Three years ago, I had a conversation with Dr. Edith Shiro. She wanted to write a book about post traumatic growth and she needed the book out, like, yesterday. The pandemic had just begun and she could see what was about to happen to the world. Trauma was going to hit us hard, individually and collectively, so she could no longer put the task off.

Thing is, she’d written her dissertation on the subject twenty-five years before. For decades, she’d helped patients not only heal from trauma of all kind, but become something so much more because of it.

Her mission and message were big. She wanted the reach and panache of a big traditional publishing house, which meant we needed to write a book proposal and get the attention of an agent.

So our work began.

And boy, did I learn a lot. So did Dr. Shiro.

I thought I would share this (28 minute) interview we did about her book, The Gift of Trauma, and the writing process itself.