The Book Project

Four days ago I started a Pozible fundraiser to get my Aneurysms with Aphorisms printed. I had written this as a blog back in 2013, before my surgery and my stroke, and I’d started to rewrite as my story – my second book - last year.

Late in 2015, I’d set up a Pozible fundraiser for funds to get my first book, a novel First Person Singular, printed, and – just in time – I raised all I needed. It gave me a boost, and my second book was finished earlier this year. I’d started saving to get it printed, but my situation changed. I won’t explain it, but I crawled into my own deep depression, and I knew I could no longer afford where I was renting. Nor could I pay for printing. I advertised a smaller book (online wouldn’t accept the photos I’d included) and worked myself up to thinking that this was the final of it.

I moved up north to a small, cheap community. It lasted for me for 9 weeks, and I was able to save a little bit more. A few weeks ago I moved back to Brisbane – my side of Brisbane, into a retirement village in Bethania. Things seemed to be moving back up to what I see as “normality”, and I planned on getting this book, with the photos, printed very soon.

Well, something happened to drain my bank. My car broke down. I’d had that car for 5 years and I love it, so I couldn’t just park it aside. Driving it around had kept me in my world, where I’d lived. Except, of course, without 7 months when I’d been held off driving after my stroke. But now this lovely car would drain $1,000 out of my entire savings. I knew, now, that I couldn’t afford to get my book printed.

So a few days ago I looked again at Pozible. I set that up, I thought, pretty well. It has a video, a description of what it’s about, some quote pics from my Reibus about brain aneurysms, and the rewards that fundraisers are asked to list. The project was approved.

I advertised the project in BASA and other brain aneurysm support Facebook pages, Stroke Foundation, Reibus, a friend’s FB page in USA and my personal FB page, and I advertised it on Twitter. I asked Synapse and Brain Foundation if I could advertise it at their websites. I haven’t heard back from them, but I really hope that it’s early; there’s still time.

So far I’ve had three supporters, the first people who helped so early and made me feel so good! Every day I put a short paragraph on the FB pages and Twitter to advertise it. But this really worries me. Each foundation I approached has mountains of supporters on their Facebook pages. These members have similar ABIs to what I have. I knew, when I started the Pozible fundraiser, that only 48 people could donate $25 and make my funds happen. By including the foundations, FB supporter pages and somewhere like Twitter should net me well over 100,000 people who have seen the project. Forty-eight people would be only .00048% of that many people.

So this is directed at everyone who is a member of BASA, a member of Stroke Foundation, Synapse, Aphasia or Brain Foundation, who has their own Facebook page which could share this project advertisement, could ask their own workmates, their friends, their family. $25 per person from another 45 people will help me to get the funds to print this book. If you would like a copy, you would have paid for it!

Don’t worry about “spending” right now – money won’t even come out of your account until I’ve reached the goal, so you can breathe easy. I just want to say thank you for supporting me.

And thank you for helping me!