The Birth of a Book

Five years ago, I self-published my first book. That book took me six years to write.

I talked about that book from the ninth grade until it was completed. I knew that I had a book in me and I wanted to let it out... but that book was heavy.

My first book started with telling my story of how I overcame sexual trauma. How my experience taught me who I was, and also lead to who I became. A person who spoke out against others unspoken voices. A person who tried to fix everything and everyone around them and couldn't. That book felt like a test and after six years, I finally passed it.

After that experience, I thought writing a book was hard. It took too long. I had to edit it myself because I didn't have the funds to have someone else do it. I had a personal deadline for when I wanted that book to be published, and when the time came my friends told me to let it go into the ether and let it fly... so I did.

In January of 2023, I went to a vision board event that was led by my NET Therapist. NET stands for Neuro-Emotional Technique which is a stress reduction technique. NET is performed using manual muscle testing of the arm in combination with meridian access points located on the wrists and hands. This technique is used to pinpoint specific emotions, memories, and stress patterns stored in the body. We were to make a vision board and the therapist performed NET for each component to work on later in future sessions.

That year, I wanted to promote my book more. I wanted to sell more and have it hit a top 12 list. I thought that a book I wrote wouldn't be able to hit the top spot on book lists, but number 12 was just as good. That meant it would be recognized and seen.

A photo of my vision board from 2023

I thought that the "New Book" was going to be my first book, just revamped and promoted... but that was not the case.

In August of 2023, my best friend and I were discussing what I wanted to do with my business, my sobriety journey, and how I wanted to promote my book. The interesting part of this conversation came when my best friend said, "It sounds like you need to write another book."

I did not turn the idea down completely, but I definitely was not ready to write another book.

A zoomed in photo of the words "Wrote No. 12 The Best New Book" glued to my 2023 Vision Board.

Fast forward to Labor Day Weekend, where I decided to have a Radio Silent Weekend, camp out in my backyard, get back in touch with nature, and start my new book.

In four days, I put together a pretty well thought out outline of my new book and the rest as they say was history.

For the last two and a half years, I have written, edited and brought this book to life. Now, on May 31, 2026, five years after my first book was published, I will be self-publilshing my newest book!

What did I learn from this process a second time around?

1. I learned that when you have inspiration it can take on many forms. I was truly inspired by my journey and it allowed me to put together a book that focused on habits, patterns and breaking through the blinders of sameness.

2. A book does not have to take six years, but it might! I thought that my second book would take longer than the first one. It took 14 months to complete a first, second and third draft of the book. The last few months were taken up by editing.

3. Find an editor. I do not know if I will write another book. It really just depends on how life goes. With that being said, I will be finding an editor for that book and any other book that comes after. Again... if there is another book.

4. I actually enjoyed the process more than I thought. I followed a system to get this book done and fleshing out every section of every chapter was eye-opening and excited. I was pushing the boundaries of what I learned and showing others how to do them as well.

5. People want to change, they just need a place to start. My beta readers were the best influence on this book. They not only read the book. Most of them used the concepts in it and started to make changes. That is the biggest compliment I can get.

All in all, birthing a book is not for the weak. It is a trying process that will test you every step of the way. After I started, I knew that I had to finish it. There was no way I could let another day go by without giving this knowledge to the world. And that is exactly what I intend to do.