Hello, I’m Brenda Bott and I’m the author of Cocoon Chronicles, A love story.
This book is truly special because it touches a wide variety of people, emotions and situations. The attached cover design illustrates and summarizes the “gist” of the book. The intention is for this book to motivate, empower, influence and inspire the reader to realize their own “personal power”.
My husband, Glenn, was given a dismal prognosis by several doctors after suffering a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury while bicycling. This book speaks to how he “beat all odds” but more than that how we didn’t listen to a prognosis that was a general evaluation based on statistics gathered from several previous patients. What we knew for sure was that Glenn was NOT all of those people, he was not all of those statistics and he had a very strong will and belief that he could overcome this. This book takes the reader through that experience and demonstrates personal power and trust and belief beyond measure.
The original plan for this book was to gift it to family and friends who were so involved in Glenn’s healing process – we had planned to give it to them on the 15th Anniversary of Glenn’s accident. As the book was taking form and as we were working with the copyrighter to create the scope and layout of the book, we quickly realized this book needed to be shared on a broader scope. I know its cliché but if this book could help others, we needed to have it out there. We needed to help others “know” of their own personal strength and power to heal themselves.
I think the biggest mistake you can make in a book is to give up on it. There may be times you want to throw in the towel or you might feel like you can’t give it the attention it deserves. My advice is to “take a break” if you experience setbacks or aren’t in the mood. Writing a book is not a race – it’s a journey and your creation can be shared any time during your life. Also, I found that the more I worked on the book the better it became. Every time I proofread it, I loved it more and more and became more excited to share it.
My greatest tip for choosing a cover is to hire a great graphic designer. Our designer gave us several samples for covers and we loved them all – it was hard to choose one. There will always be one that “grabs” you but a good designer will make the selection difficult. As for the title of the book – I always knew the title – from the day I thought about writing it, I knew it would be called Cocoon Chronicles.
Our book was just published on July 11, 2019. It took approximately 1 1/2 years to write. It definitely was a process and I feel like I proofread it about 200 times but it was definitely worth the time and work that went into it. I’ve not had children in this lifetime but I feel like this must be what it’s like to create a sweet little child and welcome it and share it with the world.
Bad reviews and negative feedback should never affect a creator. This is YOUR work which came from YOUR heart and what others think about it is none of your business. You put all of your heart and soul into this work and you will always be your only and best critic.
My husband and I wrote a cute little book entitled Luke’s Life Lessons as practice for Cocoon Chronicles. Luke’s Life Lessons is a sweet little book about life lessons taught to us by our Golden Retriever, Luke. It’s a wonderful children’s book but an awesome book for adults as well.
My husband has also presented a TEDx talk which was based on the subject “We Are Creators” where he summarized the story the book tells focusing on Personal Power. The TEDx Talk was very well received by the 700+ folks who attended that talk and Glenn received a standing ovation afterwards. If you’d like to view that talk the link is below:
https://www.tedxgj.com/sessions/drop-your-crutches/
Author Biography: Brenda Bott truly loves life and all it has to offer. She strives to add impeccable integrity and fun to the space she occupies. She thoroughly enjoys the human relationship side of every life experience she encounters. Brenda is especially talented at listening to others, romping through life with them and guiding them to a better feeling place. Early in life she was introduced to an outrageous mentor who was much like Maya Angelou, and who taught her to embrace her unique and perfect self. Brenda understands that we are each wondrous and divine and deserve only the best life has to offer. “There are no accidents” is one of her favorite mantras, so she looks at life as “always on purpose” and welcomes every experience as one sent by God. Brenda has attracted numerous exciting and fun occupations into her life, including pharmacist’s technician, floral designer, and airline reservationist. Brenda also owned a retail home furnishings and gift store in Arvada, Colorado for 15 years, where she got to play at interior decorating and running a quaint neighborhood shop of “delights and delightful experiences.” She currently works as an Executive Assistant for a school district. Brenda enjoys hiking, golfing, baking, road trips, and various crafts.