In pursuit of an ebook

While the original intent of this blog was, and still is, for discussing things about my ETSY shop, I was just reading some other blogs and find that few if any of them are exclusively focused on describing ETSY activities.  Somewhere along the way some posts are about other aspects of life as a blogger. I guess among other things it introduces a bit more of the human side of things into the discourse.

With that in mind, one of my other projects recently has been preparing to publish my first book - or to be more precise to publish an ebook on Amazon.  It has taken more time than I had expected, but it is getting very close to completion and I am getting excited about the prospect of having something available on Amazon for people to download to their Kindle, or any one of several other devices.

The whole thing started just over a year ago when I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, Non Hodgkins Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma to be precise.  At the beginning of my treatment, someone suggested that I should consider writing a blog about my experiences.  They said that it would help keep family and friends informed about my status, and might also be a form of therapy for me.  Well sure enough, it did function to keep others informed about how I was doing, both physically and mentally.  And to my surprise, I was very good therapy for me, providing a forum for me to express what was on my mind.

Now that I am through with my treatments (chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and radiation therapy) people are telling me how much they enjoyed reading about my progress, my ups and downs, my fears and my triumphs, and how inspirational they found my writings.  Several of them have said that I should write a book about my experiences.  The end result is that I decided to turn my blog into an ebook, and make it available to others, in the hopes that it might inspire some hope and strength as they face struggles in their lives, whether from cancer of some other form of difficulty.

Strangely, it was my battle with cancer that got me into making handcrafted jewelry.  During my ordeal I was looking for ways to distract myself from my difficulties, and find something to keep my mind occupied.  Having always enjoyed working with my hands, making jewelry seemed like something that I would enjoy.  And now that the cancer is gone, the enjoyment of handcrafting something that can be worn and enjoyed by others, remains.  In fact it has grown to something that I am very passionate about.

Sometime in the next few days I hope to be ready to upload my book and hit the "publish" button at Amazon.  It is exciting and I will continue to report on my progress.  In case you are interested, my blog, titled My Lymphoma Journal, can be seen by clicking here.