Goodreads asked Frances Dunn Butterfoss:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Frances Dunn Butterfoss My earlier textbook, Coalitions and Partnerships in Community Health, is a 650-page tome written primarily for an academic audience. I tried to bridge the gap between the academic and practitioner community by including a number of helpful appendices and tools, but it is still a daunting text. As I travel on my speaking circuit, my audiences are clamoring constantly for tools and ideas that can be used in their own backyards. So, I knew I needed to write another book with them in mind.

We all share a primal link with fire. As I was gathering wood for a campfire in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia last fall, I began to conjure up images of how much constructing and feeding one was like building and sustaining a coalition. Coalitions have the power to catalyze a spark of an idea about how our communities could be healthier. This spark is fed by the imagination and resources of diverse community members and organizations working in partnership until we “fire up” entire sectors of our community for positive change. So, the idea of the book was born right then.

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