Free on Kindle 11-14th May - Rafi Brown and the Candy Floss Kid

From Sue Stern:  Hello everyone,

Jo’s asked me to talk about my fundraising for Invest in ME. Actually it was done in a back- to- front way and I'll explain later what I mean by this.

But first I should begin by telling you about my connection with this horrible condition: I’m the mother of someone who developed this in 1994 while at university. In 1997 he spent ten weeks at the National Hospital for Neurology in London, arriving there unable to sit up, barely able to speak, but leaving ten weeks later able to walk round Queen Square, and returning home, knowing he could push through and he’d be better. His experience at this time consisted of extreme exhaustion. He was about 60% recovered when he fell ill with what emerged to be glandular fever. Epstein-Barr – From then on, in 2003, he has suffered from severe M E with additions, vertigo, tinnitus and a host of other things. Like all of you, he has fought – he’s a jazz musician, practising daily when he can. Tried everything, everywhere, medicines and alternate therapy – but nothing has helped.

A little about me: while Richard was at university, I rediscovered my old love of writing, joining a women’s writing group in Manchester and beginning to publish seriously in the year 2000. For an MA in writing the children, I wrote Rafi Brown and the Candy Floss Kid. It was my third novel, and after many rewrites, I decided to set up my own little publishing house, Red Bank Books to publish it, in February 2013. There followed, a great learning curve, working with Illustrator, Heather Dickinson and book designer in Texas (!) Who helped enormously with the layout and provided the correct PDFs for printing.

Like other writers, I write about people I have known or people I know, but transformed into new characters – Rafi is based on someone I knew well, he was dyslexic but is now a very successful person. I wanted to show that people with disabilities, are people first and foremost, within innate qualities, there if you can see them. Rafi just appeared to me, I could hear his voice, and I had an idea of the plot, which changed when Candy Floss emerged in a park nearby.

If you read the blurb later, you will see that she has a secret, revealed near the end of the book, which I don’t tell children, and if you buy the book, or download it free for M E awareness month, please don’t tell children who might read it! But I can tell you, Candy’s mum, Gemma, has M E, and after awful things happening with a social service carer, Candy, aged 11, looks after her mother on her own!

Now – fundraising –all the proceeds I’d made from selling this book since February, 2013 have been donated to Invest in M E. So that’s why it’s back to front. And I managed to complete the cell I'd chosen on the matrix rather quickly! I've been involved a little with IiME for some years, buying copies of Lost Voices quite a long time ago.

Because I 've now started writing other things, I’m not promoting the books so actively until I recalled it was M E awareness month.

I do hope you will all help me, and help us by downloading a copy – from 11 to 14 May, the Kindle version will be free from Amazon! Here are the links:

Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rafi-Brown-Candy-Floss-Kid-ebook/dp/B00BZDOAY8/ref=kinw_dp_ke

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BZDOAY8/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_ask_wgoPH.15Q804C

Please do download it, even if it’s hard for you to read, maybe someone else in the family will read it. Please share this with your friends. The more downloads there are, the higher it will go on the Amazon website, and then I hope very much that it will be seen by many more people, and they’ll find out something about M E.

I have an idea to tell Candy Floss’s story too, and for a follow-up to this book with Rafi. I’ve attached photos and in the next post I’ll attach some cartoons for you to download for children who might like to colour them in. Here’s the link to my website: www.suestern–writer.co.uk

Please do share this,if you can. And as one picture is work a thousand words, I thought I might add a couple -which hasn't quite happened so I'll post this and try again soon.

Warmest wishes to you all for better days, weeks, months and years!

Sue

Here are the links so you can download it now:
Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rafi-Brown-Candy-Floss-Kid-   ebook/dp/B00BZDOAY8/ref=kinw_dp_ke
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BZDOAY8/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_ask_wgoPH.15Q804C

My A-Z of M.E. Book of Poems by Ros Lemarchand

My A-Z of M.E. is a book of 50 poems about experiences of living with myalgic encephalomyelitis, written by Ros Lemarchand. The book is dedicated to all those living with a chronic illness and a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to Invest in ME.

"It is really good to hear Ros decided to publish her poems. They are so good and to the point. The foreword is very good too as a short explanation of what ME is. People get a good idea of ME by reading this book. Many thanks Ros, and all others involved."

Many people on Facebook will know Ros from the information and support she provides and where she has been sharing her poems over a number of years.  

Her poems on the subject of sleep were featured throughout May 2013 M.E. Awareness Week for The Big Sleep for ME annual event, run by Julia Cottam in aid of Invest in ME. Julia gave Ros the encouragement, help and support to publish her work.

The book is available in paperback and for Kindle on Amazon - links below. If you don't have a Kindle, the Kindle app can be downloaded for free onto computers.

Ros said, "I am pleased at last to be able to share all my poems about M.E. in one book. I have been working on this slowly over the last year or so and at last it has come to fruition. I hope you will buy my book so as to raise more awareness and understanding about this very difficult illness. At the same time you will be helping Invest in ME. as a percentage of the sales will be going to that charity. I hope you enjoy my poems and you feel that you can empathise with them. Perhaps you might like to share them with friends and family so that they can have a better understanding of how it feels to live with M.E. Although my poems are primarily written with M.E. in mind, some of them may also just as well apply to other chronic and invisible illnesses."

In the introduction to her book, Ros writes:

I first became ill in 2002 and at the time I didn't know what was wrong with me. It felt like the worst flu ever but it didn't go away.  
I tried courageously many times to carry on working until I completely collapsed. My doctor at the time hadn`t got a clue. So I changed doctors, was sent for lots of tests and by a process of elimination I was told in 2003 that I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. 

Although it was a relief to have a name to my illness I knew nothing about it. So I read as much as I could in order to learn more. I soon discovered the more appropriate name was Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and I prefer to use that at all times. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome just sounds like I'm a bit tired and it's so much more than that.

Since my diagnosis I have struggled with this very difficult and invisible illness. I have faced disbelief and ignorance from family, friends, doctors and many others. I still do to this day. Many people with M.E. or other chronic and invisible illnesses share the same experiences.

I had to stop working and consider my health. I was suffering on many fronts and was only getting worse not better. It was a hard decision to make. So my life has had to change. 

At times it's made me feel angry, frustrated or even depressed. I have gone through a grieving process. I've lost that person I once used to be. I've lost the life I once had. I have been forced to change, adapt and learn ways of coping with a chronic illness. As M.E. is a remitting and relapsing illness I've had good periods and some really bad ones. It's an illness forever changing and new symptoms developing all the time. 

With little or no support from the medical profession I've had to learn about this illness and how best to manage it myself. Over the years I have probably become a self expert. Yet even now this illness can still take me by surprise.

Fortunately I have found help and support from others like myself on social networking sites and other internet forums. Without this support I don't know how I would have survived. It's comforting and reassuring to know that I am not facing this alone.  I have observed others expressing the same feelings, emotions, experiences and problems as myself.  This has given me the source for many of my poems.  

Through my poems I want to show the reality of a life with M.E. and to increase understanding and awareness. And that's why a percentage of this book will go to the UK Charity Invest in ME. (IiME) who do so much for the cause of M.E. in raising awareness and understanding.

Thank you

Ros LeMarchand

My A-Z of M.E. is available in paperback here on Amazon.co.uk 
Kindle version is here on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Buying from Amazon via easyfundraising has the bonus of an extra donation to Invest in ME at no extra cost to the buyer - easyfundraising is very easy to register with and to use - a great way to raise extra funds for free: click here. 

A big thank you Ros!

My A-Zof M.E. on Facebook