My First Book

For five years now, I've been showing up here on Facebook with morning articles. Over 1,500 of them to be exact. Over that time, many of you have encouraged me to write a book. And, in response, I have not written a book.

Until now.

The hold up has not been the lack of desire to write a book. I love writing and sharing. Rather, the hold up has been that I've always known there is a book I HAVE to write before I will ever be able to write the books I WANT to write.

I have been waiting for the storm waters of my life to recede before moving on with my writing, while all the while knowing the storm waters were actually found in my refusal to write the book I've known I have to write.

The time has come for me to recede the storm waters. But I need your help. Emotionally and financially.

75% of the first draft of the book is written. My plan is to publish the book in January 2026.

The first chapter of the book opens with these word:

In 2016, I sat in a conference ballroom somewhere near Washington, D.C., listening to a presentation that would split my life into two parts: life before I knew and life after I could never again unknow.

The speaker was explaining a study from the 1990s, research that revealed something I’d never heard put into words before: the more toxic stress you endure as a child, the more likely you are to struggle later in life. Not just with anxiety or addiction, but with physical health: cancer, heart disease, strokes. Health challenges we rarely think of tracing back to childhood because childhood can often feel so very distant and disconnected from adulthood. Most certainly, as it relates to adulthood health.

How could the two possibly be connected?

But in that room, I learned that childhood doesn’t always stay in the past. Sometimes it echoes through your body for decades. Quietly. Invisibly. You’re on a journey carrying luggage you have no idea that you’re carrying. You grow up thinking certain things are just normal - or maybe not ideal, but survivable. What you don’t realize is that survival often comes at a big cost. And that cost is often buried in symptoms you don’t even know are symptoms.

This book will look at the story of trauma at the intersection of my story and science - both of which I've spent the last decade of my life exploring deeply.

My hope is that, yes, the storm waters in my life will recede with this book, but equally important, that maybe you too will find a new way to look at the storm waters of your life.

I'd be grateful if you visited my project page on my website linked below. I'd be most grateful if you'd support this project financially. The fundraising campaign will run through September 1, 2025. But if you can't, I will be thankful if you will continue to show up here, reading my writing, while providing encouragement and prayer as I take the next step in this journey.

A journey I hope will take me one step closer to receding the storm waters.

All of my friends in the trauma, resilience and healing-centered relationships world - I'd be grateful if you'd share this as well.

https://www.rkcwrites.com/demons-too-big-to-hide.html

*the photo below is not the official book cover (at least not officially) but it does capture what it feels like to many living under the influence of trauma.