Ellie Laliberté will travel to Arizona next month to receive an award for her latest book.
The Hawkesbury region writer admits her nomination for the award came as a bit of a surprise to her.
“I was excited,” she said in a Jan. 19 interview, “but I was also confused because I thought I didn’t win.”
Ms. Laliberté’s book, Letters from You to You, won an International Impact Book Award in the Holistic Wellness and Personal Transformation category. She submitted her book late last summer and, having received no response for several weeks, she assumed her book had not been shortlisted in the early stages of the competition.
“It took over two months before they responded,” she says, “so I thought I was out.”
As she has said before, her first reaction was surprise when the email confirming she had won the prize arrived in November. His second reaction?
She smiled as she thought about the awards gala taking place next month in Phoenix, Arizona.
Laliberté is very comfortable speaking and writing in French or English. Her first book, When your true nature speaks to you, is in French and was published, under the name Michelle Laliberté, by Renaud-Bray, a Montreal publishing house, in 2018. Her second book, Letters to You from You , written in English, was published under the name Ellie Laliberté last year by Lucky Book Publishing in Ottawa.
Both works fall into the realm of self-help and spiritual guidance books and are based on his personal life experiences and efforts at self-discovery. Ms. Laliberté admits that she surprised herself by writing a second book five years after finishing the first and having it published.
“I didn’t expect to write a second book,” she says. It was during my meditation that I understood that I had a second book to write.”
The gap between the two reflects everything she herself has learned on her own journey toward a better understanding of herself and how to approach the world around her. Before starting to write her book, she had already outlined the general concept.
-“It’s a more direct approach,” she says. It is composed of letters written from the perspective of your higher self.”
Each of the 21 letters in the book deals with a particular aspect or topic of spiritual, mental and emotional development and self-improvement. They are like having a one-on-one conversation with a very good, trusted friend.
Laliberté was born in Ottawa, but grew up in L’Orignal and Hawkesbury. At the time, she had no intention of becoming a writer.
“I’ve always worked for myself,” she says. I was an entrepreneur for 15 years.”
Most recently, she managed several AirBnB short-term vacation rentals in the area. Today, she devotes herself more to her literary work.
“I’m writing my third book,” she says. It’s the sequel to Letters.”
Her third book will focus on “witness consciousness,” which she explains as “the practice of observing the mind and redirecting energy to the present moment,” so that a person can be at peace in the present and not destroyed by imaginary fears about what the future may or may not be.
“To encourage people to awaken to something higher,” she says, “so that they can free themselves from the fear-based reality of modern times.”
Both of Laliberté’s books are available on Amazon, and Letters from You to You is also available in Hawkesbury at the Signet & Wizard Art Shoppe in Hawkesbury. An audio version of Letters is also available from Audible.
