Thursday, March 30, 2017

Discovering the Life I was Meant to Live: My story in Coping Magazine

Welcome to my blog!  

If you’re visiting because you read about me in the March/April edition of Coping Magazine and are curious about my children’s cancer book you may find it by visiting Tickles Tabitha's Cancer-tankerous Mommy (Available FREE on Kindle April 1-3) or for information about Crack Open a Book! link to School Programs. The curriculum is available at no cost to non-profits or anyone who lists the book in their resource library.

As the article in Coping Magazine said, I didn’t get the life I thought I wanted, but the one I was meant to live.  It appears I’m meant to do everything I declared I would never do.

When I said, my cancer diagnosis set me on a course for a career I never planned, and even prepared me for the nausea that accompanied it, I meant it literally!   If you read the article in Coping then you know it was my experience with cancer and the lack of resources that were available to me as a mother with young children that inspired me to write the Tickles Tabitha story. 
Available FREE on Kindle
April 1-3 

I’m also the author of a children’s picture book about…drumroll…nuclear power plants.

With my career and reputation as a cancer awareness author and advocate it was a huge surprise to even some of my closest friends when a decade after my first title was published I released Nuclear Power: How a Nuclear Power Plant Really Works! © 2011.

My technically inclined son, Jordan is rolling his eyes, and any former science teachers are wondering who the ghostwriter was. One of the things I enjoyed most about college was that my major had zip to do with science, technology, engineering and math.
On Kindle for a limited time at $1.99


Consequently my very first professional job after college was doing public relations at a nuclear power plant, surrounded by STEM professionals.

One of my job assignments was to do an elementary school program about how a nuclear power plant would work. To haul all the school program equipment I drove a van, and once they even leased a station wagon for me. A colleague ribbed me about it, and my infamous response was the last thing I ever wanted was a wagon load of kids to haul around.

Several years later I was driving down the road in a Jeep with my own two kids strapped in the back seat.  Every day I do something I was never going to do! Like all the writing, self-promotions and public speaking gigs necessary to sell a children’s picture book.

Another infamous statement I made upon exiting my public relations job at the nuclear plant: “this is going to be the last time I ever do public speaking.”

Just as I was getting over the nausea brought on by all those interesting life experiences I encountered when publishing my first book, the least of which was public speaking, I decided to do a children’s book on nuclear power plants.

The idea had been in the back of my mind ever since I worked in the nuclear industry. I always wished there was something more creative than the yawn-provoking brochures I handed out to my students. Back then I never imagined I would be the one to write it.

I never imagined the backlash I would encounter when I did either. That backlash, the fake news stories, and downright bullying are some of the things I’ve been writing about and will be sharing in a soon-to-be released blog about why I’m supporting the March for Science


While their topics are very different, there are a several things my children’s books on cancer and nuclear power plants have in common, both books:

  • helped to pioneer resources for young children.
  • were controversial when published.
  • establish a dialogue between children and adults.
  • are fictitious stories that offer factual information pertaining to sensitive topics.
  • still provoke the praise and/or wrath of complete strangers.
  • are the basis for a school program.
  • just recently went LIVE on Kindle!  Woot woot! 
Futhermore both books have the ability to make me fluctuate between giddy gratitude and queasiness…as does being a long-term cancer survivor.

I’ve decided queasy is good; it’s how I know my books and I are still alive and provoking havoc.

Jillian Michaels is glaring accusingly at me from her exercise video.

Earth Day is approaching and if I’m going to March for Science, it’s time to get myself off the sofa and onto the exercise mat.

If you’re still reading, please connect with me on Facebook: at Author Amelia Frahm. I’d love to hear your survivor story! We all have them, and I’m not just talking about cancer.

More on my story may be found by visiting Nutcracker Publishing Company.

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