Climbing in Walt Whitman's Footsteps

As we climbed the stairs of the famous Powell’s Book Store in Portland, Oregon, I couldn’t help but notice the writing on the stairs. Highlighted in purple are the words, “What do Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Beatrix Potter, and DH Lawrence have in common? They’ve all self-published.”

I climbed the first stair stepping over the words “Are you next?”

If I decided to take that step, I knew I’d obviously be in good company. Nevertheless, at the time, I wasn’t ready to climb to the next step: “They’ve all self-published.”

In the past two years, the publishing world has continued to change. With the growth of e-books and print-on-demand, traditional publishing has become tighter and harder to penetrate as a new writer. At the same time, self-publishing has lost a lot of its former stigma. The questions swirling in my mind were how much time did I want to spend sending query letters and waiting for answers? How much back up help would traditional publishers provide in the way of promotion? Could I do this? I weighed the options and decided that yes, I was ready to climb to that step. And so I entered to world of self-publishing.

As a social worker, I listened to many stories from people who most people don’t have the opportunity to know. I’ve listened to their conflicts and pain crossing into places that many of us fortunately will never enter. Bridging that gap, I bring you their stories. Since I want you to know these people, I opted to join Walt Whitman et al. Yes, I’ve figuratively walked over the steps. They’ve all self-published - Are you next? -Yes I am.

And so Breaking The Fall is out there on Kindle and  Smashwords and coming soon on Nook, I-Phones, and Amazon as a print-on-demand book. 

Breaking the Fall opens as Sherry Berger, a therapist on the northwest side of Chicago, contemplates how to reconcile her apparently middle class life with the life and death emergencies of her clients. Sherry has secrets of her own and she hopes that these secrets won’t impact her ability to help her clients.

As readers meet Sherry’s clients, they’ll see Sherry’s frustration and agony. Sherry tries to help her clients overcome barriers to their healing that our society places before them, often unexpectedly and at crucial times in their lives. They often face obstacles to achieving their goals, maintaining their equilibrium, and in some cases, even surviving.

Will Sherry decide to continue to work with these challenges or will she choose another path? Will she resolve her own family issues or will her clients’ problems engulf her?

After reading Breaking the Fall, I hope you'll understand it better. I've entered the world of self-publishing. Now I welcome you to learn about my world.