Men, Money & Chocolate was inspired by a very special therapy session. In my twenties I suffered a shocking heartbreak and, as I always did whenever life tipped my world upside down, I went straight to my mother, Vicky, for advice. Fortunately, Vicky isn't only my mum but also the most incredible, insightful, extraordinary therapist-life-coach I've ever encountered (and I've had a fair amount of therapy). In that single session, Vicky not only healed my heartbreak but changed the course of my life. In that session too, this book was born.
At the time I was a waitress, who longed to be a writer (rather like the protagonist of this book) and I took two weeks off work to sit down and write it. Thanks to that incredible session, I finally broke the curse of writer's block I'd been suffering from for the past decade (fuelled by a deadly cocktail of self-doubt and perfectionism) and unleashed a glorious frenzy of words. And I finally finished a novel.
Then I sent it to a publisher (the only one in London that was publishing spiritual books at the time), who promptly sent it back with a brief rejection note. I was devastated. Vicky encouraged me to self-publish it. I told her, in no uncertain terms, that she was crazy, that I lacked the confidence (both in myself and the book) to do such a thing. This was in 2007, in the times before e-books, before Kindles, when self-publishing was still considered vanity-publishing and thus took large investments of both cash and courage. And I had neither. Fortunately, she didn’t give up on me and, through a clever combination of inspiration and persuasion, got me to give it a go.
With Vicky's support, I found great reserves of courage I didn’t know I had, borrowed money I didn’t have, and set about doing the most challenging thing I’d ever done. For a year, I visited every book shop I could reach. I overcame my crippling shyness, embarrassment and self-doubt, begged the booksellers to take copies of my little book. I baked them chocolate flapjacks as bribes. I scraped together small pieces of publicity in local magazines and newspapers. I, slowly, befriended several lovely booksellers who created displays of Men, Money & Chocolate and encouraged their customers to read it.
When I'd sold approx seven hundred books, I wrote to the publisher again. And, small though the sales figures were, I’d done it without the help of tweets and "likes" – no e-books or social media either. It was enough to convince them to take another look. Happily, this time, instead of a rejection note they invited me to lunch. The rest, as they say, was history. Or, rather, the translating of Men, Money & Chocolate into twenty-six languages. Which, just goes to show that you should never take “no” for an answer, at least not a definitive and intractable one.
If you found inspiration in that first edition, we hope you find further inspiration in this anniversary edition. And, if you've never read it before, then doubly so. And, if you finish this story and find yourself wishing that your own life was a little more magical, then I invite you to contact Vicky yourself so she can give you all the insight and inspiration you need to heal your own heartbreaks, to enable you to discover – or reignite – your heart's desires and fulfill your long-cherished dreams.
Menna van Praag, 2024
Contact: vickyvanpraag@icloud.com & www.vickyvanpraag.com
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