A West Bellevue author and artist will host a launch event in Kirkland Saturday for her self-help book.
“Twelve and Three Quarter Steps to a Life of Prosperity, Wealth, and Joy,” by Cecilia Todd, is a guide to improving life and personal outlook. From the way Todd describes her manuscript, the book may be considered a spiritual remix, influenced by the works that most inspired the author as she took control of her own depression, given context by how she applied the principles she culled and formulated to her own life.
“It is an account of the things that I’ve done and (times of) low self esteem, when I had no money, and I was unhappy and depressed,” she said.
Todd is an interesting personality on her own. Born to sculptor parents and raised in England, she lived her childhood amidst the World War II blitzkrieg. She became a nun when she a teenager, but eventually left the order. Trained at the Royal Academy of Art in London, she taught painting in England, Canada and New York while building her own artistic career.
At 40, macular degeneration struck her blind and forced her to stop painting. She attended writing school and obtained her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Washington.
Her eyesight was partially restored by surgery and, with encouragement from family and friends, she began painting again until she retired from it, voluntarily, about four years ago.
“I just thought, ‘I’m done now,’” she said. “It was like Ansel Adams … He was a very successful photographer but, when he was about 60 years old, he didn’t want to do it anymore.”
Todd was shadowed by depression brought on by her personal setbacks and, she theorized, partially inherited from her parents, who had themselves faced underemployment in their fields.
She read into metaphysics, a branch of philosophy perhaps best described as the study of being. The lessons she took informed the creation of steps.
The first 12 steps are those intended to help the reader foster change in their life. The three-quarters are not a partial step, but rather a coda of three mini-steps. Todd requested this coda not be detailed, but the three-quarters can be generally described as tools for reinforcing the prior twelve.
“This isn’t a book intended to be read once and set aside,” Todd said. “It’s a process — a work book.”
The launch party will be held at Park Place Books from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The bookstore is located at 348 Park Place Center in Kirkland.
The book is available for sale in select bookstores, on amazon.com and from Todd’s website twelveandthreequartersteps.com, which is scheduled to go live on Saturday.
