Tony Brasunas

Sometimes I get stuck in a funk, feeling desperate or depressed. It can be hard to even remember why or how it was that I felt good before.

If I can just find a moment or two of conscious awareness in these times, I remember that there are many ways to shift this experience. One extreme but effective way I’ve learned is to change my perspective drastically — by imagining I’m going to die.

Here’s how to do it: Close your eyes and take a moment. Pretend you just heard that, without a doubt, for sure, due to a freak and sudden painless accident, you are going to die precisely one year from today. Now ask yourself, What would I do?

Sit back and see where your mind goes. Just watch your mind for a minute. You’ll probably hear yourself say something like, “Well, I definitely wouldn’t worry about that anymore.” And then maybe, “I’d go do that, why not?”

Consider making those changes in your life right away.

But don’t do anything yet, obviously. This is just an exercise. Write down a few of the ideas that dawn on you.

Then try changing the timeframe. If you did one year the first time, now try three months or five years. And then sit back and see where your mind goes. You can try your own timeframe: one week, six months, or ten years.

It can be useful also to try a timeframe that is longer than you expect to live (particularly if you already have a specific life expectation for medical or other reasons.)

You’ll probably find yourself grateful about things you took for granted, angry about things you’ve been wasting time on for months or years, depressed about the repetitiveness of a pattern that you haven’t broken yet, and maybe excited that it’s time to take a chance on that thing you’ve been longing to try.

That’s what happens for me. And I usually see something cool that I hadn’t seen before.

When we remember that we all have this terminal condition called life, and that no one gets out of here alive, we can touch that mysterious miracle that we do have this time, at least. And that’s a change in perspective that has snapped me out of many a funk.

As I’ve mentioned before, Double Happiness has been blessed to win several book awards.

Most book awards have decals that can be placed on the cover of the book, and this is a very good problem to have, obviously, but my question for you is: Should I acquire and attach decals for each award? Or just one award? Or none? Which looks best?

I want to present a great image to attract the people who would enjoy and benefit from the story of Double Happiness — as well as to sway some who might, you know, judge a book by its…

Some people have said they can’t really read the awards on the decals below. You can see the awards up close here.

Vote below. To vote for your favorite, just click on it. To vote for more than one, tick the boxes and click ‘Vote.’

[[POLL]]

There are more prestigious awards out there; none of these decals is yet for a Nobel Prize or a Pulitzer (one can always dream). Nevertheless I think including one or more of these awards helps potential readers and indicates a distinction about the book: professionals who spend a lot of time reading books have recognized Double Happiness as exceptional.

Another option is to have my wonderful cover designer add the award decal to the cover image itself, so that there’s no need to attach actual stickers.

What are your thoughts? Comment below; I’ve moved to social media commenting too. Do you like?

Thank you for your thoughts!

ps: You can still get Double Happiness for free or very reasonably priced during August and September.

It’s a delight to write this entry. Double Happiness has been winning or placing in most of the book awards it has entered.

I’ve already written about winning Best Memoir at the Paris Book Festival and attending the stateside awards ceremony (see video below).

ForeWord Book Reviews, one of the most prestigious magazines in the growing world of independent publishing, has just announced the winners of its Book of the Year Awards (recently renamed the “IndieFab Awards”). I’m honored to say that Double Happiness has been named Silver Winner in the Travel category, beating out hundreds of other titles.

Here are the awards Double Happiness has won thus far.

• ForeWord Book of the Year
  Silver Winner (TRAVEL)
  “These are the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the cherries on top a metaphorical ice cream sundae of indie books. You’ve been waiting months and now here they are, the winners of the 2013 IndieFab Book of the Year Awards.”
• Paris Book Festival
  Winner (BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY)
  “Awarding general excellence and the author’s passion for telling a good story, as well as the potential of the work to gain a wide audience in the worldwide market”
• Indie Excellence Award
  Winner (TRAVEL)
  “A proud champion of small presses, independent presses, and self-publishers that go the extra mile to produce books of excellence in every aspect.
• Eric Hoffer Award
  Honorable Mention (MEMOIR)
  “Established at the start of the 21st century as a means of opening a door to writing of significant merit. It honors the memory of the great American philosopher Eric Hoffer.”
• San Francisco Book Festival
  Honorable Mention (TRAVEL)
  “Considers entries in 18 categories. There is no date of publication restriction. “

I accepted the Paris Book Festival award at the stateside ceremony, at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco:
(apologies for the quality of the video).

Update July 21, 2014: Double Happiness has also been named a Finalist of the 2014 Readers’ Favorite Award.