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About the author:

Elizabeth Walker is passionately dedicated to aiding in the treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect. The abuse that she endured as a child fuels her ambition. Elizabeth Currently resides in Colorado Learn more about her at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/elizabeth-walker/

Thanks for this interview, Elizabeth. Why don’t you begin by telling us a little about yourself?

I am a grateful mother of four young boys. I believe in hope and miracles because I have seen both come to fruition multiple times – even in the midst of disaster, which I have also been witness to time and again. This book, The Tablet of My Heart ,is my first published book and serves a very important purpose; to aid in the treatment and prevention of child abuse, neglect and the effects thereof.

When did you decide you wanted to become an author?

When I was about 8 :0) I started writing during my father’s illness (cancer) when I was very young. Writing has always been a part of me. It’s not even really that I ever decided to be an author, I just kind of – always was.

Do you have another job besides writing?

Yes, I work a regular 40 hour work week at a roofing company (as a receptionist, not a roofer) but writing has never been a job to me – It’s been a release, a counselor, a friend, many things – but never a job.

Were you an avid reader as a child? What type of books did you enjoy reading?

I was. I loved poetry, poetry, poetry! A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, A whole slew of them. Shel Silverstien was my favorite! He is most certainly still one of them. Including the giving tree, which I have shared with my children repeatedly and I still love to read when I am feeling sentimental. After falling in love with poems, I fell equally as deep for fantasy stories. My first fantasy favorite was one of The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first, but after that I had to read…. all seven of them. Another wonderful adventure that I have read to my children. Now, the boys and I read all sorts of fantasy titles together from Harry Potter to the Inheritance trilogy (we are just now finishing up Brisingr) and my nieces have recently gotten me into twilight, and my most recent purchase was wicked lovely. I’m hopeless when it comes to books – I really am. I even love the way they smell :0)

Tell us a bit about your latest book, and what inspired you to write such a story.

The Tablet of My Heart is a story of loss, abuse and healing that is based on a journal of poetry. It was my childhood journal. I had always planned to publish, but never my own story. When my sons and I endured a devastating loss of our own at the absence of their father, I knew that I wanted to give my kids strength, and hope that we were going to make it through. I started to share my journal with them. It evolved from there into a manuscript, and now a published book that contributes to the treatment and prevention of child abuse, through a foundation called Childhelp USA.

How would you describe your creative process while writing this book? Was it stream-of-consciousness writing, or did you first write an outline?

Well, both :0) I had the journal which was ultimately the guideline, but the shape that the story took while I narrated the journal entries was like a flowing river; It just sort of happened – and I got to come along for the ride.

Who is your target audience?

Victims of abuse, family and friends of victims of abuse, and people who want to be aware of signs of abuse so that they can contribute to ending it. Anyone who is moved by the destruction and mistreatment of a human soul, and those who desperately need to hear that, while their victimization was out of their control, their ability to move outside of victimization and refuse to let it define them is in the very palm of their trembling hands. There are people who want to help.

What will the reader learn after reading your book?

The depth of darkness that the shadow of neglect and abuse casts on it’s victims. The joy in finding freedom from that shadow, and so, so very important, behaviors that will cause people to be aware so that they are more prepared to recognize abuse when signs are present, and more effective in throwing a wrench in this debilitating cycle.  

Thanks for stopping by! It was a pleasure to have you here!

Thanks so much for having me.

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