Penny Castle is on a madcap chase in pursuit of that most elusive of conditions: happiness. The only female in a household of more or less skeptical males Penny’s journey begins when a hopeful mid-career switch crumbles into disappointment. In a funk, she turns to an inspiring happiness expert she finds on TedTalks, and decides to try the strategies he suggests. All of them. It can’t harm … or can it?

Her forays into meditating, journaling, running (no-one could accuse her of being athletic) and horse-riding, are all sabotaged by her very own internal critic, a tweezer-lipped character called Sally, who never fails to point out her shortcomings. In Sally’s jaundiced view, no ambition, however noble, doesn’t deserve a stab in the back.

Penny’s final attempt to corner her target leads her into the realms of “acts of service”. In her case, this takes the form of a morning spent picking up dog turds in a local park. No discernible happiness results.

Even her work as a “happiness coach”, while it delivers joy to her clients, doesn’t seem to do the trick for her.

Her quest seems doomed to eternal, if hilarious, failure…

But all along, Penny’s been toiling away at something never mentioned by the happiness experts. Something she began, not for happiness sake, but to do her maternal duty. It’s during the hours she spends in this pursuit that she begins to feel most at ease with herself and her world. Could it be the answer she’s been seeking? This time, it’s not Sally who steps in to explode the possibility. Drought and a Biblical flood do that job very well, thank you very much.

But that’s not the end of Penny’s story… or her quest.

Coming Soon!

Cultivating Happiness will be landing on 22 January 2019.

Pre-order now

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I am Penny Castle. I live in Johannesburg with my husband Shannon and teenage son. I started a blog in 2016 with the intention of documenting my adventures in growing veggies and how they helped me become a happier person.

On the 21 January 2017 all that was forgotten. My elder son, Joshua, was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer: cholangiocarcinoma. He died in January 2018.

Our lives have had to change and so did my writing. These days I write about happiness and cancer and hope and grief. And despair. And hope again.

I write about sad things and funny things and irreverent things and sometimes (I hope) even inspiring things.

I still can’t believe this is really happening

by pennycastle | Jan 16, 2019 | Blog, Blog Posts, Uncategorised

Did you ever have a secret wish to do something but it felt too audacious to even mention? Well for me that’s calling myself an author.

In fact, even though the book I co-wrote with Josh became a best-seller, I still find my tongue getting tangled when people ask me what I do. I end up saying stupid things like, “not much”. In fact, it was only when my son, Chris, put AUTHOR on a school form that allowed myself to even consider thinking about myself that way.

And now the launch of my latest book is only a few days away!

Thank you so much for getting behind Cultivating Happiness.

You won’t believe how much it means to me (and even to Sally).

If you missed the announcement, make sure to [click here to see all kinds of cool giveaways you can access: https://pennycastlewriter.com/cultivating-happiness/

Here’s a little quote thingie from the book.