Monday, February 26, 2024

Author Interview - Angelique Hill

 


Angelique Hill

BUY NOW FROM BARNES & NOBLE


Self-Love Season: A Woman’s Guide to Practicing Self-Love & Self-Care

Author site: https://www.angeliquetheauthor.com/?


https://www.facebook.com/selfloveseason?mibextid=opq0tG


         

Tell your readers a little about yourself, where you grew up, where you live now, where you went to school etc. Let them get to know the personal you.

BUY NOW FROM BARNES & NOBLE

I am a wife, mother of four, educator, and author. I was born & raised in a small town in Alabama, so naturally, I’m a country girl at heart. I hold a B.S. degree in psychology, and I am currently pursuing my Masters degree in education. I am a lover of the small moments and the simple things in life. I’m really just out here trying to leave this earth better than what I “found” it.

What inspired you to author this book?

I’ve noticed that we, as a society, have an issue with self-love & self-care. It’s like we’ve been programmed to always put others first without leaving anything for ourselves, and to me, that’s a problem. If you look at the research, you’ll see that the lack of self-love and self-care can have negative consequences, so it’s imperative that we teach young girls and women the importance of taking care of themselves. That said, my mission is to de-stigmatize self-love & self-care by changing the narrative. Self-love doesn’t mean “only me and no one else.” It simply means “me too.”


Where did you get the inspiration for your book’s cover?

When I think of Self-Love Season, I think about one shedding their old self and blooming into a new person, so when thinking about the design concept for my book, I had springtime in mind—bright colors and beautiful flowers. I added the mirror because we use them to see our reflection; and when we see that, we ought to see unconditional love for ourselves, admiration, and confidence.

Who has been the most significant influence on you personally and as a writer?

The person who has been the biggest influence in my life is Author and Pastor, Rick Warren. I read his book, Purpose Driven Life, and it forever changed me as a person. His book led me to discovering my purpose in life, and how I could use it to serve God and help others. Since then, every book I’ve published and any other content I created has been to help someone else in some context—and it feels amazing doing it. I’ve always been a giver, so writing Self-Love Season allowed me to take the knowledge and tools I’ve learned in my own journey to self-discovery and give it to women who need it.

BUY NOW FROM BARNES & NOBLE

What were the struggles or obstacles you had to overcome to get this book written?

I think my biggest obstacle in writing this book was making the time to actually write every day. My time is limited as a mom, professional, and grad student. There were countless days of minimal sleep, canceling plans with friends, and isolation to finish the book. I sacrificed quite a bit, but my heart was set on getting my story out there. So, when I see the reviews or when people tell me in person how the book has helped them, my heart just gets fuller and fuller. Everything I went through was undoubtedly worth it—even if it only helped one person.

Tell your readers about your book.

Self-love Season: A Woman’s Guide to Practicing Self-Love & Self-Care is a book that teaches women the importance of self-love and self-care and how to incorporate the two into their everyday lives. Here’s what you get when you purchase your copy:

* Over 100 actionable self-care ideas
* 80 self-love affirmations that you can use every day
* Thought-provoking self-love exercises
* Real and relatable stories from my own self-love journey
* Inspiring & encouraging quotes in every chapter
* Additional self-love & self-care resources

BUY NOW FROM BARNES & NOBLE

Who is your target audience, and why?

I wrote this guide with all women in mind—the career woman, the busy mom, the single woman, and those in a relationship—just any girl out there who needs a reminder to put themselves first and prioritize self-care. Why women? Statistics show that women are often the ones who put everyone else before themselves, and it isn’t our fault, to be honest. We were taught to be the nurturers, the caretakers, and managers of the household since we were basically the beginning of time. From a patriarchal perspective, we have a long history of women’s needs being ignored and dismissed, and it’s still happening for some of us. Women are dying from stress-related illnesses like heart disease because they were too busy taking care of everyone else that they never made time to care for themselves, and that makes me sad. We’ve got to do better with educating our society on self-love & self-care—it could seriously save someone’s life.

What do you consider your greatest success in life?

I think my greatest success in life is choosing to become a better version of myself. I’ve had my fair share of traumatic events in my life that could have easily turned me into a bitter and evil person, but I chose to turn my pain into purpose and help others instead—and that’s a very hard thing to do, so I’m very proud of myself for that.

BUY NOW FROM BARNES & NOBLE

What one unique thing sets you apart from other writers in your genre?

Well to be honest, I don’t think that I’m any better than any other writer in this field, nor do I think I can offer something that the others cannot. I can say that my focus isn’t on selling enough books to become rich. I don’t care about that or accolades. I care about helping other people to be happy and healthy. I love to see others thriving and living their best lives. That’s why I write. That will always be the reason.

BUY NOW FROM BARNES & NOBLE