By Janette Turner

“I almost died twice,” said author Robbie Holz, speaking today at EPIC Group in the Edmonds Library. “I had severe brain swelling and chronic fatigue. Now my friends say I have the energy of a chipmunk on crack.”

Holz’s talk touched on the healing principles she learned from her husband, Gary, a patent-generating physicist, who was out of scientific options for his M.S. when he visited Australian Aborigines. “When he arrived in Australia,” said Holz, “he was carried off the plane. After being in the Outback for 10 days, he left with feeling throughout his body and was able to walk onto the plane (for the return home).”

But there was another miracle the listeners in the room wanted to hear about: How Holz took her nonfiction book, “Journey to the Heart: Secrets of Aboriginal Healing,” from iUniverse self-publishing to a forthcoming edition with a major publishing house. “Having an award changed everything,” said Holz, who earned three awards for her self-pub book and then promoted it at the New York Book Expo. “I targeted 25 publishers who were best for me.” She also recommends following “your intuition,” which is how she ended up talking with a man who was an expert on Aborigines, and then she learned he owned 12 publishing houses.

Holz sees traditional publishing as one avenue to reach her audience. She also appears on a radio show and has a new series on DailyOM, titled “Use Aboriginal Secrets for Healing,” which is a “pay whatever you want” series, costing anywhere from $100 to free. “The internet is the way to go,” said Holz, who anticipates reaching many folks with her principles of healing.

For more information on Holz, visit her website, and for more on EPIC’s free Monday morning writing group, see here.