Coming in 2027
If past traumas have locked you into survival mode, this book is for you. What’s in Your Suitcase? Recovery from Childhood Trauma provides specific tools to help you move from wounded to wholeness. It’s not about erasing the past. It’s about transforming our pain into purpose.
Written by a fellow survivor, this book addresses the millions of adults navigating the long shadow of trauma. Drawn from a biblical perspective, the book likens recovery to a journey. It uses real-life stories and illustrations to clarify the concepts shared in the book.
Discussion questions are included at the end of each chapter to help you work through the book with a supportive group. A section titled “God’s Nurturing Words to You” is also included to help you process your emotions as you read Scripture related to the issues covered in each chapter. Find freedom from your trauma. Journey with fellow survivors toward experiencing life’s full potential.
A small beta group studying a pre-pub copy of the book will be run in September 2026 for sixteen weeks. If you would like to participate in this beta reading, contact Marie Sontag at mesontag@gmail.com.
Published by WordCrafts Press, this book will be available for purchase during the first quarter of 1027. Check back here for the official publishing date and links to purchase. More information can be found on the What’s in Your Suitcase website at www.whatsinyoursuitcase.com.
Change. Sometimes comes quickly. At other times it crawls by—but it always comes.
A few weeks ago, a bulb I had buried beneath the dirt three months ago began to sprout green leaves. A slow, but miraculous change.
Soon, it budded into a daffodil. Today, it manifested a faster transition.
In the morning, it looked like this.
By the afternoon, it had turned into a six-petaled star.
More evidence of change. Today, two ducks visited to enjoy breakfast in our backyard. (Click links for video clips.)
I also watched in wonder as two birds flew back and forth, carrying twigs in their beaks to build a nest in my watering that hung on a post.
More change—and signs of coming births.
My Change
As you may know, I usually write historical fiction for students from ages 9-13, and 13-18. However, my next book project is tentatively titled, What’s in Your Suitcase?—A Journey From Wounded to Wholeness.
Many of us have experienced the truth that we are all broken in some way. Can we change? What’s in Your Suitcase is specifically written for men and women who have experienced childhood trauma, or who wish to help those with childhood wounds find a path toward wholeness.
Critical to this change of moving from woundedness to healing is to “become like a little child.” Here’s a sneak preview into a section of the book about “The Child Within.”
Effects of Childhood Trauma on the Child Within
One effect of childhood trauma can be compared to how to amblyopia, or a “lazy eye,” affects one’s sight. Therapist Randy Carlson shared that when his daughter had a routine eye exam, they discovered she had amblyopia. “Both eyes were not aligned properly,” Carlson said, “and one had started to shut off because her brain could not deal with conflicting [visual] messages.”6
Suffering the effects of childhood trauma is similar to Dr. Carlson’s daughter getting mixed signals from her brain because one of her eyes wasn’t properly aligned. It caused the misaligned eye to “turn off.” So too, those of us who have experienced childhood trauma at the hands of caregivers shut down certain responses or memories because what we experienced is not what we expected or needed to receive.
One of the reasons childhood trauma is so destructive can be found in the fact that, as a child, we usually had little understanding of what happened to us, or any safe adult with whom we could share the event and its impact upon us.
Alice Miller in For Your Own Good contrasts the plight of those who experienced childhood trauma with that of concentration camp survivors. Former camp inmates did not doubt the tragic experiences they had in these prisons because, unlike many of us who experienced childhood trauma, the camp victims did not go through the atrocities of this internment alone.
Miller notes that camp victims “…will never attempt to convince themselves that the cruelty they were subjected to was for their own good or interpret the absurdity of the camp as a necessary pedagogical measure; they will usually not attempt to empathize with the motives of their persecutors. They will find people who have had similar experiences and share with them their feelings of outrage, hatred, and despair over the cruelty they have suffered.”8
That’s why we need God’s reparenting. He didn’t cause or desire the trauma we experienced. He hates what happened. However, because He has given people the gift of free choice, people do bad things. God is not a Creator who, like a clockmaker, wound up the world, then stepped away as He watched it work. Throughout the centuries, those who have entered into a relationship with the God of the universe have seen and written about how He partners with us in our pain and desires to heal and bring wholeness into our lives. When we reach the heights of this new perspective about God’s work in our lives, we can come to Him as a child and get in touch with our child within.
What kind of change do you currently see, or experience right now in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can email we at mesontag@gmail.com. For more information on my writing, see www.mariesontag.com.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Family-Friendly Fiction Writers will attend the Great Homeschool Convention at the Kahalari Resort July 11-13, 2024. There is a reason homeschooling families travel from all over the United States and Canada to attend a Great Homeschool Convention. They not only take advantage of the hotel discounts offered to attendees, but it truly is the Homeschooling Event of the Year!
Locate our booth in the Exhibit Hall and meet published authors, talk about the writing process, see the award-winning authors’ published books, and join Marie Sontag in her session, “Who to Write Stories Editors Will Publish.”
Five years ago doctors told my husband to call friends in CA in case they wanted to fly out to TX and see me one more time. He did.
They came.
I recently re-read comments collected five years ago that were made during my recovery from three months of grueling back surgeries that finally resulted in opening me up six different times, including a final time of cutting through the front to remove infected bone. Life-threatening clots had formed in many areas of my body after the first back surgery to fuse three discs. I continually fought painful infections from hardware that fell out. I developed pneumonia, my kidneys began to fail, and I finally grew unresponsive – I couldn’t talk, eat, or move.
Re-reading the notes from five years ago reminded me of the frailty of life – and of the good and gracious God I love and serve. The night before my first back surgery, fearing the worst but praying for the best, a Scripture popped into my mind: “…entrust your soul to a faithful creator…” (1 Peter 4:9). It was God’s way of reminding me that He, as my faithful creator, could be trusted, no matter what happened during the surgery. My soul – my mind, emotions, and will – could continue to love and serve Him, no matter what.
I’m reading a book titled The Broken Way, by Ann Voskamp. In discussing the concept of time, Voskamp writes, “The hands of the clock on the wall, they keep following the invisible, trying to track it… but you can’t see time. Time can only be represented by change, by the way things move and change.”
Have you tried to track the invisible? Voskamp also writes, “For Jesus, time was not something you seize as much as something you sacrifice. … It’s not something to grab; it’s something to give.”
I want to give, not grab the time I have left here on Earth. I’m learning that the way to break time’s hold on me is to be broken and given with my time. As I mentioned last month, I want to focus on being a human “being”, not a human “doing.”
One of the most startling events from my near-death experience five years ago happened when I sensed my ability to speak slipping away. My son Daniel was with me, and I whispered that I knew I was about to stop talking. That was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. I slipped into somewhat of a coma. I could hear snippets of conversations, but everything seemed as though I experienced it as a nightmare from which I couldn’t wake up. I had been in constant pain for about two months and felt ready to give up. I wanted to let what life I had left in me drain out. Then, as clear as day, this Scripture came to mind: “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” I sensed I had a choice to make. I could give in to my body, allowing the infections and pain steal life from me – or, I could choose life. I chose life. Soon after that, I woke from the semi-conscious state, and, eventually recovered.
If you’d like to read the events and see a few video clips from this anniversary, you can find them here.
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You’ve probably heard the phrase that we are human BEINGS, not human DOINGS. In 2024, one of my goals is to separate the good from the best. I can get so busy as I involve myself in GOOD things, that I don’t have time to do the BEST things. The only way I can choose the BEST activities is to focus more on “Being” and less on “Doing.”
We had a difficult year as my son went through a divorce he did not want or expect. It stunned all of us. My 5- and 8-year-old grandkids are still reeling with their emotions, trying to figure out what’s going on as they spend one week at Dad’s new house and the next at Mom’s new place.
I had plenty of “good” things I needed to get done the weeks the grandkids were here. (Daniel just now found a house because he waited until the divorce was final. He kept working toward reconciliation, but it didn’t happen, so he lived with us from January-Dec., and we also had the kids here every other week.) But, rather than filling my time with “good” activities, I quickly saw the “best” way to spend my time was playing and interacting with Noah and Claire, making the most of the opportunities I had with them while they were living with us. I learned that the “good” can be the enemy of the “best.”
I hope to continue distinguishing between the good and the best in 2024. It’s the only way I know to be a human being who loves others fully, the way I desire to.
– Some of the best activities will be time with my hubby, Mark – not just the occasional times we’re together, but also to have some “planned” time – date nights!
-Time with the grandkids when I can is also high on my BEST list, loving on them with all the nurturing I can provide.
-Of course, I believe my writing is one of the best ways to spend the remaining time I have. A new book 3 of the Ancient Elements series should come out by the end of January. Watch for its announcement on my Facebook or Instagram. After that, I will revise the final book of the series, and have my illustrator create a new cover for The Silver Coin. Stay tuned! I also began a new endeavor – writing an Aeneid Jr. book. More on that later (you can also get a glimpse of what’s coming on my webpage.)
-A best activity I’ve committed to is leading our Family-Friendly Fiction Writers group. We are scheduled to attend several homeschool conferences this year, including one in Ohio, and one in Missouri.
-A good commitment I made is to provide leadership for the SCBWI North Texas writing group (Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators). I enjoy encouraging other writers, and this is a good way to do it. I’m continuing to pray I get good volunteers to help with the workload!
Have you prioritized any goals for 2024? I’d love to hear about them!
Marie