October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Our guest today is someone who was struck with this terrible disease and
through her writing is doing something to help find a cure.
A southern girl, Trixie Stilletto traveled north when
she found the love of her life. Together, they enjoyed more than 20 years
working as journalists. Now back home in Tennessee, she’s writing stories that
range from short hot romances with a kiss of humor to southern-flavored
mysteries. She lives seven miles from the neighborhood where she grew up with
two cats, an aging beagle and a host of characters waiting for her to tell
their stories. Learn more about Trixie and her books at her website.
Hi Anastasia, thanks for
letting me take over your blog and sharing the inspiration for my latest story,
Do Grave Harm, with your readers.
Life changes can be good,
bad or a combination of both. When the change comes from health issues, it can
also be scary.
In 2014, during my annual
mammogram, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer called
Her2+. I had no family history of breast cancer nor did I feel a lump. The
diagnosis changed my life in many ways, not all of them good. Knowing I was
facing a year of chemotherapy and radiation followed by the uncertainty of when
or if the disease would return, threw my life out of control. For a long time,
it also sent my creative energy into hibernation. That was the bad.
From that bad came the good.
It was while getting radiation treatment one cold winter day that a character
and story came to me. Do Grave Harm
is a story I probably would have never written otherwise.
Fighting cancer is tough
enough on its own. I can’t imagine having to deal with a murderer at the same
time. That’s exactly what I put my character, Jennifer Atkinson, through in this
story.
Jennifer is getting
radiation treatment when a murder occurs outside of the lab. Though she isn’t a
detective, nor an eyewitness, she feels compelled to find answers on her own.
She owes it to the victim and isn’t going to give up until she finds answers.
Cancer can make you feel
like a victim and out of control. Treatment and fighting to beat the disease
can rule your life. Jennifer is determined not to let fear keep her from
beating cancer or finding the truth.
Proceeds from this story
will go to these metastatic breast cancer research charities: https://www.mshafoundation.org/what-we-do/circle-of-hope
Do Grave Harm
There’s
nothing normal about Jennifer Atkinson’s radiation treatment, especially when
discovers the technician dead in the control room. As the gruesome scene
replays itself in her mind, small details spark more questions than she’s
answering for the seriously attractive Detective Ben Manteo.
Despite
Ben’s warning to stay out of it, Jennifer picks up seemingly unrelated threads
that weave themselves into a story of lies, deceit, and betrayal that someone
will go to any length to make sure never gets told…
Read an excerpt here.
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