Congratulations to Denise Brown on the publication of her book, Transcending Darkness: A Memoir of Abuse and Grace. I recently had the opportunity to interview Denise about her experience writing her book on surviving childhood abuse.  I am pleased to share her experience. To read Part 2, click here. To read Part 3, click here.—DL

Denis Ledoux: Can you tell our readers what your book is about and why you were impelled to write it? What was driving you to spend the time, energy and money to get this book out into the world?

Denise Brown: Transcending Darkness is a memoir about the abuse that I experienced during my childhood. Abuse led me on a path of self-destruction. This path encountered God and his mercy in unexpected ways.  It sounds like a crazy story, but I began writing my memoir when I was in college after having an incredible dream. An angel brought me to visit three teenage girls who were suffering emotionally. Each of them had been reading a book and were crying. I realized that the book was giving them a glimmer of hope for their futures. Then the angel revealed to me that it was my book that I had not yet written that they were reading, and that I was being given the choice of helping them or not. After that, I couldn’t get the dream out of my head! I began writing what would become Transcending Darkness a few days later.

DL: Can you tell us how long it took from the time you conceived the book to the time you had it published? How many years did you spend in active writing? Were there long breaks in between active writing periods? If so, what happened to get you writing again? Writing about surviving childhood abuse must have been difficult. emotionally

DB: When I started writing Transcending Darkness I was 19 years old and in college. I worked on the first version through college for a period of three and a half years, and during that time, I took several English courses—including creative writing—to help improve my writing skills. I asked a couple of close friends to read my first draft. When I asked them what they thought of it, I encountered evasion and cold responses. I knew it wasn’t ready to write this book after I received those responses and I put the original 200-page hard copy if the manuscript and a floppy-disk version into my closet. I continued my education, and as I upgraded my computers, I would pull the saved version out of my closet to save it in the latest technology.

Twenty years later, I felt called to work on it again as, over a two year period, I went through a series of experiences where I kept reading and hearing the message to write my book. One day, after I dropped my son off at school, I asked God, “Am I suppose to start working on my book again? If so I need a sign, an obvious one.” Right then, on the radio, Francesca Battistelli’s song, “Write Your Story, Write Your Story,” rang out. I chuckled to myself and said, “OK God, I hear you.” 

The next week I took my original copy and read it. It needed a lot of work. Actually it needed a full rewrite: it sucked. I felt discouraged. I had a six-year-old son, a husband, an orthodontic practice that I was growing, and a pediatric practice to support the orthodontic work. I didn’t have time for any hobbies never mind rewrite my memoir.

I prayed again. “God, I know that you asked me to work on my book, but how am I going to find the time?” That Sunday as I sat in the back of the church my pastor was speaking about lent and giving something up for the season. He said that it wasn’t necessarily about giving something up, but instead why don’t we sacrifice our time—even just one hour a week—to read our bibles. Suddenly, I felt like the only person in the congregation. This message was meant for me. God wanted me to give up one hour a week. I could find an hour somewhere and I did. Then a couple of months later I found two hours a week and eventually three hours a week. Three hours ended up being the maximum time I could sacrifice for writing and revisions.

After nearly a year of rewriting, I realized that I needed help and found you at The Memoir Network. We spent the next three years working on revision after revision with my three hours per week of availability. A dozen revisions later, I felt confident enough to release it to the public. I spent a year sending query letters to agents and waiting for responses. One asked to read it but decided that a book on surviving childhood abuse wasn’t the right project for her. I then looked into self-publishing. Finally, seven years after picking my memoir back up, I have it available on Amazon.

This is Part 1 of Denis Ledoux’s interview with Denise Brown.