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All I Want is Everything
Genre: Self-Help/Women’s Issues
Publisher: Infinity Publishing
ISBN:0741458195
Bio
Kim is one of 9 children born to a business entrepreneur father (still living) and a housewife (deceased). She has been married 32 years to her husband, Doug, who is a sports writer. She has I has two children, Melissa who lives in Hawaii, and Brent who is married and lives in Tempe, AZ and his wife. They are expecting their first child, Grace, in August. Kim and her husband care for her sister, Debbie (who is 5 years older than Kim). She has special needs and they have Frank, their 4 year old cocker spaniel! They moved to Arizona seven years ago to get away from the cold.
Kim Upstone is the owner of A New Day A New Vision which is not only the name of her company, but her life philosophy. Kim believes that each new day we can create a new vision for ourselves, home and environment. As an author, motivational speaker and intuitive designer she resides with her family in Scottsdale, Arizona. With a background in interior design and interest into the effects of environment upon individuals, accreditation in staging and feng shui soon followed. In addition, she has studied neuro- architecture. Her first book Step by Step To Sold and Feng Shui to Sell are reflections of those principals. Both books were written as guide for home sellers looking to prepare their home by combining Feng Shui and Staging techniques.
Feng Shui for Special Needs, her second book, is given out as a free ebook for people with life and learning challenges. Based on her own personal experience, the books help those who work with special needs children and adults to make enhancements to their environments all in an effort to allow them to flourish.
Her new book All I Want Is Everything released in December 2009 is drawn from her life’s journey of searching how to find her everything and learning to dance in the storm. All I Want Is Everything is a guide to help women reclaim happiness and peace in the search for their everything.
K.S. Hello and welcome to the blog. I am very excited to have you here. Why don’t we start off with a small introduction? Tell us a little about yourself.
K.U. Well if we begin with what I am, you can say that I am a married, mother of two grown children, I care for my sister who is special needs and of course there is Frank, our cocker spaniel. My professional background in intuitive design and feng shui lead me to write my first book “Step By Step To Sold”. Which is a step by step guide to preparing your home for sale using Staging and Feng Shui . My second book is a free ebook on Feng Shui for people with special needs. It is drawn from my experience of working children and adults that need assistance with life and learning challenges. Environment plays a huge part in their ability to function and concentrate.
If you want to know who I am that is a different story. I am all those things wife, mother and daughter, designer, stager etc. But who I am is so much more than those labels. My life early on was blessed with things that from the outside would appear was everything you would need to be happy and fulfilled. But on the inside I found myself searching for something, a missing piece. I believed that piece, once I found it, would hold the key to all the answers, and those answers once discovered would allow me to feel complete and happy. What I found was so much more. My latest book “All I Want Is … Everything, A Guide to Love, Peace and Happiness” is my journey to find “my everything” but it is also a guide for others to follow. Through journaling and contemplation I can help people find their “everything” too.
K.S. Any interesting writing quirks or stories you would like to share with my readers?
K.U. The way I write my books is somewhat unique. I write with notebook paper and a pen but I write the width of the paper across the lines from edge to edge. I also instruct all my readers when journaling to do the same. I think for conventional thinkers it puts you a bit uncomfortable and forces you to think outside the box slightly. When writing from emotion it feels better than writing on a computer or on the lines.
K.S. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? What sparked the desire to pen your first novel book?
When I was very young I wrote lots of poetry. I stopped writing after my third grade teacher called in my parents and they were told that I was writing things that were much too old in subject matter – war, life after death, and sadness. At that time, I was very obedient so I stopped writing outside of school assignments and tried to keep those lighter so I wouldn’t get in trouble again. I began journaling in my 20’s when I started my journey and continue to this day.
K.U. I wrote my first two books as a result of a constant stream of requests by realtors and homeowners to teach them how to transform their houses.
I realized after both my son and daughter began asking questions about why we are different in our thinking and attitude than other people and families, they were meeting. It was then that I realized my children had lived almost their entire life in the brightness of the light from what I learned on my journey, but they did not know about my journey. So “All I Want” really began as a letter to my children. It was important for me to explain it to them, so that they could share with their children. They needed to understand how to get back to the trail that would lead them back to happiness, should they ever lose their way.
After writing that letter to my children it occurred to me that writing this series of books would be the fulfillment of the guidance I had received. I was told to go where there was no path and leave a trail. I became aware that the trail was my original journey and the path was writing the books for others to share, a trail to happiness for those who choose to venture with me.
K.S. What genre do you write?
K.U. You could call it inspirational, informational, self help, or motivating.
K.S. What would you say has inspired you most in your writing career? Or, who is your favorite author and why?
K.U. I read almost exclusively non-fiction. I rarely get any time to read uninterrupted so I find it easier to pick up and read self help and motivation. On vacation however I always try to get at least one fiction in and it usually is an action thriller. Mostly Robert Ludlum and Sidney Sheldon.
K.S. What does your family think of your writing?
K.U. My husband is a pretty successful sports writer and believe it or not we are not into telling each other how wonderful we are. We just do what we think is best for ourselves and can serve the world at the same time. That is what propels us forward, it became our motivation. It’s may be hard to understand but those of you who have worked through “All I Want is …Everything” can grasp what I am trying to explain. When the ego is not involved and you know that you are loved and that you can love unconditionally, everything becomes uncomplicated and purpose and passion becomes your inspiration. What others think, including family, just doesn’t affect you all that much.
K.S. What was one of the most surprising things you learned while creating your book?
K.U. This book was a very personal experience for me. I was surprised how very painful it was to reread all my old journals. They were written prior to and then during my journey, but reading them again was an important part of being able to create that path for others to follow. To go back and see how the darkness of unhappiness and negativity encompassed my world at that time was a sobering experience. What if I had not asked for guidance or missed the message the angel delivered to me, I understood quickly that my life would have been very different than the life I have lived.
K.S. What inspired you to write your novel?
K.S. Can you tell us a little about your novel?
K.U. This is an excerpt from the first chapter.
I believe there are no coincidences. In my heart I know that if you have this book in your hands you have it for a reason. Perhaps you came upon it by chance, or a friend gave it to you. Maybe someone was speaking about it and you overheard the conversation. A power greater than you or I is at work. Maybe it is not meant for you but for someone you care about, and you want them to have the happiness and joy in their life they deserve. Maybe by your reading it first, you will realize there are changes you can make to your life that will not only enrich your life, but will enrich the lives of everyone around you.
Do you want to be one of the lucky few who know what it really means to live? Do you want to learn how to live without placing conditions on your life and allow happiness to fill your spirit?
I can tell you with all the love in my heart that you too can have “your everything.” You have all that you need within yourself to find inner peace, and it is not reliant upon external conditions. But please don’t confuse being content with what you have, with not striving to have more. Human nature is to always look for something more, which is why you are reading this book. Understand that there is nothing wrong with wanting more or better. The problem occurs when we make the absence of what we want and the lack of appreciation for what we have mutually exclusive with our happiness. This is not a rehearsal for the life that we want; this IS your life, so please read on and make the most of every moment of the gift of life we have been given.
My wish for each of you is that when we reach the end of this book together you will realize, as I have, the power in living each day with…
…love for all, and be able to truly love everyone, including yourself without restrictions.
…grace with gentleness towards others, and acceptance of their limitations
…and gratitude for all that we have been given.
“A life is like a piece of paper on which everyone leaves their mark.” – Chinese proverb
My wish is that the mark I leave on your paper is one that will carry you to the end of the journey with the light of your spirit shining brightly and peace and contentment in your heart.
K.S. Where can we find your novel?
K.U. It is available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon but I hope readers will go to my website and purchase it. A portion of the proceeds of all products purchased at my websites go towards my goal of building an orphanage and sustaining it for 3 years in South Africa in 2011 with the Global Orphan Project.
K.S. Do you have a website, fan site, or Blog that we can visit?
K.U. Sure I have a couple of websites
www.alliwantiseverythingbook.com where my blog is located.
www.anewdayanewvision.com is my company website.
www.stepbysteptosold.com the website for my first book.
They can also sign up for my newsletters and information updates at my A New Day website, which will also send them an alert for my blog update.
To receive the free eBook Feng Shui for Special Needs just send me an email at kim@anewdayanewvision.com
They can also follow me on Twitter, FaceBook and I have a You Tube Channel and they can get a link to those at any of my websites.
K.S. Do you have any closing advice to aspiring writers?
K.U. I believe that everyone has a story to tell, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. Just write your book tell your story, and once it is written decide what you want to do with it. Even if you or your family are the only ones that ever read it you will have left a piece of yourself. I believe in the end that is all we really have to give to the world, a small piece of ourselves.
Website
http://www.anewdayanewvision.com
Kim's book is also for purchase on her website. Kim will give a donation for each book purchased to Global Orphans Project.
Purchase book on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/All-Want-Everything-Guide-Happiness/dp/0984077227/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277916440&sr=8-1-catcorr