Paths to Peace

When I began writing Unwrapping: A Novel About Generational Trauma in August 2021, I didn’t have the title, I wasn’t sure where the story was going and I sure didn’t have any ideas about publishing it.

So the evening of May 18, when I typed my name into bookshop.org and what came up was the image at the bottom of this blog, it represented a huge milestone. Rather than a millstone.

Unwrapping was first accepted for publication in March 2023 by Micki Cabaniss Eutsler, owner of the Grateful Steps Foundation, a small non-profit based in Asheville, North Carolina. I worked with Micki by phone and, occasionally side by side, in editing the book and preparing it for publication.

But Micki had health problems and was forced to close Grateful Steps in January 2025. She gave Unwrapping to Overcup Books, a small independent publishing company in Portland, Oregon.

Rachel Bell, Overcup’s vice president was able to bring Unwrapping into publication using Lulu, a print-on-demand company based in North Carolina, in April 2025. The book became available, but only through links publicized and provided on this website. The process to get the book uploaded to major bookselling sites (Bookshop, as well as Barnes & Noble and Amazon) stalled. For months.

The rules and mechanics for how to get books published led us to switch print-on-demand companies, and withdraw the Lulu version to go with a different print-on-demand company, Ingram/Spark.

We had to create a new edition of the book with a new ISBN number. The ISBN is a 13-digit bar code that bookstores, libraries, and online retailers use to find and track books. Rachel’s company, as it turns out, works with non-fiction titles. She took on Unwrapping (and some other fiction projects that had begun with Grateful Steps) as a favor to a fellow small publisher.

But how could I get Unwrapping published in a way that it would be available for broad distribution?

This is where Paths to Peace Publishing comes in.

The name was a tip of the cap to patience and serenity, two traits I had to frequently tap into through this long road, as well as to gratitude, which was a foundation of Micki’s work as a small publisher.

So Paths to Peace became my imprint; I purchased my own ISBN numbers, providing them to Rachel, who was able to facilitate the rest. Over many conversations and, yes, frustrations, over the past 13 months, Rachel’s team created a logo for Paths to Peace Publishing, and early one winter morning, I made my way to the Forsyth County Clerk’s office in downtown Winston-Salem, plopped down $26 and forever earned the rights to the name Paths to Peace Publishing.

In effect, I’m a publisher. I even have a bunch more ISBN numbers so I can publish future books if I choose to go this indy path. Which I may well do with my follow-up, Mosaics of Grief: A Novel About Confronting Loss.

For now, I’m grateful to Rachel for sticking with this pain-in-the-neck process, eternally grateful to Micki, who died of cancer in January this year, and I’m also grateful to friends across the country who’ve read Unwrapping. Your support—the encouragement to get the book published and praise once you read it—always boosted my spirits when I got down about the lack of momentum because of Unwrapping’s long road to availability.

I hope many more of you will take a chance on this journalist-turned-clinical mental health counselor-turned author and read my novel, which sheds light on trauma and trauma treatment and maybe, just maybe, makes counseling feel a little less intimidating. In these trying times, having a non-related, non-friend empathetic person to talk with can make a huge difference in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Remember, the first step in caring for others is caring for self.