Gail Thackray Answers Questions for Pagan Pages
Pagan Pages: Where are you from? Gail Thackray: From England, the North of England, Yorkshire but I’ve lived in Los Angeles for a long time now so that somehow makes my accent sound Australian!
PP: When and why did you begin writing?
GT: When I went to visit John of God, the Brazilian healer, the experience was so incredible and it changed my life so much; I knew I had to share this story. PP: When did you first consider yourself a writer?
GT: Hah! I still don’t consider myself a writer! When I was a teenager, a psychic told me I would be an author and I thought she was nuts! I couldn’t even spell. I was going to be a veterinarian and writing was nowhere in my realm of reality. I write like I talk and I experience. My books are very down-to-earth and a little chatty. I do not consider them to be any great literary works but people are carried into the stories because they feel a genuine connection. I often hear that people cannot put them down and even feel a sort of energy from my books. To me that is more important. PP: What inspired you to write your first book?
GT: That’s a bit of a trick question. You see, the first book I published was 30 Days to Prosperity: A Workbook to Manifest Abundance. However, I don’t feel like I can completely take credit for that one. I was teaching healing, mediumship, and spirituality and often wrote notes for handouts. I remember having been through a period of difficulty and asking my guides to help me manifest. I scribbled daily notes from the messages I received and then put it away and simply forgot about it. Much later another situation came up and I asked for a little spiritual guidance. Only a few hours afterwards, I was asked to speak at a conference on manifesting! Looking for something I could talk about, I pulled up what I thought were a few notes on my computer and there in its entirety, was my whole manifesting book!
My book about visiting John of God was really the first book that I feel I wrote and with that one, I simply sat down and wrote from the heart.
PP: Is there a message in your works that you want readers to grasp? GT: My books are about spirituality, opening your intuition, healing, and empowering your life. I like to share my experiences because I believe we all have these abilities and when people become genuinely carried into the story, there is a sort of connection, even a transmission of energy. I share my stories and experiences in the hope that others will relate and find similarities in their own life. I wish to inspire people to be open and to receive what is available to all of us if we would only look around. PP: Are your experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
GT: My books all come from my own experiences and from what I have learned. I like to share the knowledge and then let people decide for themselves what works for them. They are not so much educational but more a sharing of life experiences, both great ones and the ones not so pleasant. I think it is important to show my pitfalls as well and let people have a laugh at my expense. PP: What books have most influenced your life most? GT: I am a devourer of non-fiction spiritual self-help books. I love Louise Hay and her Hay House line of spectacular authors. I find that books by the greats in this field, such as Deepak Chopra, inspire me and I love to read them. But to be honest, I have a hard time really integrating the concepts into my life. I like to write about some of these same ideas, but I have to write a little more down-to-earth and from my own experiences of these. PP: What are your current projects?
GT: I have a new book, Freaky Life Moments: A Medium’s Path to the Psychic World. This encompasses my journey of becoming a psychic and healer and the many crazy experiences it entailed. It also reflects on the little signs or “life’s freaky moments” as I call them, that I think we all experience from time to time. I wrote it in a way that I hope people will recognize similar occurrences in their own life and that they not only enjoy the stories but realize that this is within themselves as well.
At the same time I have been writing The Search for the Miracle Cure, which is all about healing one’s self from the inside out. I believe that all “incurable” diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis can in fact be healed by a combination of spiritual work and natural medicine. I wanted to write this because I believe it so important that this message is shared. I want people to know they can be healthy, physically and emotionally, and to empower them with the tools to overcome everything from the simple ailment or situation to even the “incurables.” PP: Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members. GT: I receive so much support from my students, my friends, and others in this spiritual community, but ultimately I believe we are supported from another more invisible world. We don’t realize it but much of our intuition, much of our inspiration, and many of the opportunities that come our way are from Divine guidance. PP: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
GT: Nothing! I know there are some who would take more time perfecting their works. I know mine are not perfect but I tend to be of the thought that I shared, I loved every moment, and I’d like to go on and share more. With this in mind I have written almost ten books in a little over a year. PP: Can you share a little of your current work with us?
GT: I teach, travel, and demonstrate spiritual healing, mediumship and New Age thought. It is through this work that I am inspired to write about what I see and learn. I am not firstly a writer, but rather writing comes as a product of what I do. PP: Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
GT: If I have difficulty anywhere, I would say it is in tying it all together to form a cohesive flow. Sometimes my ideas will come more as individual sections and making them transition from one to another within the theme of the book is sometimes my obstacle. PP: Who designed the covers?
GT: I found a couple of local artists that specialize in book covers and sometimes layout as well. I usually come up with a basic idea of how I think the cover should look. Almost always they surprise me with something much better than what I had in mind. PP: What was the hardest part of writing your book? GT: Life! Life gets in the way sometimes. It would be great to hole up in a hut in the mountains for a couple of weeks and just write your heart out. Meanwhile I take the moments I can. PP: Do you have any advice for other writers?
GT: Just do it! Just get it out! That’s my philosophy and it may not work for all, but publishing is so easy these days. It is a shame to only want and dream about writing a book when you can just do it. And for me, I just say it how it is. Write from the heart, you can always go back and edit but I usually don’t. PP: Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Write about your passions. Write about what inspires you. Don’t worry about who your audience is, write what you know best, what lights you up and your audience will find you. Seriously, if I can be a “published author” anyone can!
Gail Thackray is the author of several books on healing and spirituality, available on Amazon.
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