title: Transforming Memories: Spontaneous Writing Using Loaded Words
author: Liz Crocker
description: <div>&ldquo;What a great gift this book will be for readers. <I>Transforming Memories</I> is like a comforting walk with an understanding friend&mdash;three friends in fact. The three authors are so brave, so candid, so experienced, and so encouraging in how they work through issues from their own pasts. Their example is a beacon of encouragement for anyone who has experienced challenge or trauma and wants to hunker down to work through their own memories.&quot; &mdash;Gillian Deacon, author, <I>Naked Imperfection</I> and <I>There&rsquo;s Lead in Your Lipstick</I></div><br /><br /><div>&quot;We each have moments from our past that jolted us from the innocence of childhood into a sometimes, unforgiving realty. This is a book of such moments. Through guided writing exercises, the authors do an exceptional job of aiding their readers to write about their moments, and through such writing, find meaning and bring healing to old wounds.&quot; &mdash;Donna Morrissey, award-winning author, <I>The Fortunate Brother</I></div><br /><br /><div>&quot;It&#39;s miraculous that deep in the human psyche and spirit is a force of healing&ndash;waiting, ready to push us towards surprising insights and transformation. With guidance, with intention, we can release this amazing potential. These three wise women&ndash;through their honesty, open hearts and wisdom&ndash;can be your guides. Let the alchemy begin when the first words appear at the tip of your pen.&quot; &mdash;Rob Rutledge, MD, author of, <I>The Healing Circle</I>; Chair, and CEO, HealingandCancer.org</div><br /><br /><div>&quot;What is exciting about this book is that it doesn&#39;t just tell us what to do; it shows us with examples coupled with suggestions and prompts. This is memoir in action where the reader will experience intimate stories from the authors&rsquo; lives as they make their own discoveries. Perhaps because so much has been shared by the writers, it feels as if a safe space has been created and anyone attempting a similar journey into their past will be held and supported within the suggested structure.&quot; &mdash;Paul Dodgson, UK playwright, musician, and creative writing tutor</div><br /><br /><div>&quot;<I>Transforming Memories</I> is a powerful testimony to the personal transformation that can begin when one finds the courage to take a flying leap across the chasm of isolation and silent self-judgment to a place where curiosity about the self one might become has a chance to flourish. Compassion, for ourselves and for and from others, helps us find that courage. Some embark on this journey of self-realization alone, others, like the authors, find strength in a trusted community. There is no map for this uniquely personal journey, but the authors offer some tools and resources one can use along the way. These are tools that just might enable one, in the words of the poet John O&rsquo;Donohue, &#39;To live the life that I would love.&#39;&quot; &mdash;Beth A Lown, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Mount Auburn Hospital; Medical Director, The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare</div><br /><br /><div>&quot;<I>Transforming Memories</I> gives the reader potent tools to face the past that haunts us, and enables us to make vital course corrections to our present lives as a result. As its three authors show, healing is a journey that can be started at any time. This book is a perfect road map.&quot;&#160;&mdash;Patricia Gale, blogcritics.org</div>
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  # A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
  
  
  Fifty years.
  
  
  It’s hard to believe it’s been fifty years since _The Outsiders_ was
  published. It was a year earlier when I sold it. It was almost two years
  earlier when I wrote it. So I can’t really remember when it was not part of my
  life.
  
  
  Writing has been a part of my life since second grade. And I was always a
  storyteller.
  
  
  I used to begin speeches with “I wrote _The Outsiders_ when I was fifteen
  years old.” (My first draft was forty pages long, single spaced. I taught
  myself to type when I was in sixth grade, realizing that if I couldn’t read my
  handwriting, no one could read my handwriting.) Then I switched to “I wrote
  _The Outsiders_ when I was six.” Sometimes I think I wrote it in a previous
  lifetime.
  
  
  The response to the book has been overwhelming. I receive letters from every
  state, from dozens of foreign countries. Fr