I have been in and out of book publishing since the mid-1970s. Three years ago, I taught my first Publish-It-Yourself ™ workshop to help first-time authors, mostly, turn their ideas into books. By far the best part of this was hearing about and then helping to convert my students’ creative longings into real books (getting their writing out, one might say).

A memoir recounting the 40-year, loving marriage of a recent widower; the compiled blog posts of a chronically depressed young man as an act of self-healing; the fruits of years of occasional research about local history or the life of a favorite author; family histories compiled through many hours of research and curation; a compendium of 30 years of business training materials developed into a new revenue stream; a gentle guide for the children of suicides by someone who knows how it feels; several first novels; a book of discovered poetry written by my student’s foster mother when she was a young woman. These are the stuff of lives of dreams and intimate, personal expressions. What a privilege to help them see the light of day.

Note to self: take your own guidance sometimes, ok?