Blog Tour: PIECES OF YOU

PIECES OF YOU

April Farlow

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GENRE:  Christian Living

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BLURB:

Knowing who you are has always been challenging, and in today’s world, more and more voices are coming from more and more places telling us who we should be. The result? A broken sense of identity that we’re struggling to put back together.

In Pieces of You, April Farlow shares how she discovered her identity is formed by the God who made her. Along the way, she’s learned that if we want to put the pieces of who we are together in a real, lasting way, we have to look to Whose we are for help.

It’s time to take a look at the unique pieces that make up who you are …

The pieces you compare …

The pieces informed by the father figure in your life …

The painful pieces …

The pieces of your relationships …

The pieces on which you’ve built your beliefs …

The pieces that give you rules and boundaries …

The pieces that show what you value …

The pieces that give you purpose …

The pieces that help you build a vision for what’s to come.

As we work to put those pieces together, we’ll look to the God who made us, knows us, and loves us to guide us. Because when you take all your pieces—the good, the bad, the broken, and the beautiful—and place them in your Heavenly Father’s hands, there, you’ll find peace. There, you’ll find security. There, you’ll find a real sense of who you are and Whose you are.

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Excerpt One:

Over just a few hours, my Kaleidoscopes began to lean into each other’s stories. Things got real fast. And I think that’s because we took a break from measuring ourselves against each other. Instead of comparing, we chose to share.

And that’s a great place to start. 

To stand confidently in both who you are and Whose you are, you must first learn to avoid the temptation to compare. Staying out of the comparison trap is an essential piece of the puzzle that is discovering and embracing our identity. 

After our meeting, my friend Angela went home and looked in her daughter’s school folder. There, she found a worksheet her seven-year-old, Elle, had filled out. “Color yourself and then write words to describe yourself in the circles,” the instructions said across the top. That’s precisely what Elle did. She colored her hair and eyes to match hers and wrote six words to describe herself.

Funny

Artistic

Pretty

Love

Kind

Smart 

For Angela, her daughter’s list was not only accurate, but it was also a stark contrast to the list she and the other women had made. Angela told me about it later: “I wonder at what age we stop believing the good? I wonder what happens to cause us to begin seeing the negative before the positive?” 

I wonder the same for all of us. 

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Interview:

Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself!
By the time I was 16, I had moved 16 times.  My parents built a business renovating rental homes and so we moved from house to house a lot.  When I reached high school, our family settled in Good Hope, Georgia.  At the time, Good Hope had one store where you could purchase gas, bait, groceries and hot pizza.  We lived on about 100 acres and my parents weren’t farmers, but we did lease our land to a cattle farmer, so I was surrounded by cows.  Once there was a surprise pregnancy in our pasture and I got to keep the baby, we named her Lulu.  Now, I live on a much smaller mini farm with my husband, Kip and our four girls. We have horses, chickens and rabbits. 


Tell us about your book. How did it get started?

“Pieces of You” became an idea as I have worked with young adults aging out of foster care and homelessness.  I found myself sharing the advice I heard as a teenager from my parents, and I realized so much of it made an impact.  Every morning, when my dad dropped me off at school, he would say, “remember who you are and remember I love you.”  

As a speaker and trainer, I have taught people in the corporate space about figuring out “who you are” and how to lead with values.  I realized an interesting similarity with executives and foster youth, which made me explore the importance for everyone: even when you figure out “who you are,” if you don’t know “whose you are,” it is easy to drift.  This book combines my experiences with corporate training, mentoring teens and faith to help anyone discover who and whose they are.  Every chapter ends with two sets of questions centered around: “remember who you are” and “remember whose you are.”

How do you create your characters?

While I didn’t create characters, I did create a group of thirty women from various parts of my life who I refer to throughout the book as my “kaleidoscopes.”   These women speak truth, give perspective and show up in my life.  I invited different women including one of the young women I mentored, my mom, and friends of all ages so I could test the content for the book, but their stories so captured the essence of figuring out “who and whose you are” that I included them in the book.  I hope this book inspires other women to get together and have real conversations about the same topics we discussed that are now the chapters in “Pieces of You.”


What inspires and what got you started in writing?
I get inspired when I see people do their best – at anything. Whether they are parenting, working, playing sports, acting or volunteering, it inspires me when I see other people shine.  I wanted to see more of that and so I wrote the book to help women specifically focus on what really matters to live intentionally at their very best.  

I started writing as a speaker and so most of my content is delivered in front of audiences rather than on written pages.  It has been an incredible journey to see the words on the page and to know that I can reach people when I am not even in the room!


Where do you write? Is there something you need to write (music, drinks?)

I do a lot of brainstorming while I am driving and often send myself voice memos with ideas.  I also tell stories as a living and so I have a great place to test the content.  The great thing is that live audiences give you instant feedback – you can read the room and know if what you said is funny, impactful or if it didn’t really stick.


How do you get your ideas for writing?

I spent several months writing my ideas on index cards about each of the chapters in the book.  I collected quotes and stories constantly.  I listened to friends as they shared about their lives and work with me and used their feedback as I was preparing the content.  My most intentional collection of stories certainly came from the three meetings I had with my Kaleidoscopes.  I realized that we are all craving real, authentic conversation about more than social media feeds and this inspired me to ask deeper questions and learn more about my friends than I knew about them after we have been in each other’s lives for years.  I hope the questions included in each chapter will inspire other groups of women to ask similar questions and get real. 


What do you like to read?

I read a lot of leadership self-help books for my work.  When I am not preparing to coach or speak, I read mostly Christian books.  Two of my favorite authors are Kimberly Stuart and Bob Goff.  I got to go to a weekend writers retreat with both and it really shaped me as a writer.  

What would your advice to be for authors or aspiring in regards to writing?

Get a coach or an accountability partner to help you set deadlines.  It is easy to try for perfection and that can prevent you from finishing anything.  Deadlines are your friend so that you must make progress!


Anything else you’d like to share?

For years, I convinced myself that I could never write a book.  I had a student in a mentor group, Ariele, who said, “Mrs. April do you find it interesting that you tell us we can do anything we put our mind too, but you don’t think you can write a book.”  I can’t tell you how many times I have had to eat my words along the writing journey, and I hope the vulnerability in my “pieces” will help the reader as they discover their own pieces!

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

April Farlow has spent the last 20 years motivating audiences to get out of their comfort zone, speak up, and represent their values. In corporate environments, one piece is missed—the ability to talk about forming your identity in God. Today, as a speaker, author, coach, and non-profit leader, April is changing this by sharing her faith journey and helping others do the same with clarity and conviction.

In 2017, after speaking to a group of foster youth, April founded Lydia’s Place, a ministry serving young adults who have experienced foster care or homelessness. April and her husband have four girls and live on a mini-farm outside of Athens, Georgia.

http://www.aprilfarlow.com

http://www.instagram.com/aprilwfarlow

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

The author will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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