A MULTIPLE heart attack survivor and author from Stratford is following in the footsteps of Shakespeare with her latest publication.
Sally Bee, who gained national fame after surviving five heart attacks, has recently published her seventh book. And unlike the six previous publications, she has decided to ditch the largest publishing houses and “go rogue like the Bard”.
Her new book, ‘Don’t Go Faster Than Your Guardian Angel Can fly’, has just been published by a new, small, publishing house in Stratford called Media Delicious Publishing.
The book is an amalgamation of stories from her mum, life lessons for her 18-year-old daughter, inspiration for women to believe in themselves and learning to live with depression.
Sally said: “I took inspiration from the best. I live in Stratford the birthplace and home of the ‘Bard’ William Shakespeare. I like to pretend we are related (sadly, we’re not).
“Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do not compare my writing skills to his, but his ‘going rogue’ definitely shares a place alongside mine. Everyone knows William’s story, he was a playwright, actor and poet, living in the 16th century but few acknowledge his entrepreneurial skills alongside his creative ones.
“Between 1585 and 1592 William was working in London as an actor and possibly (probably) because he had a family to feed and needed more money, instead of waiting for someone to give him a part, he set up a ‘playing company’ called ‘The Kings Men’. This was a group of like-minded actors with the same goals, who went rogue.
“For the first time, they managed their own scripts, finances, working hours, and tickets and ultimately they managed their own futures.”
Sally explained that just like Shakespeare she became “disillusioned with doing things the traditional way”.
“Having a strong publishing history and an engaged and loyal following isn’t enough these days. We had some offers from fantastic publishers but the level of investment from them was seriously lacking.
“I have three kids to support and a father with dementia in a home and as I was prepared to eat, sleep, live, breathe, promote, talk about, travel, and sell the pants off my precious book – the potential deals just didn’t cut it. It was clear that I was going to be doing all the hard work anyway so I felt I needed to be rewarded for that.
“Added to this, time is of the essence for me. I have survived five heart attacks so I never know what tomorrow will bring. I don’t have the luxury of taking 18 months to publish a book that is already written and ready to share with the world.
“So I decided to practice what I preach in my new book, harness my passions and my purpose, load them into my backpack and jump with complete and utter conviction and belief that my parachute will indeed open. Because it always has in the past.”
In the end, Sally managed to publish her book with Media Delicious Publishing just six weeks after she finished writing it in August.
‘Don’t Go Faster Than Your Guardian Angel Can fly’ is available to purchase from Sally’s website www.sally-bee.com at from Amazon.
