Bantam sports the little rooster, and has long been known as a publisher of books that help people improve their lives. Toni Burbank was an excellent editor to work with. She was excited about this book because her mother used to sell fine stationery, and brought her up to believe in the civility of personal correspondence. Even though Put Your Heart on Paper is not about letter-writing, the theme of building relationship through writing struck a response note with Toni Burbank. "I love all the little chapters!" she told me.

It was Toni Burbank who taught me to insert my own voice into every chapter, so people would know that the people I write about are real. Show my connection to them, and put the reader in the picture of them talking to me, then get out of the way and let them tell their stories directly to the reader. Good advice. At first, it was hard to do; like many of you, I had been taught not to use the personal pronoun. But when I did, the stories came alive.