By Evelyn Leckie
AUTHOR Nikki Simos is calling for co-authors to step forward and tell their stories of personal hardship.
Ms Simos is creating a book which will enable new writers to tell their stories that they may not have been shared before.
The author once struggled with depression and feelings of suicide after 30 years of supressing unfortunate experiences she had as a teenager.
“When I was 17, unfortunately I had some severe traumatic experiences to do with rape, it wasn’t one account but two accounts with two different perpetrators,” she said.
“I had fallen pregnant as a result of one of those rapes, and being 17 years of age and coming from a Greek background I wouldn’t tell a soul.
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin to share such an experience.
“I kept it a secret for over 30 years, it wasn’t after I lost my mother in 2012, that I also sensed the significance of the loss of the abortion that I had to go through.”
Ms Simos said the loss of her mother brought out the feelings she had supressed which led to mild depression and PTSD.
“I isolated myself and was in a dark, dark place for a while,” she said.
After the author worked through her struggles, she wrote and published a book Letting Go Moving On and also co-authored The Book of Inspiration for Women by Women.
“Writing my book was a cathartic experience and enabled me to heal,” Ms Simos said.
“To be able to share my story and support readers with a message of hope was rewarding.”
Now, Ms Simos is calling on brave community members to stand up and tell their own stories as she has done.
“The types of experiences as we know are different for everyone,” she said.
“They could be violence related, rape, alcoholism, isolation and rejection, forced marriages, migration to Australia, gender hardships and acceptance and family break ups.
“The purpose of writing these stories is for personal healing and not to relive the experiences but to learn how to let go by understanding a deeper level of self-love and how that comes within us all and having the best relationship with ourselves.”
Ms Simmos is seeking funding to offer a writing scholarship to one of the co-authors at the end of the project.
Authors will need to write 2000-3000 words to contribute.
A fee is expected to cover editing, layout, design, print, production of the book and publicity leading up to the launch in May 2021.
For more information visit MindAhead.com.au.
