A Guest Post by Carlyle Labuschagne

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I have with me author Carlyle Labuschagne with a guest post on why it's important to read when you're a writer, and how it changed her life. Carlyle is the author of Evanescent and The Broken Destiny, as well as being one of the authors attending UtopYA Con 2014 in June. If you don't have tickets to that event yet, click the name to buy yours soon. So grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Reading and Writing and How it Changed My Life

by Carlyle Labuschagne

Thank you Jo for having me on as guest today, I am absolutely thrilled.

Why is it so important to read as a writer?

Books are very much an addiction to many. I read because I enjoy it, but as a writer I learn a lot from other books and authors. As many might know, English is not my first language, so by reading as much as I can – I learn the way of the English language. It is also good to see what is out there, what grabs at you and what you can bring differently than others. There are an abundant of gifted Authors I have read and yet to read. I am one of those readers who are swept away totally by a read. I am there within every book I read. My imagination allows for it. I think we are addicted to our imaginations more than anything, but what would our imaginations be without reading and for the talented Authors to ignite it for us? Books to me are a work of art, they are feelings, thoughts, and souls between the pages of books.

I write because I want to understand others as well as myself. I first started expressing myself at a very young age though poems, song writing. But finally found my true passion. Novel writing. My first novel The Broken Destiny is as I am sure many authors can relate to, is a combination of my experiences my world and the world inside my head, understanding myself as well as others , and feeding the passion. A almost craving for the feeling that writing has brought me. I have overcome the biggest obstacle of my life – to believe in myself , to prove myself to no one but myself of what I am capable of. To be a hard worker and enjoy it. To see things through.

Through writing I have learnt a lot about myself. Finally being able to move on from my mistakes. The Broken Destiny is about a girl who has to find her true self to unleash her Destiny towards greatness. Every person has good and bad, and everything comes down to a choice, and sometimes making the wrong choice is actually the write choice at the time - To grow, to learn - To love yourself. The only person who can hurt you is you. You are your worst enemy. Don’t change who you are for the sake of satisfying others, in the end it hurts only you. Your path is one of greatness and being true to yourself is the greatest gift you can give yourself and others. But it is often only through experiencing who you are not to know who you are. To know the light you have to have experienced the dark. But always remember everything you go through, no matter how hard - is for a reason. Writing gives me great pleasure and satisfaction. Writing heals.

My desire for everyone is to find that one thing and go for it, no matter how impossible it may seem at the time, you will never know if you don’t try, and once you have tried you will know you can never be without it. If you have a passion, you can perform deeds you never thought you were capable of.

~ Don’t be crippled by fear. Let love and passion give you wings ~ The Broken Destiny
Happy writing all
~Carlyle Labuschagne

I couldn't have said it better myself, Carlyle! Inspiring words.

If you'd like to check out Ms. Labuschagne's books, you can find The Broken Destiny here on Amazon as well as Evanescent here.

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Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo