How I Became a Writer, Started Living on an Island & Met the One
Hello!
I'm Katy Yaksha, as you can tell by my name. But that's actually my pseudonym. I created this name many years ago when I finished my first manuscript, inspired by my first big adventure, combining my innate desire to live differently, freely, abroad, by the sea, doing what I enjoy and fulfills me... in short, according to the voice of my heart.
Unfortunately, my first manuscript ended up in a drawer, because I didn't have enough self-confidence yet, and a single rejection from a major publishing house was enough for me to postpone my dream of becoming a writer for later. But this name has lived with me ever since. After that infamous rejection, I used it for my fashion brand, which was what I was doing at the time and I just felt an urgent need to change its name. And so it was fitting.
A few years later, when I finally got tired of putting my passion for writing on the back burner, I handed over the brand to a friend and self-published my first book, the inspirational guide You Can Do Anything You Want, made up of observations, stories, meditations, everything, what I have lived, used, written down during the previous years and waited until I was ready to close the designing chapter and open the next door. That was in 2016.
Since then I have officially become a "full-time" writer. I had several manuscripts in stock at the beginning of my new career, and apart from worries, occasional panic attacks that I had made a huge mistake by giving up my 12-year-old fashion child for adoption, also a huge euphoria that I had finally done it (!!!) and I will turn all the stories that I have lived and immortalized on pages stored in a drawer and those that are yet to happen into real books that will be in real bookstores and will inspire a lot of people all over the world. With the launches of many of my bestsellers in Manhattan, obviously.
But one thing at a time. Since I wasn't born in Manhattan or nearby, not even on the same continent and not even in a country where the same language is spoken, I started a little further away, in the Czech Republic, even though since 2000 I mostly live outside the territory of my native country. In 2016, I didn't speak English nearly as well as I do today, and that’s why I decided to start realizing my dream there. I saved Manhattan for later. It was a different feeling than piling books into a drawer. Now I was on the journey.
Within a few months, You Can Do Anything You Want became a bestseller in the Czech Republic and for the next two years it held the top positions in sales all over the country.
Meanwhile I published my second (drawer) book, the inspirational novel One-Way Ticket, which is about my first month living in Italy. I went there with - a one-way ticket - for two weeks at the beginning of 2015 and I'm still here. With breaks of a week (to fly over for launching my new book to my country), of a month or longer, mostly for the purpose of trying life in other places, countries and on other continents.
But that's already another story, which I started writing in two (and which inspired my other books). A year and a half after my first landing on the very authentic southern Italian island of Ischia, I met an Islander right there (here) and I have been exploring the beauty, secrets and (often inexplicable) mysteries of life and international partnership with him ever since.
In addition to my obvious passion for living in foreign countries, among strangers and writing, I am also an enthusiastic explorer in the field of conscious lifestyle. And that's simply because feeling good makes sense to me.
Maybe also because I was pushed from a young age by my older brother, a passionate athlete, huge fun of a healthy diet, even a national champion in karate, to work on myself. My brother was a great role model for me even later. He was living proof that if you set your mind to something, you will achieve it. But you have to know what you want and you have to do a lot for it. The best personal development course I could have asked for.
And so it is also an eternal theme, intertwined in all my books (and will definitely be also here). I have the urge to constantly push others. Either to move the body or to follow the dreams.
Perhaps because I know today, even though my brother's pushing often annoyed me at the time, that without it I probably wouldn't have lived all the stories that have inspired a lot of people in recent years. So far, mainly in the Czech Republic, but if I managed to fulfill this dream - that I will make a living by writing, which a lot of people didn't believe in the beginning when I left fashion - it's up to me if I move on and develop my dream as I wish from my heart.
​I know, it’s a long story. Make a break. Take one more coffee. Or a glass of wine maybe? I promise, it won’t be too long any more. I just want to share my personal journey from the publishing of my first book till today. It’s kind of my own little enlightenment, although it didn’t look at all like I imagined it would.
When I published You Can Do Anything You Want, it was right at the beginning of the boom of people's interest in personal development and all that stuff. And soon, I also rode the wave of this inflating bubble and started to think that I would probably just want to inspire and motivate and talk about it at workshops and places that have something to do with yoga and alike.
Later I even reached a period when I stopped enjoying the things that I always liked and that inspired me... watching a pleasant movie, sitting in a cozy café, reading an easy good-feel novel... normal things. I was so excited about the newly opening world full of conscious people ready to listen and work on themselves. I wanted to go somewhere where I would live a wonderful meaningful life with such people.
Then - already with my Islander - I went to Bali. Towards my soulful vision. And it was there that my idea of ​​where I wanted to continue in life started to reshape itself. But it took me a few more years before I literally circled back to the beginning.
It's a beautiful feeling, as if I've done a hike. I also have a good feeling about the detours, which only confirmed what I always felt and what I wanted to write about. About a life that is a pleasure to live. Simply because one does what one enjoys. There is no science to it at all. It is so simple that it seems almost impossible.
And that's what my book You Can Do Anything You Want (which started my circle) is about. I laugh at myself. I started to look around, even though I always said that we have everything within, and that to be happy we just need to keep balancing.
​This is supposed to be a biography, which is too long anyway.
But that's me. I'm not minimal.
Yes, I love simplicity and silence, but I also like things that make life pleasant. Sometimes I drink coffee with whipped cream and I also don't sit on the beach every evening to get even closer to my soul and understanding of the entire Universe. Sometimes yes, and very gladly, but I've come to realize that it's not really important to understand everything.
It's important to live.
Sometimes more enlightened version, sometimes a little less.
All is well in the end.
Life definitely goes in circles. I understood that already.
And so it is quite possible that in time I will again want to go to a deserted island, eat coconuts and live in a shack made of palm leaves. But definitely not now. I enjoy living on this non-deserted island. I enjoy and am inspired by the energy and possibilities of cities, too. I enjoy capturing the beauty, the magic, the stories that happen at every turn. Absolutely anywhere. Like a movie without an end.
I enjoy sharing my observations and reflections on life, my own stories and experiences to inspire or entertain others.
So, whether you’ll read one of my articles or choose one of my books, I believe that you will have a good time, it will inspire you, light up like stars in the sky joy in your eyes and warm your heart.
K.
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One of the purposes of life is definitely to do what we love and share it with others with the wish that it will help them in their lives in any way. And so I will end the introduction with words that describe the main goal of this space:
Life is the author, I'm just a writer with a humble wish to inspire you to live with joy and help open your heart, because if the heart is open, we are all able to see magic and love everywhere.
Thank you and welcome!
Katy
P.S.: If you have any questions, please, write me here.