Meet My New Character

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• I am a nurse and I am also a freelance writer. In the years that I have taken care of sick children, I have noted a lack in realistic yet hopeful children's books for kids who are dealing with real life diseases like cancer, stories with characters that let kids be kids even if they are very ill.

It seems there is a limited number out there and that adults may be squeamish when it comes to reading books aloud to their children who are also sick, especially if the book includes a child who is ill.

I want to create fictional characters for children that they can read about and relate to but who are most definitely fictional. If a child has a friend who may be ill or if the child is sick, it can be comforting to read about characters who deal with these same issues in the safe pages of a book.

My hope and prayer is that as I create these books and get them in the hands of children, that they may also help to open the line of communication between parent and child when scarey health situations occur.

I am going to introduce some of these fictional characters to parents and friends on this blog. They are based on children that I may have cared for or observed over the course of 34 years of nursing and are not meant to be true accounts of any one child. They are the products of my imagination and are given admirable characteristics of the children I have seen who have dealt with their illness with dignity and bravery.

You may see the bright blue eyes of a toddler, or the heart of a teen. You may watch the chubby cheeks and curls of a first grader, or you may hear the tears of a child in pain. As I write these stories from my heart to the heart of the reader, may you feel and understand what these parents and kids go through.

I hope you will love them like I do. Please feel free to email me or make comments and let me know how I can address the needs of someone you may know or love. And for my readers who are writers, please feel free to critique and give your opinions as well.

Meet my first new character, Lilly Isabella Lane. She is nine years old and she loves silly hats, cats, friends, and soup. Lilly has a disease called Leukemia and she is going to tell a story about what it is like to have cancer in my new book, The ABC's of Cancer According to Lilly Isabella Lane. This is what Lilly has to say about cancer.

Look for another post soon about what Lilly has to say.

PS. The picture is of my writing partner and grand-daughter who gives me much insight into the hearts of first graders. Love you K.