From Nurse to Author

A Write To Rise conversation with nurse coach and author Darcy ZielA year and a half ago, Darcie came into my program with a dream. She was already an established nurse coach with more than twenty years of nursing behind her, but she carried a book inside her that had been brewing for years. She was, in fact, one of my very first authors — I had barely built the program out when a mutual friend connected us. Looking back now, it feels like it was always meant to be.Since then, Darcie has published not one but two books, launched an online course, created a thriving book club, and expanded her nurse coaching work into retreats in remote Alaska. This week she joined me live to talk about what the writing journey actually changed in her — and how a single book quietly reshaped her entire business.The book that almost stayed a textbookDarcie spent much of her nursing career in education. She taught at the university level, and teaching is her natural mode. So when she sat down to write Reconnect to the Wild Within: Seasonal Practices to Embody Your Primal Nature, her first instinct was to do what she’d always done: teach.“I’m a natural teacher, and that’s what I wanted to do in the book,” she told me. “And Leslie was like, no — you have to put your story in there. You have to draw people in with your story.”That push changed everything. The finished book weaves together her personal stories, client stories, teaching, and — to my genuine surprise when I first read her drafts — her poetry. Some of the most beautiful moments in the book are those pauses for reflection around poems I didn’t even know she wrote.This is something I tell every author I work with: we live in the age of information. Anyone can Google a topic, and now anyone can ask AI. What readers are hungry for is the humanness in a book — the thing they can’t get anywhere else. Darcie’s book is proof of what happens when an author is brave enough to offer that.Writing with the seasonsWhat makes Reconnect to the Wild Within so distinctive is its structure: the book moves through the seasons of a year, inviting readers to slow down and engage with the land they actually live on.“It’s so easy to go for a walk in the park and, while we’re walking, plan out our day or plan what we’re going to have for dinner — multitasking while we’re engaging with nature,” Darcie said. “I wanted this book to be more of an invitation to go deeper.”That means thinking about the land beneath your feet, your connection to it, your ancestors, the indigenous peoples who lived there before you, and the way light and season actually move through your body. Darcie lives in Alaska, where you can’t help but pay attention to those rhythms — and she pairs that seasonal awareness with the somatic and nervous system work she does with clients, offering practices readers can take into their own bodies and landscapes.The reader responses have been remarkable. People tell her things like I never thought about that or I never knew about this animal on the land where I live. For some, the shift has been genuinely transformational — the realisation that there is a deep, undomesticated part of us that is nature, and that tapping into it can bring both peace and wildness.And here’s the part every aspiring author needs to hear: while she was writing, Darcie often wondered whether any of it would land. Is this going to touch people? Is this going to reach anyone? It did. When we’re brave enough to put our passion into the world, it reaches people — and empowers them — in ways we can’t predict.On being seenDarcie and I have something in common: we both spent most of our lives identifying as introverts, and we’ve both come to suspect that label was partly a self-protection mechanism. Writing cracked that open for both of us.“Tapping into that place where you can be creative in the first place takes a level of safety in the body to even get there,” Darcie explained. “And then the next level is sharing it. That takes a certain level of vulnerability — and knowing that some people are not going to like it. Those aren’t your people, and that’s okay.”When I asked her what the most healing part of publishing was, her answer was simple: learning, at the level of the nervous system, that it’s safe to be seen. First I read her writing. Then her husband. Then an editor. Then the world. Each step stretched that capacity a little further.She was also clear about something I find so important: you don’t have to share everything. “Your book is not you,” she said. “You can share what feels safe to share in that moment.” So many of my authors worry about hurting a loved one or exposing too much. But there’s always a way to write your perspective — what a story taught you, how it shaped the work you do now — without telling every detail. A book is a living, breathing piece of art. You can add to it, revise it, and release new versions. It’s never as final as the fear makes it feel.Creativity, play, and the permission to be sillyOne thread that runs through Darcie’s coaching is creative practice — journaling, writing exercises, play-based work. “Anyone can be creative. You don’t have to be an artist, so to speak,” she said. “It’s such a powerful healing tool that is often overlooked.”I’ll add my own confession here: my creativity routine includes sliding at the park with my dog, sticker art, and the occasional 90s workout video that leaves me laughing the entire time. So many women have been trained to act right, say the right thing, stay serious. But what births from joy is pure creativity. When we give ourselves permission to play, we reconnect with parts of ourselves that have been buried — and that’s where the magic is.How one book became a whole ecosystemHere’s the thing I tell authors that they rarely believe until they live it: a book will change the way you do business.“I really didn’t see that,” Darcie admitted. “And it’s been interesting to watch how my business has morphed over time.”Today, the book functions as a touchstone across everything she does:Her coaching clients — most of whom she works with over Zoom — receive the book and its companion journal, giving them real-time practices to do on the land where they live, between sessions and long after their work together ends.Her year-long book club, launched last September, meets once a month to go deep on the book’s concepts. The transformation she’s watched in members “just by reading the book and doing a once-a-month book club” has astonished her — and several members are now coming to her July retreat in remote Alaska to meet in person.And the newest layer: a book club facilitator training, so women who loved the experience can lead Reconnect to the Wild Within circles in their own communities, helping people reconnect to their bodies and the nature around them.This is what I mean when I tell authors I don’t chase bestseller badges. A badge is ego — a bragging right you can never trace back to a single changed life. What Darcie has built is the opposite: a book that people don’t just read but practice, in community, season after season. You can watch the transformation unfurl in real time — fitting, since her business logo is a fiddlehead fern, opening from a contracted coil into full expansion. That’s the vision she holds for her clients, and it’s exactly what her book has done for her.Follow the seedIf there’s one takeaway from this conversation, it’s Darcie’s reminder: “If you have that seed inside you that wants to create something, follow it and see what unfolds. Maybe it’s just that thing — or maybe it will become something else entirely.”You don’t have to know where it’s going. You just have to begin.Connect with DarcieFind Darcie at DarcieZiel.com, where you’ll find links to:Reconnect to the Wild Within: Seasonal Practices to Embody Your Primal Nature and its companion journal (both available on Amazon)The Book Club — next cohort begins in SeptemberJoyful Little Life — a three-month group coaching container starting in September, focused on building a nervous-system baseline of joyOne-to-one nurse coachingAlaska retreats — July’s retreat is full, but keep an eye on her site for next year’s dates. (You fly into Juneau, then take a float plane to a remote Southeast Alaska community for full nature immersion. Alaska in July is pure magic.)Write To Rise helps women and underrepresented voices write, publish, and build a life around their books. If you have a book brewing, it’s worth writing — even if the first life it changes is your own. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lesliewallwritetorise.substack.com/subscribe