Surrender Your Weapons: Writing to Heal

Surrender Your Weapons: We have abused and belittled ourselves long enough. We have been our own worst enemies, our own worst critics, the harshest arbiters on Judgment Day. We have ignored and neglected our writing altogether or shot it down in infant form, before it had a chance to take its first breath. The first rule of The Halfway House is to stop, to arrest our masochistic tendencies, and let our work be what it is.
-- The Halfway House for Writers

Of all the lessons I've needed to learn as a writer and a human being, Surrender Your Weapons resurfaces most. Weapons take many forms, many of which we wield against ourselves. Judgment, comparison, impossible expectations, perfectionism, doubt, insecurity, destructive behavior, self-sabotage. Surrender Your Weapons began as the first rule of The Halfway House and grew until it became a book all its own. When we surrender our weapons, the truth begins to emerge, brave and beautiful, in our lives and on the page.

"By sharing her stories, truths and wisdom, Valley Haggard compels us to put our own stories down on paper....I will reread this book when I need a simultaneous hug and kick in the rear....Valley's book is the coolest, edgiest, most encouraging writing book I've had the honor of reading."
-- Michele Young-Stone, author of Lost in the Beehive, Above Us Only Sky and The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors

"Students, individual writers, and teachers will love this book as it offers examples of brave story telling, brilliant moments of writing advice, and sage reflection on the process....Every writer, every teacher of writing, every human needs this book."
-- Dr. Cindy Cunningham, Department Chair of English & Director of Literary Arts at Appomattox Regional Governor's School

"Surrender Your Weapons is part memoir, part writing guide and all the vulnerable generous genius healing spirit Valley embodies on the page. She has distilled her fierce generosity as a teacher between the pages.
-- Camille Adams, LPC, Psychotherapist

"Part memoir, and part how-to, Surrender Your Weapons is like a hug from an encouraging best friend who believes in you wholeheartedly and wants you to live your best, most authentic, most creative life now.
-- Anne Soffee, author of Snake Hips: Belly Dancing & How I Found True
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