Nancy, thank you for the kind words. I don't feel like any thing close to an angel. I'm keeping a promise to God for keeping me alive. I love what I do but my life isn't perfect. That's one problem with writing a self-help book. People think you should have all the answers and not have any problems, which isn't true. The only way we can continue to grow is to experience life lessons and most of mine aren't that pleasant. I could stand to learn something new every single day!

Being healed before sharing a lot or writing is important. Not only because it can cause emotional upsets but we have to formulate why we did what we did and have the answers. Self-help books must have an ending. I've read quite a few that didn't and the authors even dedicated their book to the abuser, usually their abusive fathers. I don't get it.

I will never have all the answers but I try to work with the knowledge that I have. I'll always be honest and often blunt but battered women live on excuses. That's the only way they can not have to change their lives. It's hard!

As a woman, I learned quickly to tell my two girlfriends that knew of the abuse, that the reason I stayed was because I loved him. This wasn't true but being women, they would back off and think...well, love will win out then! I just wasn't ready to leave and didn't even know why I stayed so I found that it was the fastest way to make them stop asking me questions. I had no real answers! I stayed with him a year while going to intense therapy, searching for the answers. Heck, I didn't even know what the questions were!