"I, Cancer"

I feel like my advanced stage 3B cancer is at times, all encompassing of who I am. There's not a day that goes by where I don't wake up in the morning worried about my cancer. Really though, what can I do, but to go through my day? After all, I won't be able to have any scans done until the end of August or the beginning of September 2018. The reason I can't have any scans until then is because of all the radiation I received during my cancer treatments.

Having cancer has traumatized me to say the least. Before I was diagnosed with it, I used to think that I would never be strong enough to handle a disease such as cancer. Being diagnosed with cervical cancer started with me going into the emergency room one evening in January 2018 because I had not stopped bleeding in over 30 days. My bleeding episodes were right up there with bloody crime scenes, and trust me- I'm not exaggerating. One time, I was on the concord trail bus with my husband when we were coming back from meeting doctors in Boston and heading back to Maine. I went into the bathroom and I just could not stop the blood and in a moving bus- it was all over. Trying to clean it all up in the moving bus was even worse. By the way, have you ever seen a horror movie where the person is in the bath tub and then it fills with blood? Well, I had that nasty experience too. Then, of course there was the cancer pain which they gave me hydro-morphine for. As ironic as it sounds, I started watching the show Intervention. I'm watching these people nod off and here I am wide-awake still writhing in pain. At best, opiates for me felt no different than relief from Tylenol. That's just to give you an idea of horrible it was. 

Other parts were not nearly as horrific as I thought they would be either. My chemotherapy was for 4 hours on Tuesdays every week. My loving, amazing, husband and Co-Author James went with me for each session. According to him, I was the only patient he saw for multiple weeks eating meals during their treatments. The anti-nausea drugs they gave me helped me with not puking and using medical marijuana kept me eating healthy. However, I still didn't escape that unscathed as I still have deep bruises in my arms from being pumped with Cisplatin.  

Since my treatments have ended I've not had any massive bleeding. On most days, I'm pretty functional and think I am in better health but I just never truly know. At the end of my chemo-radiation they did surgery and the doctors were able to get a look at my tumor. They were very pleased at how much it had shrunk down. However, it's still there... 

For obvious reasons that keeps me terrified. Hopefully, my health will stay improved.

In the words of Taylor Swift "Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time."

One bright shining point is that going back to writing has been amazing. Instead of thinking about cancer all the time, I have an outlet and I'm excited that the novella long serial "Twins" will be released soon. If you're a fan of romance and/or fantasy, check out our series 'A Chronicle of Rebirth'

Cheers!

J.M. Fletcher

A Chronicle of Rebirth Series- Buy Link

Been Awhile

Greetings and Happy Holidays!

Book 2 is well underway, and we hope you'll love it. We're already geared up to do book 3 as we've planned the series out. Admittedly though it hasn't been until recently that Jill has really been in good health. Unfortunately after her blood transfusion in August, it had taken a toll. On a good note, her change in diet and herbal regiment has appeared to do wonders for her.

There is of course, the financial stress of job loss when the company James worked for decided they no longer needed employees in Maine anymore. As you can imagine, it makes things more difficult.

Still, it's all about perseverence and hanging in there, right? I really want to say thanks to our Facebook and Twitter fans of the book who are so good about liking our posts and tweets to support us. It makes all the difference. THANK YOU

Okay so on a brighter and happier note, you folks are going to see some fun holiday art with the book characters that James has been creating. He uses all those fancy adobe programs. Yet, Jill is the primary in regard to social media and marketing. Like Nelina and Ru'ark they make a good team.

In other news, we recently gave an interview to Literary Titan who's award we won. https://literarytitan.com/2017/11/19/a-chronicle-of-rebirth/

Coming Soon.... Jill and James wrote an article for the Ageless it will be published in December. James is doing an AMAFeed #AuthorsAMA

Cheers and Be Well!

Insight into Ru'ark and Nelina

Have you ever watched a show or read a book and wondered- Why wouldn't the person play along and then escape when they could? Hence, that is the approach that the character Nelina tried to take when she was sold as a slave to the Magus of Danthamore. Her Uncle had tied her up to make sure she could not escape which is seen in chapter one. He chose to bring her to Danthamore because it's the slave trading capital where he would get the most money for her. Even still, she resisted and made a last ditch attempt to get her Uncle Tiberius to change his mind. All that resulted in was getting struck across the face by him. She then attempted to make another bid for freedom when they were at the slave trader Johan who didn't want to hear any of it. Tiberius had the right documentation with the legal right to sell her which was all that mattered as far the slaver Johan was concerned. To top it off, Nelina was verbally assailed from the woman next to her who called her a shrew and tried to spit on her.

And, Just when Nelina thinks things can't get any worse? She then finds out that she's being taken to the Magus of Danthamore. He is the most powerful man in the known world, who ended the Great War. Any chance of changing her situation revolved around being able to escape from the Magus. When she does meet Ru'ark, she is immediately drawn to him. Similar to a vampire, and because of the Waraeu, everything about the Magus, from his appearance, voice, and demeanor drew her in from the beginning. He is seductive and manipulative, and when it comes to finding the person he's been searching years for with the right hair and eyes he was even more so when Nelina was brought right to him.

But really, for Nelina what should've been nightmare was the exact opposite. She was treated to finery and things that living in Pinza had never offered her. Her family's lumber business was run into the ground by her Uncle and he wasn't the nicest guy to live with. After she had her first breakfast with the Magus, she became conflicted. Maybe leaving was the goal at first. However, life is becoming rather good, and why not accept the affections of someone like the Magus since she finds herself attracted to him? He was more the savior than master.

Ru'ark at first sight knew she had none of the behaviors that slaves do. He needed her to cooperate and become what he wanted her to be. There was too much at stake. While she wasn't born to the slave caste, she wasn't anyone of nobility either. If anything she was a step above peasantry. He decided to keep her distracted with fine gowns and dinners, while her days were spent learning how to fight and defend herself.

Perhaps starting out Nelina and Ru'ark each had those lofty self motivations. However, sleeping next to each other every night with a chemistry that was already ignited, and having your daily meals together had an affect. People come to care about each other after getting to know each other and even simple dinners help you to get to learn and know about a person. Growing closer makes wanting to escape fade away with each new day for Nelina. Ru'ark had never let anyone in or get this close to him, yet somehow, she managed to do so.

I'm going to stop here because in book 2 you get a greater understanding of Nelina and Ru'ark's feelings, and I don't want to ruin that for the reader.

You can find 'The Magus' A Chronicle of Rebirth using the links below:

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072511ZWY

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B072511ZWY

AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B072511ZWY

CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B072511ZWY

End of August

It is the end of August and I'm still alive without iron deficiency Anemia trying to kill me, I'm thankful for that. Wild Blueberry season just happened in Maine and I have made a batch of jam. I'm still supposed to make more, but I'm really regretting having decided to get a 10lb box of berries. I will definitely not be doing that again next year without a better plan for that big of a box. The jam is quite popular in the house especially by my daughter can go through a jar in a day! My son thinks I should sell it, but as I told him, I'm only following the directions on a package, anyone can do it. Here are a few of the jars.

As for a writing update. Book 2 is going well with first several chapters being worked on. It's exciting to be working on the 2nd book and to be continuing Ru'ark and Nelina's story from where the first book left off. If you haven't gotten the first book, you can get it here:

US: Buy The Magus (A Chronicle of Rebirth)
UK: Buy The Magus (A Chronicle of Rebirth)
CA: Buy The Magus (A Chronicle of Rebirth)
AU: Buy The Magus (A Chronicle of Rebirth)

It was also exciting for us to recently reach #13 in Australia's Amazon Best Seller list for our categories of Fantasy Romance. Here is that picture

We have also done a couple of new teaser graphics as well for the book!

Thanks for Reading and Have a GREAT Day!

Out of the Hospital

Well, it's been awhile since I made a blog post. Saying it's been rough would be an understatement. Last Friday a week ago, I was taken by ambulance to the hospital. It was there that I discovered I had severe anemia from blood loss. After a transfusion of two bags of blood, I felt better. However, it means I always have to watch my iron levels. Sadly, I will have to go for addition medical tests in the near future. Still! The point of this post is to say that I'm not dead and I'm still kicking and doing my best to heal.

Third Time Is The Charm

Hello,

As the title says, third time is the charm. I tried 2 other blogs and this one is my third try. 

"The Magus" (A Chronicle of Rebirth) was written by me and my husband and co-author J.P. Fletcher. To see our book you can buy it by clicking the book image which will take you to Amazon.com 



Better yet, if you want to read it for FREE you can on Kindle Unlimited. If you don't have Kindle Unlimited you can TRY it for Free from Amazon.com

Also, I'd like to invite you to our website. Over there you will find things book and character quotes. The website can be found here:

The Magus (A Chronicle of Rebirth) Website

As a new Author I can't thank everyone enough who has taken the time to purchase or read it on Kindle Unlimited. We hope that you will even loan our book out using the Amazon Kindle Lending Library program.

If you have not yet read our book then as an Author I'm very excited for you to read it and I hope you enjoy it. 

Thanks! 

~J.M. Fletcher