A Willowbrook-based writer has published her first book.
Have You Met My Dragon is the first release from Crystal Dyste.
The book, a first in an anticipated series addresses common mental health issues facing today’s young people. These issues include anxiety, depression, suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and more. This first book looks at anxiety. Readers are introduced to a new perspective on mental health, a workbook format that allows the reader to investigate what anxiety looks like in their own life, and techniques to promote health and healing.
Dyste said the book really emerged out of her own realities in terms of dealing with mental health issues.
“Issues of mental health have always been very personal to me as I have lived with such issues for almost 24-years,” she said. “Through my own journey I have met several others who have walked the same dark roads I myself have stumbled along. Often I have seen these struggles claim more than just joy and productivity from people, but seen it steal their very lives.
“This project has been about helping people, especially women and youth, find their way to health and healing after struggles with mental health, abuse, and other trauma.”
The specific idea for Have You Met My Dragon came out of one of the processes Dyste herself took.
“The idea for this book series came from a homework assignment given to me by my own counselor,” explained the author. “He asked me to create an artistic representation of my journey with mental illness, specifically with anxiety and depression. I came up with a pencil sketch of a warrior princess walking along a winding path. Beside the path was a dragon, and although the princess held a sword, she did not wield it against the dragon. A short time later, I found a doll wearing a gauntlet, like a falconer, that came with a small dragon that perched on her arm.
“These two images of partnership brought to mind that I had once heard mental illness described as a fellow traveller on the journey; something outside of ourselves, but not necessarily an enemy. When I saw these two princesses seeming to work, fight, live with their dragons, I knew I had stumbled onto something that would change my worldview forever.”
The book is a first for Dyste, although she did have a previous foray into having her works published.
“I have had a poem published, but this is my first full literary project,” she said.
The new work is one of passion, with Dyste undertaking to self-publish on a small scale.
“I am self-published only locally,” she said, adding “I like to say that it is my first book in print. I look forward to a more formal publishing and distribution in the near future.”
At the same time Dyste said writing has long been a passion in her life.
“I have been writing since I was in elementary school and really haven’t completely stopped since,” she told Yorkton This Week. “When I was in Grade 4, I attended Young Authors’ Conference. In 2000, I entered a poetry contest and had my Poem Memories, published in a coffee table book “Ballads of Our Lives”, by the International Library of Poetry. I have written many poems and short stories which I have exhibited in small public forums, and I have at least three novels ‘in process.’”
So arriving at a point of doing a book was almost always anticipated by Dyste.
“Really, I think writing this book has been inevitable for me,” she said. “I have always possessed a gift and a love of writing as well as psychology, and I have also always possessed a deep desire to help others find freedom after pain.
“That being said, writing about such issues is never light and fluffy and for me it is very personal.
“Also I was very committed to doing adequate and effective research, and presenting it in a format that even preteens can access and benefit from.
“Given the fact that almost all of my previous writing has been purely creative and fictional, I was surprised to find that this fact based workbook would be the first real piece of literature I sent out into the world, but it feels so much more.”
But taking on self-publishing was a whole new undertaking for Dyste, one which meant focusing on more than simply writing, such as just what format was going to work best to achieve her goals for the work.
“I knew when I started that I wanted this to be a workbook that people could truly engage with, rather than a cute little book that one reads and sets aside,” she said. “It took the better part of a year, and some invaluable insight from writer and teacher friends, to figure out how to bring my vision of a workbook to anything close to reality. The other major struggle I had along the way was finding that I was trying to write four or five books in one.
“Once I committed myself to writing at least four separate books, the first one flew into being.”
While there were challenges with the book, Dyste said she is happy with the results.
“Overall, yes,” she said. “I think that most of us writers are perfectionists, and we always desire just a little bit more for our readers, but I truly feel I put together a piece of work that will reach people and lead them to the help for healing that they need.
“If my books can bring one person back from the edge of the grave they feel is the only thing left for them, then I have done a great thing.”
And Dyste is anticipating more to come.
“As I alluded to earlier, one of my biggest breakthroughs in the writing process was when I realized that there just had to be more than one book,” she said. “So, yes, there are definitely more books on the horizon. I am aiming for a March release of my second book as well as a re-release, or second edition of my first.”
Have You Met My Dragon is available from the author as well as at Coles in the Parkland Mall. She will be signing at Coles Saturday, Feb. 24 from 1-to-3.
The book is also at Golden Rule on Second Ave.
“The best way is still to contact me directly, which you can do through my Facebook page, Have You Met My Dragon?” said Dyste.
