By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
A recent Moapa Valley High School alumnus, and a former staff writer for The Progress, has become the published author of a successful book at the age of 20. Last week was the official release date of One Breath at a Time, a book by 2019 MVHS graduate Gabrielle Shiozawa.
In this redemptive book, published by Deseret Book, Shiozawa takes the reader on a sometimes wrenching, but always tender, journey through her own period of grief and growth following her father’s untimely death.
In May of 2019, Troy Shiozawa suffered a massive heart attack and died at home in Overton, just a couple of weeks before Gabrielle’s high school graduation. The grief from this loss was overwhelming. And one of the primary coping methods Shiozawa employed to get through it was to write about it.
“I started writing about my feelings, mostly just as a way to process what I was experiencing,” Shiozawa said in a recent interview with The Progress. “But I remember, that summer as I kept writing, the thought occurred to me that I needed to be working towards something to benefit other people. I just felt like I was gaining a lot of insights and lessons about life and grief that I hadn’t heard anybody else share before; especially from a young adult’s perspective.”
Masterfully written, Shiozawa’s book takes readers on an up-close, gut-wrenching test flight of the grieving process in its entirety. Indeed, it is difficult, for the reader not to become deeply affected by it emotionally. So much so, that Shiozawa’s grieving process almost becomes our own.
The direct simplicity of Shiozawa’s writing doesn’t spare any of the sudden shock and raw pain of the tragic event that opens the book. She reports that experience in vivid detail and with unflinching honesty.
Through the course of the narrative, though, Shiozawa leads us through the anger, frustration and unfairness of loss; we experience her loneliness and reflection as time passes; and finally, we arrive, with her, at a point of acceptance and peace.
The book is interlaced, throughout, with a silver thread of bright hope and the warmth of supportive friends and community.
“The main thing I wanted to get across is just how important it is to hold on to hope,” Shiozawa said.
“And also to keep reaching out to people, even when you don’t know what you are doing or how to get through things.”
“Through the roller coaster of Grief and Healing, there are always good people, and there are always good things that you can find and hold onto,” she added. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel, even when you don’t have any idea how there could be.”
After high school, Shiozawa began attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah with the idea of focusing on the field of Communications with an emphasis in Print Journalism.
During her first semester at BYU, she finished her work on the draft manuscript of what would become One Breath at a Time. Plucking up some courage, she sent the manuscript off to Deseret Book publishers in Salt Lake City in January of 2020.
“I just sent it off to them and waited to hear back to see if they were even interested,” Shiozawa said.
She got a call back from a Deseret Book agent in March of 2020 telling her that there was a chance that the publisher might be interested in it.
“The agent said she wasn’t positive that they’d be able to take it, but she was interested in it and wanted to work with me on it,” Shiozawa recalled. “So I spent a lot of that summer working with her and a few different editors, doing a lot of my own edits, and polishing and writing a lot more.”
In November of 2020, the work was approved for publication by the Deseret Book Editorial Board.
“The agent told me that there were a few people on the board that had really positive experiences with the manuscript,” Shiozawa said. “One woman actually happened to have lost her own father right around that time. She came to the meeting with tears in her eyes and she just said ‘Publish this!’.”
Though its official release date was last week, the book was open for pre-sale a few weeks before that. The pre-sale books sold out quickly. Shiozawa attributes much of that success to her dear friends and neighbors back in Moapa Valley.
“I just want to acknowledge and appreciate how supportive the people in the valley have been,” Shiozawa said. “I’ve been amazed by that! I’ve received a lot of messages from people that have been reading it and
I just think it is incredible what kind of a community we have there. I mean, I haven’t lived there now for a couple of years, but I am still really being touched by their generosity and service toward my family and me.”
One Breath at a Time is available now for general purchase at Deseret Book stores, deseretbook.com, on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and other booksellers.
The newly released audiobook version is read by Shiozawa herself and may also be purchased at deseretbook.com.
