"A day will come when the story inside will want to breathe on it's own.
That is when you will start writing".
The dream of writing a book was with me for more than 15 years. Over that time, the story remained virtually the same, sharing my story of living with and then life after compulsive gambling and domestic violence. Though the chaos of being in that space, coupled with the self-doubt, fear and feelings of not being good enough caused those thousands of heartfelt typed words to be locked up within the computer hard drive for years.
Many famous authors have used the multiple author concept to launch their books. Contributing to the self-help genre success is the renowned Chicken Soup for the Soul, which is a book of inspirational and motivational, stories that became a runaway bestseller. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen started with a simple idea that people could help each other by sharing stories about their lives. 'Changing the world for the better one story at a time'®. Sharing stories helps the reader connect through finding common ground, often cultivating empathy, hope, and can foster healing, transformation and empowerment (Anderson 2014).
Studies have found self-help books to be an effective treatment to provide information, insight, problem discussion, a means to communicate new values and attitudes, to share an awareness that others have experienced similar issues and to provide solutions. The ‘self-help’ or ‘self-improvement’ genre has risen to a $13 billion industry
Since 2005, my book-writing dream developed further into setting up an organisation that would help domestic violence survivors recover and rebuild their lives after domestic violence, which is a huge goal and dream. After my own story was selected for a multi-author book and my chapter won the Editor’s choice award, my confidence was restored to pursue my dream of book writing and setting up a domestic violence recovery organisation.
I share the belief that people’s stories can help others and with enthusiasm, determination and persistence, I embarked on compiling the book Broken to Brilliant - Breaking free to be You after domestic violence. Fortunately, there was no shortage of women who were willing to write a chapter. Unfortunately that meant too many women and children experiencing the trauma of domestic and family violence.
It's an honour, that ten women have trusted me to help them bring their stories to life. Our heartfelt stories in order, for other women to relate, but the key difference is that we share what we believe are the key steps or strategies that helped each of us in rebuilding our lives.
In 2015, we continued to battle the maze of editing, funding and the legalities of publishing content on domestic violence. Though, we did not give up on bringing you the stories from ten courageous women.
We did it! It took over two years to get through the mind field of publishing domestic violence stories. Though, their heartfelt words were finally published in the book Broken to Brilliant.
They share their powerful messages of hope, love, laughter and life after abuse.