3. Might I be able to ask about your husband Dan – does he have the same creative passions as yourself?  How has he helped to make you stronger or perhaps even more sane?  I can only imagine the trauma and terror involved with the type of abuse you endured. 

My husband Dan served thirty-three years in the Massachusetts Fire Department as a Fire Lieutenant.  During that time, he had also served thirty years in the United States Army National Guard, from which he ultimately retired as a First Sergeant. As my most rigorous critic, and my number one fan, he has helped me to become stronger in all that I do.  His wonderful support has helped to fuel my emotional freedom and to create my own path forward.  He is very creative and, though behind the scenes, he is the force that pushes me to continue my mission of being a voice for those who have suffered.  Yes, sometimes he is even more sane, but we have both learned how to pull back the reins when necessary.  Once I learned and better understood that the abuse I had suffered as a child, wasn't my fault, it was then that I was able to begin balancing my life, and now those earlier reins hardly ever have to be pulled back.  That onetime imbalance I had felt for so long started to level itself out, where I felt emotionally free and in better control, allowing things into my world that only served me.  

4.  I saw that one of your feel-goods is food, aka home-cooked goodness.  It has been said that certain diets can affect brain function.  Have you catered your nutritional intake in consideration of this fact?   

Yes, I really enjoy cooking and baking.  In many ways, this process of creating something delicious that I am good at in my kitchen has turned into a therapeutic form of release and healing, just like gardening has also become for me.  I like to see things develop from scratch and become how I had envisioned… to be able to see, for example, how planted flowers in the spring start to bloom by summer.  That is truly exciting and freeing for me.  The same release applies for when I am cooking or baking; working with food in its rawest form.  It is such a warm and amazing feeling I get when I create a beautiful meal, and yes beautiful as it is delicious.  So, when I sit down to savor what I have made, like with baking, I enjoy the smell that fresh baked goods create. I especially enjoy sharing it all, which is the other part of this exciting process for me… when I invite family and friends over for a gathering.  I so enjoy serving everyone and making sure this shared moment together means something to everyone.  I also believe in healthy eating and portion control, where I cook balanced meals.  I eat to live.  I don't live to eat.  

5.  In broad terms, your book Shayla, tells the story of a trapped child – manipulated by a predator.  Please, in your own words, tell us a short summarization of the story arc.  Further, the title is rather interesting, and one meaning for the name Shayla is "little mountain."  Was this why you chose this salutation? 

When I was very young, I loved being outside gardening with my father who was a farmer.  I ran through the fields and I loved picking flowers for my mother's table.  During and after the abuse I endured at the hands of the priest, I would often hide in the woods where I imagined the birds being my pets, the trees and the wild flowers were my garden, and I was a fairy fluttering through it all… my imaginary safe world.  My part of the island was a great big mountain that could be seen from anywhere on the island.  I used to look at this mountain called Pico which is the highest mountain in Portugal, and I remember feeling so tiny in comparison to that giant mountain.  I remember in conversation with my mom one day, she could not pronounce the name, Sheila, and would instead say, Shayla.  I enjoyed that moment with my mother so much.  It was 2014 when I had visited her in her late eighties.  That day, I told myself that I would name my next pet Shayla because I just loved how this was my mother’s way of saying Sheila.  Shortly after this time, in 2015 after having a vivid flashback of my abuse, I decided that if I ever wrote a book about my experience, I would call it, Shayla.  Now here we are.  Thanks Mom! 

Funny that you mentioned the meaning of the name Shayla… I looked it up today and not only does it mean ‘little mountain,’ but it also means fairy home/palace.  Wow!  I find this to be an amazing fluke.  Considering that as a child while running through the woods, I felt as if I was small mountain in a fairy world. 

6.  I am told that when one writes of personal experience, it likely could lead to either further trauma or desensitization.  Did the book affect you negatively, and was there any thought that perhaps your audience may be triggered by your words?   

Writing my book, Shayla, did not affect me negatively.  Actually, it had a beneficial contrary effect.  Just writing about my past was a healing experience in itself.  It taught me about self-awareness and self-love, in terms of recognizing the power I still had within myself that I would make this discovery through the cathartic process of writing my book.  It brought me peace of mind and helped me blossom into the emotionally free person that I am proud to say I am today. I learned that by practicing self-love techniques, this created confidence and empowered me to become a voice for children and adults who are still suffering from trauma they had endured as children, teens, or young adults.  My book’s message is powerful and I make it clear to my readers that even though Shayla may create triggers for some, my greater message is to teach those affected by similar trauma that my book is about healing, self-love, and practicing the survival techniques that I have found worked for me… and I trust will also work for others.  My passion is to create a movement where all people can retire their ‘victim badge’ and join me in proudly wearing their ‘triumph badge,’ instead. 

7.  Within the book, your main character struggles with physical and psychological wounds, anger, fear, and sadness.  How much of this emotion was saved solely for your creation, or was this direct from your own heart?

 Every word or phrase in Shayla is a direct message from my heart.  In this book, next to writing about the traumatic events of my youth, I also wrote about what I did to become free of the emotions that impacted my growth… such as self-doubt, anger and sadness.  As part of doing my own self-work, and before I could discover my actual freedom, I had to look in the mirror several times and say:  Self, it wasn't your fault.  You were a beautiful child and a victim of abuse.  A very bad person made poor decisions that resulted in years of pain and suffering for you.  You are now still a beautiful child, turned into a beautiful adult healed woman, and you are enough! 

8.  The book itself was listed on Amazon as the #1 new release in Teen and Young Adult Nonfiction on Sexual Abuse.  Are you finding that your target audience has become adolescents and millennials?  Might I ask about your father's reaction to this reading? (assuming he is not deceased)? 

As my book was recently published, it’s still a bit too early to know who my most prominent audience will be.  However, as I had mentioned before in this interview, my message of strength, power, and encouragement, is for all people who have suffered from abuse and trauma… And as well, this absolutely further includes all people raising children, the parents.  My book is also for them to learn from and pay attention to the ‘signs.’  It is important for me to keep creating this awareness about looking out for signs coming from children who may be in distress and who simply don’t know how to speak out.  If you come across a child, perhaps your own, who appears to have been victimized, they need comforting and reassurance the most from people they trust. 

My father has been deceased for my years.  In my book, as part of my healing and release process, I wrote a spirit letter to him, detailing for the first time, his first awareness, all of what had happened to me when I was a young child at the hands of the priest, the trusted community figure he had pushed me onto for music lessons.  And these were the repercussions of being handed off to a pedophile.  In this sensitive letter, I also forgave my father and let him know, that despite my earlier suffering, the result of all my hard self-work had paid off and I had grown to become the emotionally free woman I am now.  

9.  You have been selected to take a week-long mission in summer to the Bahamas.  Please elaborate further on your mission there, and how you began your partnership with Leah's Hopes and Dreams.   

While I appeared as a guest on the podcast, ‘Rise and Thrive together,’ I had learned about this inspirational organization called, ‘Leah's Hopes and Dreams.’  I immediately felt a connection and strong desire to be part of this vital group, especially because their main focus is all about helping the less fortunate.  So I reached out to them and made myself available to participate in their upcoming summer mission to the Bahamas.  I look forward to joining them in delivering love and giving back to those in need. 

10.  Is there another book on the horizon, or perhaps a film in the works? 

Yes, I actually have two more books on the horizon that will complete my ‘Tell-All Trilogy’ book series, of which Shayla is the lead book.  These other books are centered around two individual women, separate and apart, though tied to Shayla at later periods of her life.  These two women have also suffered a great deal… as revealed in the two books, in their own respective stories.  If only the parents of these women had known to look for signs of their own daughters, also in distress, their suffering (as with Shayla) could have been prevented. 

Before I began writing Shayla, I wrote down two main goals:  

1)     My book will help me and many other women to become emotionally free. 

2)   My book will become a big screen movie. 

A calling and a movement dedicated to survivors of abuse, Shayla already reads like a movie (an incredible story that should never happen to young girl, and yet it did, and must be told)… Hollywood, are you listening?  

For more information, visit: https://www.lafrancemedia.com