After I agreed to tell my story, my therapist asked me to write a detailed timeline of the first 25 years of my life. As I sat at my computer and tried to begin, I remembered numerous inspirational cards my mother had written me during a particularly hard time in my life. I went into my basement to find them and low and behold, I also found over 500 letters, court documents, notes, photographs, and video that I did not know I had. As I dug through this enormous pile of information, I began to think, “Maybe I am supposed to write a book.”

By and by, the long timeline lead to a book. I was so proud to finally accomplish this tremendous task. I sent the first few chapters to a local book editor who praised me for my story, and gently mentioned that I told my story, but I did not show my story… that was fine if I just wanted a chronicle for my own family, but if I really wanted to publish this book, and she thought I definitely should, I needed to re-write the book using first person with many descriptions so that the reader could better feel what I had experienced.

We all have gifts, but this type of writing is not one of them. I put the word out in my Boulder community and within three days I was connected with the daughter of a friend in my book group. This brilliant young woman was starting college in the pre-med field, but also yearned to write creatively. She gave me samples of her writing plus I told her some stories from my childhood, and she wrote about them. It was meant to be. Over the next two years, as she attended college in New York City, she and I worked together as I told her the stories of my life. I have edited this amazing book several times now. And, as my story continues to unfold during this process of starting to tell it, I am aware that the book needs continued editing with an extraordinary editor. I am currently looking for someone to help me do this!