The yet-to-be published book, called Recalibrate, features the January 2003 attacks by the late Dixon, Ms Butler's brave recovery and her study of shamanic healing - a spiritual healing process involving an intermediary to the supernatural world.
The 39-year-old is open and frank about her life before Dixon, saying she was "young and dumb" and that she comes off looking "pretty stupid" at times in the book.
"It's full of sex and drugs," she said.
"It's full of violence. My hands getting chopped off was just one bad day in my life.
"I was getting beaten up every other day. For everyone else that was this really bad thing, but for me it was just one more day in my life."
During the attack at Pipiroa near Thames, Dixon bilaterally amputated both Ms Butler's hands, which had to be surgically replanted.
She has almost no use of her left hand and about 65 per cent use of the right.
Ms Butler was in hospital for a series of operations, which she said, in hindsight, changed her life.
"It gave me a lot of time to slow down and look after myself and figure out what I wanted to do with my life."
Reaction to the book from family and friends had been positive, she said.
Asked about Dixon's other samurai sword victim, Ms Gunbie, she said she had not spoken to her former friend in 10 years.
Ms Butler, who recently became a survivor spokeswoman for Women's Refuge, launched a PledgeMe fundraising page yesterday to raise the $75,000 she needs to publish the book.
She hopes to raise the money through the crowd-sourcing website in two months, and last night held a project launch party in Auckland, where she now lives.
Last night there had been 14 pledges donating $805 which Ms Butler was "rapt with".
She hopes to hire a ghost-writer to polish the book and to learn how to write professionally.
"I've probably got a good 15 books in me and maybe 10 novels, but let's hope they don't all take 11 years to get out."
