’s UK/US Kindle or paperback - because sometimes you can be ranking in one country, but not another. I’m learning all the time!

What I’ve really learned is that we usually try to give too much to our students/clients, (okay, like this email!) and KISS is better for 99% of the time. Less is more.

I’ve also been running a stack of Giveaways - sadly you can only do this in the US, and it’s been interesting to see which books are most popular. My Giveaway of “Meditation for Angry People” went in the blink of an eye! So it will be interesting to see if there’s a similar pick up in sales/downloads from that. (Just one more note for self publishers, this is a funny one as I made the book free via Lulu ages ago as a promotion, but then have changed the price back up and, over a year later, it’s still not the correct price! So don’t try this on Lulu! I’m going to have to pull it “off the shelf” and re-release to get the price right!)

Okay, I’m going to try to do less now - but just to let you know, if you want to catch up with me, I’ll be at the Dispace launch party next Thursday 25th July in Moorgate, and will be doing a talk at Rume2 in Chichester Wednesday 14th August 1-2pm on “The Power of Self-Publishing”. Contact either co-working space to book your free ticket.

Lots of love, Pearl x

Pearl Howie is the writer of “free Feeling Real Emotions Everyday”, now available as a photographic paperback and eBook, a text only book and as an audiobook. The 8 other titles in this series, are already available as paperbacks and eBooks and are coming soon as audiobooks (Japan and the first part of Camino are now available).

https://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Howie/e/B007HJFBH4

FANTASTICAL BOOKS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

(For the full list of books check out My Books and DVDs.)