Joy Cowley’s Notes to a Friend a ‘new age’ book award finalist

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10 years ago

Joy Cowley’s book “Notes to a Friend” has been named as a finalist in the Ashton Wylie Book Awards.

“Notes to a Friend” is a group of short letters around nine Christian themes and joins four other finalists in the “New mind, body, spirit” category.

Ms Cowley’s motivation for writing the book came by way of her conducting retreats.

She noticed that while most people believed in God, few had an understanding of the “church-speak”, which was common until recently, in Western society.

“All they brought was a hunger, seeking a map for their journey,” Ms Cowley told CathNews.

With her mother being a Brethren and her father from old Scottish Presbyterian heritage, Ms Cowley discovered the Catholic faith through friends, with whom she partied on Saturday nights and then went to Church the next morning.

She admits to being surprised at her positive reaction to her initial Catholic experience.

“It was just in me, it was like coming home”, she said.

Quick to point out that she is not a theologian, she said “Notes to a Friend” is her sharing her path.

“If it’s meaningful hold onto it, if it’s not, let it go,” she said.

Keen to reach people with a spiritual hunger without bogging them down with “churchy” language, Ms Cowley groups her thoughts around:

simplicity
service
trials
courage
devotion
discipline
growth
healing and
prayer.

“Readers simply keep returning with requests for more copies for friends and family,” said Shirley Duthie of Pleroma Press.

Available locally at all good book stores, “Notes to a Friend” has also gone global and is also available in Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.

Ashton Wylie was Auckland businessman and philanthropist with a wide range of interests, particularly in the areas of spirituality, personal development and positive relationships.

Mr Wylie died in 1999.

The $10,000 Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Book Award is given annually for a book in the mind, body, spirit (New Age) genre. The purpose of the award is to reward excellence for a published book in this genre.

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