New York Times Best Selling Author or Romantic Suspense, Brend Novak Talks about Juvenile Diabetes
New York Times Best Selling Author Brenda Novak's 6th Annual Online Auction for Diabetes Research begins May 1st through 31st. She started this fundraiser in 2005 and have made it an annual event in an attempt to help her thirteen-year-old son, Thad (diagnosed at 5) and the many, many others who struggle with diabetes. The need is there. Anyone who lives with a diabetic will tell you about the constant fingertip pricks, the shots, the pump insertions, the danger that comes with blood sugars that are too high or too low or swinging wildly from one side to the other. It’s almost impossible to avoid the fluctuations, no matter how hard you try. But you rarely hear about that, or about the tragic side affects. Diabetes affects every part of the body—the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the skin, the nerves, the eyes, everything. But thanks to my many, many generous donors--and shoppers--we’re doing what we can to help!
It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak’s bestselling author career.
Margaret: Thank you for sharing your time with us today Brenda. When your son was diagnosed at age 5 with diabetes how did it affect your life and that of your family? i.e. – did you have to stop working? Did you need to hire a more medically astute caregiver?
Brenda: By the time my son was diagnosed with diabetes I was already published and working from home full-time. He's never had any caregiver but me--a fact that's brought us very close. One of the biggest changes in our lives was my sleep pattern. After having five kids and getting up in the night with all of them, I was finally able to sleep for a solid eight hours without interruption. Once Thad was diagnosed, it was like having an infant again. I've been getting up in the middle of the night for eight years to test his blood, so I only sleep in four-hour increments.
Margaret: How many are in the immediate family? How does your son’s diabetes affect them?
Brenda: There are seven of us--five children. The older girls have especially helped with Thad's diabetes. They're the ones who stay with him when I'm out of town and take up the night vigil of testing his blood. They're careful not to ask for treats when he's around. And every family prayer includes a plea that he will be able to take good care of himself and remain healthy.
http://margaretturley.com/ny-times-best-selling-author-talks-about-juvenile-diabetes.htm
- Category: Charity, Books, Family, Health & Fitness, Writing & Publishing
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Using Real Situations in your Fiction
"Fiction is the Illusion of Reality." One of the quotes Pamela Goodfellow is famous for and something she has had to pound into my head. Drawing back the ink curtain opens the stage for the readers mind and heart.
For someone like me who shoots straight from the hip with my word processor I have to tone my writing back. At the supper table my teens would look at me with wide eyes and beg me to change the subject. What had become common everyday occurrence for me in the emergency room or at the patient's bedside was far from pleasant conversation.
Brenda Novak, New York Times Best Selling Romantic Suspense Author visited about her son Thad on the STC blog. Thad developed Type I or Juvenile Diabetes at age five. I asked her if she used that experience in any of her writing. Her answer was that she used her knowledge and understanding of caring for a diabetic child in her novel Every Waking Moment.
http://prgoodfellow.blogspot.com/2010/04/using-real-situations-in-your-fiction.html
