Welcome ~

I’m glad you’re here.

I live in Maine.

I’m a book coach, writer, and recovering Christian.

It’s an odd trifecta.

By recovering, I mean, it wasn’t so long ago that I spent my days praying and studying the Bible like it was my job. As an adult, I had never stopped to ask myself if I still believed the things I’d adhered to at a young age out of fear. Then a young woman walked into the anti-abortion Christian pregnancy center where I worked and told me she needed an abortion. I was 49-years-old.

That day, something broke open inside me, and I was whisked back to my own unplanned pregnancy at age 19.

Yeah, there’s definitely a story there.

It’s a long story.

Book-length, in fact. I’m writing it. It’s about childhood trauma and finding out in therapy that I’d spent my adult life completely disconnected from my needs and wants and feelings. Disconnected from my very self-hood.

Trauma can do that to a person.

So can religion.

It’s hard to make decisions and be a whole person when you don’t know who you are or what you want or need.

But now I know. I know who I am. I know what I want. I know what I’m good at.

Now I help others write their hard stories.

I help them sift through the muck, decide what goes in and what stays out, and I help them dig for the feelings. Trauma is a tricky thing to write about. Remembering is often the easy part. Figuring out the feelings is the mystery. It can take a while. It can require digging and excavation. Most people need therapy. It’s anything but fun.

But there’s the other side. It’s possible to get there. That’s where I am now. If that’s where you are, or where you’d like to be, you’re in the right place.

What’s your story?

If you’re writing about trauma or religion or even if you’re writing a novel about humans who are alive in this world, then you’re writing about the hard things, too.

My hope is to create a safe space here to talk about my story and your story. I’m not a therapist, but I can encourage and support and guide you as you write your own book. I will have empathy, hold space for you, and help you write your hard story (fictional or real) in a clear, succinct, and powerful way.

Subscriptions are FREE. As a Subscriber, you will get:

• Brief letters in your inbox on the first and fifteenth of each month.

• Scenes from my memoir in progress. Juicy stuff like abandonment wounds, lies the church told me, and of course the scary and crazy things my mother did to my brother and me. She will probably read these letters, too, so that will be fun.

• The truth about how long it can take to write a trauma memoir, and how you learn to write it while you simultaneously live through the healing.

• Authenticity, courage, and kindness.

For Maine Locals

In each issue, you’ll find links to Maine classes and events, and if you share YOUR events, I might link to those, too.

Check out…

My website for all the book coaching info.

Stay tuned here for memoir excerpts and discussions that our mothers and neighbors would love to eavesdrop on.

Thanks so much for being here.

Until next time,

~ Paulla