ForeWord This Week

September 20, 2012 Scientific discovery, everyday heroes, and hobgoblins. Where else would you find such a diverse collection of indie book reviews? Only in FTW's staff picks!

Author Interview
Provocative interviews with great writers who have earned c coverage in ForeWord Reviews. Our editorial mission is to continuously beam a light on the versatile . achievements of independent publishers and their authors.

Susan Pease Banitt

This week, we feature Susan Pease Banitt, author of The Trauma Took Kit: Healing PTSD from the Inside Out. As a Harvard-trained psychotherapist, trained Banitt encourages people who have been traumatized to realize the complexity of their experiences and work on their rehabilitation.
978-0-8356-0896-1 / Psychology / Quest Books / Softcover / $18.95 / 1 281pp

What was your favorite book when you were a child? rite
My favorite book was A Wrinkle in Tim , which I read when I was nine. It kicked off Time, several years of devouring science fiction and a passion for astrophysics. Later I loved the Chronicles of Narnia series, the Dune series, and, of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I read LOTR yearly for a decade after that first astonishing read.

What are you reading now?

In my middle age I have discovered the wonders of Herman Melville and the amazing Moby-Dick, a book I managed to avoid during my school years. I started it at Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast in the middle of a great winter storm. Im having a grand time with it! Of course, there are at least four other books I am reading at the same time.

Top Five Authors:

Wow, thats really hard! Ask me next week and my answer might be different. For fiction Id say: Madeleine LEngle, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King (he writes about the American shadow better than anybody), and J.K. Rowling. (Theres a fantastical trend there.)

What book changed your life?

Every book Ive ever read has changed my life in some way. But the hands down, book with the greatest impact was Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. This book introduced me to yogic ideas and philosophies and helped me see the profound connections between Christianity and Hinduism. It inspired all my subsequent interest in yogic philosophy that underpins my upcoming book. A close second would be The Ego and the Id by Sigmund Freud that I had to read in high school. This book introduced me to the inner workings of the mind. I was hooked on psychology from that point forward.

What was it that brought you to writing?

I never wanted to write for the sake of writing. In fact I always thought of writing as akin to labordeeply painful, even if deeply productive! In my forties I made a very deep journey of healing from a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with the help of many providers and modalities, a journey that was not possible with conventional therapies. I started incorporating these modalities into my psychotherapy practice with patients who had suffered profoundly traumatic backgrounds and found that my patients were healing faster and deeper than ever before. Many of these techniques were exceedingly simple with profoundly effective results. A deep passion began to grow in me to share these thoughts, teachings and modalities with others who might not have access to healers or who might be averse to psychotherapy. That is how The Trauma Tool Kit was born.

Did anyone inspire you to write?

I come from a family of writers going back several generations. My daughters are

award-winning writers as teens. They have all inspired me.

How do you write? Do you have a daily routine?

Yes and no. I, like many writers, have had to juggle a job, kids, house management duties and self-care with my writing time. It helped to set monthly, weekly, and daily goals for myself and not beat myself up if I slipped up every once in awhile. Usually, I cant write first thing in the morning; I need to mull things over for a while, and Im not a morning person. So my rule was three to four pages per writing day on average, and begin on or before 1 p.m. because of the kids schedule. Big, difficult chunks I saved for a weekend when I knew I could get six hours in a row. Occasionally I would come out of the sleep state with deep inspiration and would have to write in the morning to capture the idea. Also, I outlined like crazy. For me, the keys have been flexibility and persistence.

What's good, bad, and ugly about the process?

Good: The unexpected feeling of catharsis and deep purpose that comes with writing. Sometimes wisdom would flow out onto the keyboard that I didnt even know was there. Im still learning from some of my own writing. Also, I rediscovered my love of research. Finding unexpected knowledge in a back library stack or journal is as exciting to me as finding buried treasure. Bad: Self-doubt. Some days it was an act of will to begin writing and trust myself. Youd think there would be continuity from day to day, but this is not my experience. Every day was like I was writing for the first time. Some days were easier than others. Ugly: Fear. Lots of it. When I started writing I totally got the stereotype of needing cigarettes and a glass of whiskey beside me even though I partake of neither. Later, I had a past-life reading that actually helped that fear lessen quite a bit. Thank you Ainslie MacLeod! I had the kind of butterflies for weeks in the beginning that felt just like nervously falling in loveexcited but anxious I might wake up one day and have it all fly away. But I think this is a good thing. It kept me on my toes, energized and awake.

What did you have to unlearn, un-believe about yourself to find your truth as a writer?
This is a great question. Since I had not written a book ever, an article, journal, or even an essay in years, I thought, at some level, that I was no longer a writer. Then I realized that I had been writing case notes, psychosocial assessments, and discharge

summaries for my twenty years of being a psychotherapist. I realized that those counted, and this thought helped me let go of the idea that I was not a writer.

What had to go?

My first chapter had to go. It was painful, but after writing several more chapters and a more detailed outline I decided that the first chapter was actually portions of about four chapters. So I divided it up, created a whole new first chapter and never looked back.

What does the beginning feel like?

Beginning felt necessary. It felt urgent and passionate. This was information I just had to get to people. Im a jumper not a wader, and I just jumped right into the process once I made the decision to start. I still feel that sense of passion and urgency about the books mission.

What does finishing look like? Is it harder than starting? Is there a part of you that doesnt want to let go?
In The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, there is this wonderful line that Schmendrick the magician says, There are no happy endings because nothing ever ends. Putting the period on the end of that last sentence didnt feel like finishing. Writing the words to the book is only a part of the mission of the book. After the last sentence, there is editing, then proofing then publicizing then workshops and speaking, and so on. There is no end in sight. In terms of just the writing itself, I have a strong internal sense of when pieces are done. I always have. I dont know where it comes from. I was very happy on the day I realized the book was complete.

Do you have any particular story to tell concerning the writing of this book?
Yes. This book, any book perhaps, needed a certain amount of kismet to find a publisher and an agent. If it were not for the annual Willamette Writers Conference here in Portland, Oregon, my daughter would not have won an award for writing. If not for her award I would never have attended that year. If I had not attended I never would have met my first choice agents from Jeff Herman Literary Agency. When I met Deb Herman she did not even let me finish my book pitch because she had such a strong positive intuitive feeling about my book, and her husband, Jeff, did end up becoming my agent. Author, Julie Fast encouraged me, at that same conference, to use my training in the Harvard medical system to help promote myself as an expert (it had never occurred to

me). What these synchronicities have meant to me, is that, for whatever reason, this book was meant to find an agent, a publisher, and an audience. I am very grateful to be along for the ride.

What advice have you received concerning writing?

I grew up in a Mad Men advertising household where my fathers sole income was from his writing. His constant advice to us was: Be pithy. Dont take ten words to say what you can say in five. Be grammatically correct, and dont be boring. In addition, my book proposal editor, Elizabeth Lyons, insisted I eliminate the passive voice in sentences. I did, and my writing improved overnight.

What advice would you offer writers?

First of all: begin! Write about what you have passion for. Be organized. Be persistent. Writers blocks are blocks in your own psyche. If you encounter them (and you will) go deep within to learn something new about yourself and dissolve them. Have fun! Dont be afraid to throw stuff out and start over. Always work on improving your craft. Challenge yourself to create the best sentences you can. Above all, be clear in your thinking. Clear thinking translates into clear writing.

What are you working on at the moment?

At the moment: this author interview and other publicity efforts on behalf of The Trauma Tool Kit. If you mean other books, well, a funny thing happened on the way to being a non-fiction author. Several other books, including fictional, have presented themselves including: a childrens picture book, a young adult trilogy which my kids desperately want me to work on, and at least three other nonfiction books drawn from my practice including a spiritual memoir. That should keep me busy for a while.