The premise of this tour is a simple one:
“What if you couldn’t promote your own book?”
What if you wrote down your story, your thoughts, your hopes…but your life was cut short?
Julie Forward DeMay is the author and creator of the “Cell War Notebooks,” a book that intimately shares her battle with cancer.
Julie was a wife, a mother, a daughter, and a friend. She had hopes and dreams. She was a photographer. A writer. She loved music. She created a blog and shared her life with the world.
When I went to her site, and began reading through her posts…I cried. I’m crying as I write this. I would love to tell you that she won her battle with cancer. She did not. But as I read through her posts, I saw a glimpse of the woman that she was, a woman of courage and strength. She was a woman full of love and hope. She had an awesome sense of humor.
Here is an excerpt from Tuesday, July 28th, 2009. This is one of her last posts.
“My back hurts and I am unable to walk on my own. Apparently the nerve block didn’t work. Nor did the cisplatin or bevacizameb or green juice or radiation therapy, or massage or acupuncture or 5 mushroom formula, because it seems my bones hurt, my back and side ribs hurt, and walking looks more like collapsing.
“Am I complaining? Hells no. Well maybe a little bit, but the thing is: 1) Besides my usual badass community of support, my entire immediate family is here to rally around me. and 2) I still have my wits about me more ore less. Yes – I could still fight. I could get myself a wheelchair and pretty soon some oxygen tanks and tubes and read and read about how to beat this. But the thing is, it’s time for me to make peace. It’s time for me to admit to myself that everyday the Pain is getting worse.”
~Julie Forward DeMay, Cell War Notebooks
Julie ran out of time. She never saw her words published in book form. She never had the opportunity to do a blog tour.
The proceeds from this book are going to Julie’s nine-year old daughter, Luka.
*If you’ve only got a few seconds to spare, pop over to Facebook and ‘like’ the page created for Julie’s book and blog.
If you have a blog, Facebook, Twitter…or whatever, and would like to do more, please check out the links below.
~*~
The Cell War Notebooks on Amazon: http://amzn.to/W17WN4 (This is NOT an affiliate link)
The Cell War Notebooks on Facebook: http://facebook.com/cellwarnotebooks
Julie’s Original Blog: http://cellwarnotebooks.blogspot.com
Twitter Hashtags to use: #indiesforward or #cellwarnotebooks
Duolit’s IndiesForward Page: http://selfpublishingteam.com/indiesforward
As a fellow Juli(e), I Thank You!
Juli Hoffman
PS In case you were wondering, I ordered my copy of her book on Tuesday. It should be here by the 4th. It’s one thing to talk about supporting Indie Writer’s, but it’s probably better to live it. 🙂
JULI HOFFMAN 
That is so sad – but beautiful at the same time because at least it made it to a book. I wonder how many stories ever do because their creators could not finish it and no one around them cared enough or knew how to move their words to the next step. so sad.
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I’m sure there are lots of stories that never get out into the world.
My mother wrote music. She never had a chance to publish any of it and nobody in my family knows what she did with it because she squirreled her notes away in a “safe place.” You’d think we’d have found it by now! It’s probably in a box somewhere, mixed up with other things. So aggravating! My youngest sister also writes music so if we DID find her songs, I’m sure we could make “something” happen…
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To me, the saddest thing is that a young girl lost her mother. I always feel so bad for the children left behind. 😦
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Me too! Her daughter is the same age as my son. That REALLY hit me hard.
When I read through her old blog posts, she talked about her daughter a lot, how she wanted to make sure she was there for her as she grew up. They’re uplifting posts…and yet they made me cry. This woman was a fighter. Cancer may have beat her, but she sure went down swinging.
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