Why I haven't been here for a while (It's good news!)

positive3negative · February 2017

Hi everyone.

Sorry for being quiet for so long. I have great news.

I’m working on my first book!

As part of my recovery from the cognitive damage done by treatment, I signed up for a few short courses on Udemy when they had their new year sale last year. One of them was on writing and publishing for Kindle.

I think it was actually called ‘How to write a Kindle best seller in 48 hours’.

Did I mention I signed up LAST year in January. Still, I’m being gentle with myself. I did manage to get through the course and really appreciated the fact that I could go back and replay any section of it as often as I liked. I still have unlimited access to the course which is going to be very helpful when I finally finish my short book and want to format it for Kindle.

If you’re battling the brain fog a short course in something interesting can really help. Udemy is great because there’s no pressure from the teacher or other students. Some teachers bombard you with emails for their other courses but it’s easy to unsubscribe from these.

This year I’ve signed up for singing lessons and some watercolour painting. I’ve promised myself that I’ll publish my book before I get to those.

You won’t be surprised to read that my book is about recovering from cancer. I didn’t want to write another ‘my journey’ style book. There’s a lot of those around. I’ve also done a pretty good job of recording my experiences with treatment via my positive3negative blog on wordpress and it’s all still here for anyone that wants to read it.

So I thought about what isn’t out there and decided to write a book on dealing with that cold, creeping fear that the cancer might come back, or that the cancer is back. I was fortunate enough to learn acceptance commitment therapy (ACT) during my treatment. At the risk of sounding like a bad internet advertisement, it really has changed my life.

A lot of the recommendations I see for dealing with fear of recurrence focus on distraction. I don’t think these are helpful (or perhaps sometimes a bit helpful but not an effective long term solution).

Through my blog I’ve had lots of messages from people that have come out the other side of cancer and want to know how to stop being so frightened. I’ve learnt some really good strategies for that, read everything I could get my hands on and even snuck into a short practitioner course with Russ Harris.

I’m just at the stage of polishing up the final draft and figuring out what I’m going to call it. I figure ‘afraid of dying’ is probably not a very catch title! Anyway, I think it’s probably going to be up on Kindle some time next month and by April at the very latest.

It’s just a bit exciting.

I know I’m unlikely to be a best selling author but there’s just a bit too much information in ACT for a blog post, and not everyone reads blogs. I think of this as being my way to give back after all the help I received during treatment.

The book won’t be long (because most of us still have some brain fog) and it won’t be expensive (because most of us are still recovering financially from treatment) but I’m hoping it will make a big difference in the lives of people living with that cold, creeping fear that cancer leaves in its wake.

Stay tuned and thanks for hanging in there. The people that read what I write, leave their comments and send me messages are the reason I keep writing.

Megan Joy

Deanne · February 2017

Hi Meg,
Can't wait to read your book! Have always loved your down to earth common sense approach to all of this. Lovely to hear from you.
Deanne xxx

SoldierCrab · February 2017

woo hoo @positive3negative

I thought "how to flick the creeping fear cancer leaves in its wake" something like that

I eagerly await your book release.
alice
xoxo

positive3negative · February 2017

Oh thanks to both of you!

SoldierCrab · February 2017

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6027212/uploads/editor/cv/oj9x4o4quej3.jpg

Meg this is what you have done

woo hoo

Michelle_R · February 2017

You are amazing, Meg - can't wait to read your book. Maybe a Volume 2 made up of all your posts? I have enjoyed every one of them! xxx

positive3negative · February 2017

Thanks so much Michelle. I'm planning on doing one on living well after cancer and perhaps one on diet. I hadn't thought of doing a 'best of' based on the blog so that might be worth thinking about too. Thank you so much for your support.