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I find book writing to be a long, arduous journey. I know now that I will need many friendly helping hands along the way. Fate intervened with my first "real" book. Just weeks before it was supposed to go to press, a new student, Karen, joined my yoga class. She heard me gushing that the book I had been working on for twenty years was finally finished.

Karen announced that she was a book editor and asked if she could see the galleys. Soon after, we got into the first of many fights. She had the unmitigated gall to tell me to my face, "This book is not done. It needs reorganization. It has no structure, no skeleton... blah, blah, blah..."

At first her criticism fell on deaf ears. After all, my book had passed the scrutiny of the publisher's editorial team. And I was already beaten to a pulp having been rejected by four agents and all these mean publishers. What more could the Universe ask! Fortunately, my editor-student prevailed. I was just a country-bumpkin writer but she hailed from New York and told my publisher she'd whip the book into shape. She was merciless, rigorous, unrelenting. She took my "finished" book home and started giving me daily assignments. Another yoga teacher, Judy, took over my classes and I was chained six more months to my computer, where I sat, day after day, typing with one hopeless finger, just as I am doing now.

Since that writing experience, I have begun religiously reading books on writing; Brenda Ueland's "If You Want to Write," Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones," and "Wild Mind," Deena Metzger's "Writing for Your Life," and "The Way of Story," by Ojai's own playwrite and screen writer, Cathrine Ann Jones, just to name a few.

All these books will help assure that your writing sees the light of day. I also want to recommend this new book:

Writing Begins with the Breath, Embodying Your Authentic Voice, by Laraine Herring, (Shambala, 2007).

As I leaf through the book to write this review, I see underlined sentences on almost every page. This book compliments the other writing books that encourage me down the writing path.

Laraine Herring is an award winning author and a master teacher of creative writing. She teaches workshops which use writing as a tool for healing. This book is sprinkled with lively anecdotes from her experiences as both student and teacher.

Part One, entitled "Focusing the Mind," opens with a chapter called "Risk." Herring recalls how the memoirist Michael Datcher was giving a seminar where he discussed the element of personal risk. A writer must ask herself, "What are you willing to risk to tell your stories?" She goes on to say that Datcher implied that "If we played it safe, hedged our bets, we were doing a disservice to our art. He wanted us to metaphorically slice ourselves open and see what oozed out."

In Part Two, Laraine takes writers into the "Deep Writing Process." Here I felt her leap out of the page and shake her finger at me like some strict English teacher. "When you don't pay attention to how scenes are sculpted, how point of view works, or how best to punctuate your sentences, the result is sloppy writing. Your inattention to detail is disrespectful to your reader and your art."

Part Three, "Embracing What and Where You Are" explores that state when you've just finished your book, and the process of letting go. Here the author reminds us that "Everything that begins, ends...Working with impermanence will deepen your writing practice."

Laraine ends each chapter with "Touchstones," imaginative exercises to inspire and discipline your own deep writing practice.

The final chapter, "Stillness," brings us to a resting place, the Savasana of writing practice. Seasoned yogis may find the guidance here quite basic, but it's important to remember that the art of letting go is essential to the writing process. Here Laraine quotes her yoga teacher, "The world can turn without your help for just a moment."

This spirited guide to the craft of writing has given me another set of tools to help turn the messy, rambling pages of my journals into a sparkling, published memoir. Everyone should write one. It will help you laugh at the absurdity of Life!

Breathe, take a yoga break, and write, write, write...

And now I will get back to my writing! And one more piece of toast.