Eyewitness to Healing is a book that has already changed my life as I revise it and revisit some tragic memories of mine. I have fictionalized my incest story and want to share it with the world, hoping that someone will be healed by viewing my process of healing.
My Current Project
I am a 72-year-old woman, a retired middle school teacher who has self-published ten award winning books, three cookbooks and three audiobooks since I retired. I am in recovery for alcoholism and codependency. Writing has saved my life!
In 2016 I wrote an AutoFiction (autobiography fiction) and fictionalized my incest story in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I really thought I would revise it in 2017. That year, a major book project dropped into my lap, and I couldn’t pass it up.
I had the privilege of writing the biography for the most famous square dance caller in the world, Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo. That book took three years to interview him, transcribed over 258,000 words and write the book. In the process, he died and never saw the finish book which broke my heart!
Then other books of mine surfaced, so this book, Eyewitness to Healing, sat quietly in the shadows. Yes, I vaguely remembered it but knew it would be a soul-stirring book to work on. So, I ignored its call, but finally the timing was right.
In 2025, I heard all the clammer about the Epstein Files. I talked to my therapist about it, noting that it wasn’t as big a trigger for me anymore. But I had to do something—I had to act. I wanted to be an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse. We brainstormed possibilities: a website to honor survivors. Then I remembered this book.
So, I opened up the file and it felt like visiting an old friend, but my husband and I sold everything and moved to Boquete, Panama in September 2025. Once again, it got put on the back burner because my second book in my poetry series was almost done.
In December 2025, I released book #2 in a poetry series, Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. After its release, I set this series aside to work on this AutoFiction, Eyewitness to Healing.
Update on Eyewitness to Healing
Now I’m in the process of revising it, adding specifics I left out in the first draft. It has been grueling to revisit what happened to me, but I know the ending.
Because I had left out most of the flashbacks to the abuse, I asked my book coach and group how graphic should I be. I intend this book for survivors and those who witness their lives, but could it attract others because of its salacious possibilities.
My book coach suggested I write them all out because it’s easier to delete parts than add later. I respect his thoughts, so I did.
I did an outline of the flashbacks then added them where they fit in. The hardest one I did last week stirred something up deep inside of me that has frozen in the process. I now have a sinus infection, and many years ago, I heard someone say that sinus infection are frozen tears! I probably need to cry, and I will! The writing has become another part of my healing.
Through 12 step work, therapy, returning to my church I love and lots of tears, I have had a major healing and working on this book has basically made me aware of the witnesses I had in my life’s healing.
As you can see, I’m still in the healing process and probably will be until the end, but it’s not the ghost hiding in the shadows that directed so much of my life anymore.
Horrible things happen to people, but healing is possible!
In many ways, this book honors anyone who has the guts to face their past and heal. It also honors those who witness the healing and receive their own healing along the way!
I will close with the epigraph I chose for this book:
“Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.“
— Sylvia Plath
Indie Author Spotlight: Writing for Survivors
First I sent off the first fifteen pages of Eyewitness to Healing to Let’s Fix Stories. Then I met with them and went over “What Worked” and “What Needed Improvement.” It was one of the best experiences of my life.
Then I was interviewed on One Brilliant Arc (OBA) about my book, the experience with Let’s Fix Stories and my passion for writing this book. Click on the link below to listen to my heartfelt conversation