What Writing With Women Revealed

Writing about and with women has revealed a landscape I could never have imagined when I started doing this eleven years ago. A landscape that is all at once harsh and demanding, yet breathtaking. Like a climber scaling the terrain of Mount Everest, I am met with equal parts unanticipated challenge and captivating awe.

You share stories of struggle, abuse, and discrimination conquered by a triumphant rise to independence and significant success by any standards. I hear stories that test me, stretching my once singular understanding of the world. You bare your soul, trusting me with your darkest moments, humbling me.

You challenge me with your need for control, your need to be in the spotlight, your need to protect yourself and others. You challenge me with your fear of rocking the boat, corporate or otherwise. You challenge me with your sudden change of heart and direction, leaving me to wonder what went wrong and what I could have done better.

Writing for you has been a wild, passionate, heartbreaking, generous gift to my life. Every journey, every woman who entrusts me with her wisdom, feeds my soul like nothing else. It confers me the privilege of working with truly amazing women. So I will take this journey again and again. Because I know this one thing to be true: your story is too amazing, too beautiful to leave untold.

With love and admiration,

Susan