Travels with a mystical misfit
Debbie Jacob -
SOMETIMES a book comes along that encourages me to confront my feelings about self-published books. Today, that happens to be Glimpses of a Mystical Misfit: a Trinidadian’s Search for Enlightenment by Frederick “Dharmbodh” Westmaas. If you don’t know the author, chances are you might know his brother and editor for this book, Jan Westmaas, who writes travel books. Brother Jan certainly stepped in to avoid the pitfalls of most self-published books, namely the absence of a good editor to catch typos and other mistakes.
Like his brother Jan, Frederick, a boxer, psychiatric nurse, adventurer, sculptor and “mystical misfit,” writes about his life and travels with humour and passion, and while it is easy to write off self-published books for circumventing the pain and process most writers have to go through to reach publication, a rare, good self-published book makes me realise how much we are missing by not having a thriving sm