Table View author Taryn Little-Viglino, 52, won two awards at the Cape Flats Literary Awards for her first book, And God Said…
She walked away with the Contribution to Literary Arts 2024 award and the Best Book Published by a Single Author Award 2024 at the ceremony held at the Krystal Beach Hotel in Gordon’s Bay earlier this month.
Ms Little-Viglino said it had taken her almost four decades to complete her faith-based book.
“But without all those years, I would not have content. God wanted content,” she said.
She said she was nine years old when she started writing, and had always imagined having her book up on a shelf in a bookstore.
“This dream might become a reality,” she said, adding that it’s exactly what the book hopes to achieve for its readers.
“I would have anxiety if I was not writing, and since I released this book, there’s a weight lifted from my shoulders,” she said.
The book, she says, details events where she was “searching for answers in other spheres of life,” such as in nightclubs, alcohol abuse, and romantic relationships.
But it wasn’t until she had an “encounter with God,” that made her turn her life around, she says.
This is when she came “face to face with her worst enemy: herself,” as she says in the book, which also details how her journey of self-discovery had its twists and turns, but ended in her finding herself living a life filled with “purpose and possibilities”.
“Although the book is faith-based, it can touch the lives of many who feel they are living without purpose and it is aimed at bringing hope and healing to the broken and depressed,” she added.
Ms Little-Viglino now refers to writing as “a calling”.
She said she procrastinated while writing the book because of “shame”, referring to the things she did in the past.
“I was so concerned about what people were going to say about me, but I’m not that person I was years ago.”
As she came up with her rough draft, she said, she realised what the next step was, and that was to work on taking accountability for her actions instead of blaming others.
She said writing the book also helped her get rid of “self pity, and taught her how to thrive from the inside out.”
She didn’t enjoy revisiting the bad memories that feature in the book, but said if it wasn’t for those experiences, she would not be where she is today.
She said the book allows readers to feel vulnerable and open themselves up to what they are destined to be.
“God gives us clues as to what he has ordained for us to be,” she said.
She believes everyone has a story to tell, and encourages readers to “tell their story”.
Ms Little-Viglino is planning to write a second book that will focus on practical tools that readers can use to apply to their daily lives, detailing her journey to the forgiveness of herself and others.
But she will first focus on her Master’s Degree in Practical Theology. She has a Bachelor of Theology: in Community Leadership: Psychology, and a Bachelor of Arts Psychology (Honours).
If you would like to connect Ms Little-Viglino or find out more about her book, you can email her at worldneedsyou1@gmail.com
