People love to tell their stories, to be heard, to know others and to be known and understood. Researching and writing this book reminded me of that, and taught me some lessons about writing as well. One is the importance of persistence, dogged, day-by-day work. Another is that, as others have said, writing is mainly re-writing. And, finally, that at least a few typos and other errors always remain hidden until the final product is in print.