How breast cancer has touched romance authors' lives
October, the month of Halloween, National Novel Writing Month preparation and the time when fall makes an impact with cooler weather, multicolored leaves, has also been Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Some of us don't need a month to be aware of this disease which will affect one in eight women in her lifetime. We've been there, done that. Whether it was us, a friend, a relative, we don't need a month of pink to remind us about yearly mammograms, weekly self-examinations, or watching our risk factors.
Breast cancer affects romance writers and readers as well, and we turn to happily ever afters to keep our minds off what's happening in our bodies. I put the call out: How have romance novels helped you through your diagnosis and treatment or the diagnosis and treatment of a friend or loved one? The answers were inspiring, insightful, and always emotional.
In the books of Lois Winston (The Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries), murder and craft are always laughing matters. She had this to say: "I started out writing very angst-driven romantic suspense. Two events occurred within six months of each other that dramatically changed my writing life. One was 9/11; the other was a negative mammogram. Having a mother and grandmother who'd both had breast cancer, you can imagine what that did to me. The biopsy thankfully proved negative. However, I still succumbed to depression, worried what the next mammogram would show. And the next. And the next.
"The depression began to lift after I read a romantic comedy and laughed for the first time in months. Talk about the healing properties of laughter! It was like being smacked upside the head! I knew at that point I needed to write books that did for others what that romantic comedy had done for me. I began by rewriting a women's fiction book I'd been working on and turned it into chick lit. That was Talk Gertie to Me, the first book I ever sold (and now available for the first time as an e-book for Kindle, Nook and iPad)."
Pamala Knight, an aspiring writer who happens to be mad about time-travel romance novels, science-fiction, fantasy, crime fiction and literary fiction., wrote about her best friend who was a doctor in Alabama: "She died four years ago after an eight-year battle with breast cancer. We'd been friends for more than half my life. With her being a doctor, she had access to many of the cutting-edge treatments and for a while things were looking better. But then one fateful day in late spring, she called me and said, 'I want you to prepare yourself because I'm stopping my treatment.' Things had finally progressed past the point of the treatment doing anything besides prolonging her agony. The cancer had spread to her brain and her lungs.
"In the middle of the summer, I left Chicago to see her in Alabama and help out as much as I could. I also took her daughter places to keep her occupied and to stave off the sadness that would come with losing her mother. When we went to the mall, I bought books for her daughter and for me: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (for her) and Lord of Scoundrels, Lord Perfect and Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase (for me). This was the first time I'd read any of those books, even though I was also writing. I'd read out loud to my friend, even though most of the time she could only stay awake for a little while. She listened and smiled when we reached a particularly funny passage. Once I'd returned to Chicago and close to the end, where she would want to talk to me at odd hours of the day and night because of the way the disease had ravaged her mind, I would grab my Kindle so I could read a passage to her over the phone and that would calm her down.
"After she died, I gave her daughter the Loretta Chase books in a package of things I wanted her to have of her mother's, which included pictures of us in our 20s, Playbills to things we'd been to, CDs of music she liked, and a story I wrote for her about her mother. Every year on her birthday, I write to my friend's daughter and tell her one zany story about her mother and me. I also labeled the Chase books as 'to be read when you're 18,' which I know will mean she'll read them sooner. But I'm counting on her dad to help police the sexy-time reading."
Lena Diaz, author of Simon Says Die, relayed the story of how her sister's diagnosis gave her that final push into writing her novel. "In 2005, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo painful surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy. She fought the hard fight — and won! She's cancer-free today. Nearly losing her taught me how short and fragile life is. And it was the kick in the pants I needed to stop just earning a living and to start living. I began pursuing my dream of becoming a published romance author. Six years later I sold my first book to Avon. Romance novels have always inspired me as a reader. Facing the horrors of breast cancer inspired me as a writer." Lena's next book, The Marshal's Witness, comes out in February. The dedication: "This book is dedicated to my special sister, Laura Brown, for fighting the good fight against breast cancer, and for being the inspiration for me to chase my dreams. I love you."
Lynn Cahoon, author of The Bull Rider's Brother, was 46 when she was diagnosed in the summer of 2007. "My life became about three things: work, sleep and chemotherapy. I'd been walking my three Pomeranians every night, strolling through the small-town neighborhood where we lived. After the first treatment, I only had about a half hour once I got home before the bed called my name. The dogs suffered through the summer with me. But I got to thinking, what if they were bigger? What if I lived alone? Who would walk my imaginary large dogs then? And, just like that, a romance idea bloomed. We're Just Friends, a short about a heroine with cancer and her matchmaker chemo partner, sold to one of the confessional magazines."
I was diagnosed in 2006 around the same time I started writing. I was 33. No family history. (Do your self-exams, ladies!) I decided against wearing any head covering, and it reminded me of The Princess Bride by William Goldman (the book, not the movie). The Prince's first fiancée had a wide array of stylish hats, a different one for every occasion — because she was bald. I skipped the fashion statement and went right to the shaved head.
When my hair started growing back in, people who hadn't seen me in a while greeted me the exact same way — "Oh, my God, your hair got so long!" Every time. Because of this, I included a character in my upcoming release who finished her breast cancer treatment before the start of the story, just so my heroine could see her after a couple of weeks and greet her the same way. It's my way of saying "thank you" to those who stood by me during that time.
Cancer sucks. No mincing words here. But we'll always have our happily ever afters to get us through it.
Abigail Sharpe's first romance, Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy, comes out in spring. To find out more about Abigail and her upcoming books, you can visit her website, AbigailSharpe.com.