The question of how any person becomes a published author is one that should have an answer that will always be more powerful, complex, and intriguing than anything that author has committed to paper in their books. To become an author is not a decision for the faint of heart. There is struggle, pain, and more self doubt than an erotic author will use the words ‘rock hard cock.’ But is becoming a writer also down to fate? Is it destiny? Is there luck involved? Could it even be due to something far more sinister?
Most likely all of the above.
My publishing journey was powered by a drive born from abject fear. A fear that I will never get to enjoy the basic human rights that readers of any type of book genre take for granted. That when the story we are reading is over and we must return to the mundane physical world we live in, our family is there waiting to warmly receive us. Well, my son was taken from me by a vengeful spouse, so when I finish reading or writing I have nothing waiting for me on the other side.
And so my journey to become a published author was to help escape the uncomfortable reality of the discomfort and loss that exists for me in the real world. Even a reader of erotica faces this dilemma. The hunger and sexual longing that lives in the pages of a good erotica is so rare to encounter in our actual daily existence. Where must someone then go to find it? There is joy and escapism in reading books. Whether they are books about adventure, horror, mystery, or unbridled lust. A reader can disappear into the shroud of fiction. It takes a brave person to want to confront the meanness and dread that is the true soil of this earth in a frank and open memoir.
And so, on a night when I considered ending my life, I instead embarked on a seven-year odyssey to write the memoir My SECOND Life. Here, my journey to become a published author is at its simplest. It took inspiration, dedication, and unwavering desire. Days of it. Months of it. Years of it. And that is what I gave this project. Along the way, I took time off to write short erotica books, 40 of them, in English and Spanish. Because if you thought My Second Life was going to be a memoir about someone whose life had nothing in common with the follower of an erotica book blog, then you would be wrong. My laughter, my heartbreak, my desires, my tears crying myself to sleep are the same as everyone’s.
I am just more candid about it than probably anyone else on the planet. Because what I am fighting for is worth more than any visceral pleasure that a book could give any person. And after 13 years I became sick to death of running and hiding from my pain. So I once again turned my frustration and anger into a focused pursuit. To write the story of what it is that everyone should fear about life. Everything we read books to escape from. What humans are truly capable of when they are at their worst.
The difference between My SECOND Life and any other book you will ever read is that at the end of the manuscript, you will see that you too are part of the story. If you stand, live, and breathe on this planet, you will have a new understanding that the personal tragedy that my memoir is about could very easily be yours. Because the world is the same for everyone, and it does not matter what your taste in reading material is. When push comes to shove, we are all alone. We will all be abandoned by 99% of the people we trusted to be there when we needed their support.
At some point, once you reach the last page, you too will have to close the cover and rejoin the suffering that exists beside you in this world.
Simon Yeats
Genre: Memoir
Date of Publication: 7/4/23
ISBN: 9798223369066
ASIN: B0CB4LCCPN
Number of pages: 254
Word Count: 76,000
Cover Artist: Yolairis Barranco
Tagline: You cannot possibly understand how important things are until you have to decide between them and life.
Book Description:
We all have two lives, but we only get to experience the second one when we realize we have just one.
My first real scare in life happened when I was seven - I got attacked by a kangaroo. My first brush with death occurred at the age of 12 when my dad drove our family down the treacherous Skipper’s Canyon dirt road in New Zealand, in a rented minivan.
Including the terrifying night when I almost found myself in two separate plane crashes, there have been at least half a dozen other occasions when I was just a moment's inattention away from death. However, none of these frightening incidents can compare to what I went through after my son was abducted.
This memoir recounts the story of how I harnessed the traumatic experiences of my life to find the strength to persevere through a 13-year battle to be a father to my son.
What did it take for me to reach this second life? I had to truly understand the meaning of fear.
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Meet the Author Video
https://youtu.be/mfb8WOeMSG4
Excerpt:
At seven years of age, I am not comfortable at all being
alone. It is a very unsettling feeling. Nerve-wracking. The sense of
uncertainty over whether anyone will come back to get me. That I will be abandoned
and left behind. Well, I already am left behind, so the fears are well founded.
My coping mechanism, when terrified at this age, is to cry
and then shrink into a corner.
But I don’t want anyone to witness my fragility. I have to
keep that hidden.
As I search for a place to disappear into, I stumble across
an unlocked gate to an enclosure. There are no people on the other side in the
enclosure and my youthful brain interprets this as a secure place then in which
to hide and cry.
I do not even hesitate to go in. Keeping my emotional
fragility hidden far outweighs the explicit warning from the park owner that
“everything in Australia can kill you.”
In recent years, I have often wondered how the course of any
life might change if these small insignificant moments in our lives were
different. How strong is their influence on the outcome of our existence? What
if we had not gone to this animal park this day? Could my life be completely
different? And this moment occurred 48 years ago. How grand do defining moments
in a person’s life have to be to completely change the trajectory of their
lives?
What if mum and dad had taken us kids for a hike this day
instead of driving around the back streets? What if we went to the toad races?
What if I had not needed to go to the bathroom?
What if? Can a life change that much from the effect of a
moment that takes just five minutes to play out?
I wander a few steps into the pen and sit down with my back
against the fence. Here, I will not have to be worried about seeing the faces
of my parents, who could be embarrassed at the sight of their shrinking violet
of a son, while at least they will see where I am and come get me. Hidden but
obvious. A useful tactic in every child’s handbook.
It is at this point that I am aware that I am inside a large
pen that has a group of kangaroos in it.
If there is one native Australian species that any person
alive would prefer to be enclosed with, it is the kangaroo. Not with one of the
world’s nine deadliest snakes out of the top ten. Not with a couple of
saltwater crocodiles. Not with a collective of deadly drop bears. Give any man
a docile, grass eating kangaroo every day of the week.
A group of kangaroos is most commonly referred to as a
‘mob.’ They also use the terms ‘troop’ or ‘court’. In this case I will stick
with the use of ‘mob’ and then I can later casually toss in using the adjective
‘unruly.’
Most of the kangaroos are listlessly lying around scratching
their groins, as these animals do most of the day, even in the wild. The life
of a nature park animal exhibit is most likely 99% boredom until some
inattentive staff member also leaves the gate to the crocodile pond ajar.
I sit against the fence, remaining perfectly still. One
oversize Big Red kangaroo rises from its sprawl on the ground. He stretches
himself upright, then laboriously rolls forward on its front paws to nibble on
the tufts of brown grass. Observing me, he slowly paddles his way over to
inspect the newest occupant of its pen.
The nickname given to any male kangaroo is either ‘boomer,’
‘buck,’ or ‘jack.’ Sitting alone in an animal enclosure as a seven-year-old,
while penned in by a beast on a comparative size scale as large as wrestling
great Andre the Giant, I would also accept the use of the term ‘scary mother
fucker.’
Scrambling to my feet, I then stand frozen. I swallow large
measures of palpable fear as the animal sniffs at my cheek with its sizable,
quivering nostrils. It is a disconcerting feeling, while it takes all my
youthful willpower to not have my knees buckle and collapse. At seven, this is
like staring death in the face.
Holding my breath, I desperately attempt not to flinch as the
roo perches in front of me.
The other kangaroos in the ‘mob’ stand up and move into
position to back up their ringleader. If my legs were not two sticks of
gelatinous whale blubber sheathed in sausage casing, I might have run. There is
no telling if this is the right thing to do, but it was one of the two options
available to me on the table. The other one is cowering where I am and die.
The Big Red slowly leans forward and gently taps me on the
chest with his paw. Barely a glancing touch, but still a well-intentioned
threat. The native animals of Australia are still bullying the colonialists a
good 200 years after we thought we took over the land. Humans may well be the
most intelligent species, but no one sits down on a toilet seat and simply
ignores an inland Taipan nestling in the water of the bowl, no matter how well
developed our brains are.
What am I supposed to do against this animal? Defend myself?
I could not fight my way out of a wet paper bag if I had on steel capped boots,
a swastika tattooed on my forehead, and holding an M-16.
The kangaroo staring me in the face terrifies
me.
Simon Yeats is a physical therapist who works primarily with spinal cord injuries. The most challenging of the most challenging of patients. His own experiences in life overcoming tough challenges makes him perfectly suited to his profession. His interest in writing books is to inspire the world to go over and above the ordinary in everything they aspire to do in life.
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