Wednesday, March 7, 2018

BYE, BYE, MR, MALICIOUS! Part 2

BYE, BYE, MR, MALICIOUS!

      BYE, BYE, MR, MALICIOUS!

                          Part 2 of My Interview with Author Kanta Bosniak
Please check out Part one of my talks with Kanta :Here
Maggie: Kanta, would you tell us more about your most recent book? I’m thinking in particular about the different aspects of the Mister Malicious phenomenon, because it’s more than a book about leaving a bad boyfriend or husband. I think it offers healing and empowerment to women across a wide range of ages, experiences, and life circumstances. The difficult relationship may be years in the past, and still the reader can gain new insight and renewal from reading it.

Kanta: Thanks, Maggie. That was exactly my intention. Bye, Bye, Mr. Malicious! is partially described by its subtitle, How to Get Your Happy Back and be Done with Narcissists and Sociopaths. It’s a nuanced book. Like perfume, which has top notes, heart notes, and base notes, it’s created to be effective on more than one level. First, it offers women who have had a difficult relationship a path to restoration of their peace, power, and happiness. So it helps them deal effectively with Mr. Malicious, the Person, as well as Mr. Malicious, the Archetype. That same sort of malicious type of person that may show up in your life as a hateful and demeaning relative, employer, neighbor, or frenemy.

When a person’s first encounter with this type of person happens early in life, she is likely to find it showing up in various forms until she heals Mr. Malicious, the Inner Bully. Even when there wasn’t abuse at home, we all have an inner judge and critic telling us bad stories about ourselves. And the various unpleasant encounters we have had throughout life in educational settings, work, dating, and marriage tend to build up that internal tyrant and overall buzzkill. Additionally, women have to deal with Mr. Malicious, Culturally Enforced Misogyny from childhood on. So, part of my purpose in the book was to help support women in healing themselves at the heart level.   

At the moment, the evidence of this has come to the forefront and women and men of goodwill, honor, and integrity are working together to resist and overcome it. Each woman who says “no” to being controlled and “yes” to full-tilt life removes two bricks from the wall of toxic patriarchy. And each woman whose happiness overflows into social activism (in whatever form she is called to do it) removes many more bricks and encourages those in her life to do the same. Individual women leaving bad relationships and healing the residual scars learn to balance their empathy with courage and backbone. When we do this as a movement, we become a tsunami for positive change. Back to the perfume analogy, this cultural healing is like the base notes. It’s the part that’s the most lasting and has the most subliminal impact.  

Maggie: You’re a very prolific writer. Mind/body/spirit books, coloring books, guided imagery downloads for adults and kids, poetry, and even professional training manuals for hypnotherapists. Is there a connecting link to your work?

Kanta: I guess stylistically, the connection is sort of warmth in the written and spoken content as well as in the illustration and cover art. I write my mind/body books in a conversational style, like friends talking over coffee. I illustrated my earlier books with whimsical line drawings and at the request of some readers, created coloring books to complement Abundance Triggers and Welcome to the World! I complimented my love poems series with The Love is Everywhere! Coloring Book. Bye, Bye Mr. Malicious! is my first book with full color interior art, so that’s been a lot of fun to do.
I’d say, thematically, the connection between all my work is that love is always there, surrounding you, within you, and available to you in a myriad of ways when you are willing to receive it. This theme shows up in the guided imagery downloads as well. Good information and resourceful ideas are very helpful when we are relaxed and our imaginations are engaged. The training manuals are there to help hypnotists, hypnotherapists, and counselors tell resourceful stories. Again, it’s all about replacing bad stories with beneficial ones.  

Maggie: Would you share a bit about your writing journey? How did you find your voice? When did you start writing?  

Kanta: I found it in pivotal moments that set me on trajectory. Reading The Little Engine That Could awakened in me that idea of telling myself encouraging messages like “I think I can… I can” and I found this profoundly helpful as a little kid. My high school music teacher who mentored me in finding the power of my literal voice. Meditation in Quaker meeting, where the inner voice overcame my shyness and moved me to speak. Getting to hear and see Dr. King, which activated a desire to use my voice and written words as a helping tool. Teaching meditation beginning as college student helped me practice putting my fears aside and letting the words come out, because I wanted to do the best I could and I knew I couldn’t do it from a place of self-consciousness. This was when writing on little scraps of paper began to turn into articles and later the articles turned into books. Looking back, I see how my natural inclinations to writing, art, and development of teachable self-management skills were supported by the people and circumstances in my life and I’m very grateful for that.     

Maggie: Thank you, Kanta.

Kanta: My pleasure. Thank you, Maggie.

Bye, Bye, Mr. Malicious! Book Description: Whether it ended yesterday, or twenty years ago, and you’re still feeling the sting, this book will help you get your happy back after a relationship with a narcissist. With a more comprehensive red flags list than you’ll see anywhere else, it will help you recognize malicious men, so you can avoid them. A non-clinical mind/body/spirit approach, with colorful images and humor.

Link to the Book on Amazon: Bye, Bye, Mr. Malicious!

About the Author: Kanta Bosniak is an author, artist, and interfaith minister with over 45 years’ experience as an educator in Spiritual Growth and Guided Meditation. She is the author/illustrator of numerous books and coloring books, and the author/narrator of several guided imagery downloads. Collectors of her art include a Nobel Prize Winner, a popular television actress, several authors, a U.S. National champion athlete and people of all walks of life. She is a frequent speaker on radio, at churches, universities, holistic education centers, and conferences throughout the US. She is an award-winning member of the National Guild of Hypnotists and listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. Kanta lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwestern Virginia.

Kanta can be found online at the following links:

Web: http://KantaBosniak.com

Gifts and Home Décor on Redbubble: 
https://www.redbubble.com/people/KantaBosniak/shop?asc=u

Art on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/MinisterofArt

Books and Guided Imagery Downloads on Amazon: 
https://amazon.com/author/kantabosniak