Jeri Walker is a freelance editor and writer that I got to know a few years ago when I was trying out a new (for me) social media site. I’ve since ended my relationship with the social media site but not with Jeri. She welcomed me from the start and when I first visited her blog, I was impressed by her professionalism and focus. She offers many tips and tools that are down-to-earth (not that pie in the sky “buy my book and you will soon have hundreds of thousands of new followers and readers” blah blah blah). She conducts in-depth interviews with established writers (self-published and otherwise). Her blog is WB Word Bank at jeriwb.com and I recommend you bookmark it.
She even has some of her own writing available for purchase at Amazon. I really enjoyed her collection of short stories Such is Life. You can read my review here. Suffice to say, her stories reminded me of an early Joyce Carol Oates. You can also visit her Amazon author page here.
Jeri is a truly exceptional person. She’s resilient, having weathered, survived and bested a childhood and marriage that I know would have sent me far over the edge and into the void. And, of course, because she is so tough, she has breast cancer. In her words:
“my type of breast cancer is a triple-negative breast cancer. That means it can’t be helped by hormone treatments of estrogen or progesterone. Such cancers also do not respond to targeted Herceptin protein treatments. It does tend to respond well to chemo. Nope, rare bird that I am gets a type of breast cancer only seen in about 15 percent the women diagnosed.”
Life can be so pathetically unfair. And I know Jeri is one of many who steels herself to do what she doesn’t really want to do: ask for help. But there’s a gift for those of us who have decided to give her a little support. She’s writing it all down. We get to read all about the cancer diagnosis, the treatment, the side effects, her mental state, her love, her play with art to make meaning of all this. We even get to see her boobs.
If you care to donate, here’s Jeri’s GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/the-abandoned-boob-chronicles
And, by the way, f**k cancer.
15 responses to “Living in the Moment and Beyond #Inspirational #MondayBlogs”
I was fortunate (as far as breast cancer goes) to have a small estrogen positive tumor. I wish her luck. While working on my Cultural Encyclopedia of the Breast, I learned a bit about breast cancer, and this site is great: http://breastcancerconsortium.net/
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Thank you for sharing, Merril, and thanks for the link. I must admit, that breast cancer is so common, relative to other cancers, is alone quite frightening. I had endometrial cancer many years ago and, like you, I was fortunate that it was small. For me, surgery was my only necessary treatment. Still, the fear doesn’t seem to leave for a long, long time.
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No, I think the fear remains, but fades in time. I’m glad your cancer was small and easily treatable, Marie.
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What a beautiful tribute to Jeri. She sounds like a remarkable person.
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She is! And thank you 😊
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Thank you for for drawing attention to my GoFundMe campaign, Marie. It may be hard to ask for help at times, but people are amazing in heeding the call 🙂
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I do hope this helps 😊
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You’re a good friend, Marie…lovely tribute to Jeri.
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Thanks, Jill!
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Super help for Jeri, Marie. As one in remission, I can definitely say your support for Jeri is very welcome
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😘
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Thanks so, so much for writing this, Marie, and now I’ve found a new writer to love and cherish (P.S., I just bought “The Two Yosemites.”). I couldn’t open Jeri’s website, though. It was on the SiteLock network, whatever that means.
I think that as writers we need to come together and support one another instead of worrying about promotion and book sales and silly things like that. So yeah, you go, Marie and Jeri and everyone struggling with cancer or health or their own personal demons.
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Sorry my website is having some growing pains this week. I just upgraded my hosting and issues now need resolved. Thanks for checking out my Yosemite piece.
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The problems may be peculiar to one’s browser too. Technology, ain’t it great 😉
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Thanks, Cinthia! Maybe try a different browser for Jeri’s website. Firefox blocks it on my computer but a Safari doesn’t (go figure).
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