Stephanie Wild - Book Journeys Author Interview

On this episode of Book Journeys, Pleasance Silicki interviews Stephanie Wild, author of The Art of Forgiveness: How to Get Past It Without Getting Anyone Off the Hook.

Stephanie believes that her main mission in life was to learn how to forgive. It took her forty years, by her own reckoning, to learn how to do so, starting from her difficult childhood, and she noted that, while a lot of spiritual leaders say that forgiveness is necessary, there was nothing out which outlined steps on how to actually forgive. Stephanie had undergone cognitive behavioral therapy as part of the process, which she remarks as being somewhat intellectual in nature, and while it was able to help her out, it was when she hit a wall during her therapy that she realized that she needed spiritual and physical peace to complete the process. The Art of Forgiveness is, according to her, a handbook on how to forgive.

For Stephanie, writing the book was part of her journey into forgiveness. She remarked that the book served as a bridge for her transition at that phase in her life from being an advertising copywriter to what she presently does. Stephanie remarked that she had expanded during the writing process and learned to cultivate her faith that she was being led in the right direction. She notes that the new ways in which she carried herself and spoke as the writing process progressed made her corporate colleagues regard her somewhat strangely. This made her realize that she now had to do something else – hence her presently being a spiritualist minister and psychic medium.

Stephanie had always liked writing since she was growing up and had always thought she would write a book sometime. She wasn’t yet serious about doing so when, one lazy afternoon, she saw an ad for an online information session for the Author Incubator. Stephanie joined the session, liked what she saw and heard, signed up for the Author Incubator program and then began writing her book the very next day.

It was through the Author Incubator process that Stephanie realized that, to be helpful to others, her book needed to give the answers that she had already discovered, rather than going with her original intention of publishing a series of short stories and letting her readers figure things out for themselves. She also learned to write more words and to make the same point repeatedly, which was counter to her copywriting training. Stephanie commended the Author Incubator program for the mentoring and support she received, particularly for providing a plan for the writing process which she could follow – a plan which made writing the book easy for her. She also remarked that, during the process, she realized that she had a lot of ideas she wanted to bring out, which, she notes, is common for the open-hearted and who want to do be of service the world. For Stephanie, focusing on her ideal reader and the latter’s concern enabled her to focus on the message that she wanted to convey through her book, and that any other messages to help other people can be given at a later time.