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