Facing the Jaguar – A Memoir of Courage and Confrontation
A Conversation with Babs Walters
November 6, 2025
4 PM PDT, 5 PM MDT, 6 PM CDT, 7 PM EDT
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Facing the Jaguar is a true story that exposes family secrets left unresolved by generational trauma.

The average person can keep a secret for forty-seven hours. But I was groomed to silence under my father’s edict “Children should be seen and not heard.”  To drive this point home, he followed it up with the threat of death.

Books became a safe place, my escape from the reality of my life. In them I found family, belonging, ideals. I remember the day at eleven years old when I made the decision to write a book, telling the world my secret. I did not realize then how much work I would have to do first.

Just surviving the unspeakable became my challenge after leaving home. Working through abusive relationships, letting go of shame and guilt, finding a witness who would not take advantage of my vulnerability.

While I wrote two other versions of this memoir previously in my life, I could not have written this one before now. I had a great deal of learning and healing to do. I learned that healing is not a destination but a journey I am still traveling on.

I have gone from secret keeper to difference maker. I live by this quote from Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. “Each time we help someone cross a threshold, we ourselves are transformed.”  We are not what happens to us. We are the meaning and purpose we give to what happens to us.

I chose to shine a light in very dark place so others can find their way out too.

I will share:

• The importance of timing in telling your story. Why this time was right for me.
• Learning from groundbreaking memoirists. Specific craft and style lessons that moved me forward.
• How incorporating universal truths into my personal story expanded the audience reach.
• The value of joining a writing community.
• The difference between writing and marketing your memoir.

Bio
As a domestic violence and sexual abuse survivor, Babs Walters has devoted much of her adult life to raising understanding and awareness of the long-term effects of generational trauma, breaking the chain. She has conducted trainings for the past 30 years on Women’s Empowerment, NegoSHEation, Sexual Harassment and Discrimination, helping women speak up and out for themselves.

Her compelling story invites others to share theirs through oral histories, journal writing workshops, peer groups and role plays. Her goal is to encourage and support all family secret keepers.

Babs holds a Master’s in Counseling Human Relations. She was recently interviewed for Brave Voices® on the U.S. Library of Congress, in Best Self Magazine and in Publisher’s Weekly Indie Spotlight. In her spare time, Babs teaches Jazzercise® and has recently published her second book, Facing the Jaguar, A Memoir of Courage and Confrontation.