In February 2018, a longtime friend of mine died much too young. Ann had spent her entire adult life working to improve the health and lives of others so her death seemed particularly cruel. To my mind, it was almost as if she'd taken their illnesses into herself where they'd metastasised into the cancer that killed her. This concept got me thinking about a world where some people, Healers, really could heal others by absorbing their injuries and illnesses into themselves. Before I knew it, I'd written the opening chapter of A Shaper's Promise where we meet Anna, the only daughter of a Healer whose own gift is that of Aura Shaping, the most powerful and feared gift of all. Anna's story is told in the Aura Shaper trilogy: A Shaper's Promise, A Shaper's Birthright and A Shaper's Farewell. Karen MacRae also writes contemporary fiction as K L MacRae. Find out more at klmacrae.weebly.com or Karen L MacRae (@strugglingauthor) on Facebook.