Cover Reveal!

Also: I'm in a video (yikes!); Stoop Time, the redux; and a moving memoir (not mine) you won't want to miss

The sincerest WELCOME to all my recent subscribers. If you’re new here, it may be because you agreed to be on my launch team, and if I haven’t said it enough, I’m beyond grateful for your support.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention the launch team and are interested in learning more, reply to this email and let’s chat.

News of the Day

The cat’s out of the bag: I revealed the cover for The Full Catastrophe!

I’d been befuddled by timing. Release it early and create “buzz” (whatever that is)? But what if it’s too early, and people forget all about me by the time the book comes out? Wait until preorders are up in a couple of months? But I needed to add the cover to my website for other technical reasons I won’t bore you with here, so then wouldn’t everyone see it anyway?

But then I learned digital Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) were going out late last week, and it became clear. All of the wonderful people who had joined my launch team were about to get my book in their inbox, with a photo of the cover right there on page one. Not only that, but many (most?) of us have e-readers that don’t render color, so folks would be seeing a version that couldn’t hold a candle to the real thing.

So reveal I did, on social media here, here, and here. And now, ICYMI, here it is in living color for all of you!

So many thanks to the designer, Peter Selgin. If you scroll through his site, you’ll find a 3D rendition of the cover and, separately, a sampling of other proposed covers next to the one we ultimately created.

Health Monitor, part deux. After their issue on high cholesterol (with me on the cover, yikes!) released just about a month ago, I knew publication of the edited version of my video interview wouldn’t be far behind.

I suspect many people love seeing themselves on video (TikTok anyone?). However, I am decidedly not one of them. Yet I’ll take one for the team here, because the content is so critical.

Instead of sharing the 90-second clip that went around social media, I’m going to post the slightly longer interview here, absolutely NOT because I love seeing myself for longer, but because the information is too important not to share.

Does any of this spark questions? Does extremely high cholesterol and/or early heart events run in your family? Runs in the family is NOT a diagnosis. Send me a message!

And remember how important it is to #knowyournumbers.

Looking Back to Look Ahead

Here’s a piece from the wayback machine, published in September 2021 at Next Avenue.

Though its events occur years after those in my book, “Stoop Time: When Living in the Moment Is Harder Than It Seems” speaks to the long-term effects of loss, even when the situation at hand is joyful.

Papa and Lexi enjoying an afternoon on the stoop.

A little bored now, Lexi hums her latest obsession, straight from "Frozen". Papa regales us both with his mock-baritone rendition of the ubiquitous "Let It Go," and she throws back her head and laughs till her buttons nearly burst. Then she launches into her own version, belting out bizarrely mature vocabulary while working toward the emotional climax as only a preschooler in a lacy pink dress-up gown can.

Lexi reminds us all to “Let it Go.”

If your mind sometimes takes you places you’d prefer not to go, even in the midst of a happy event, or maybe causes you to imagine a (hopefully far-off) future without you in the picture, this essay may resonate. If it does, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Inspiration Everywhere

It’s been more than a year since Karen DeBonis’s memoir, Growth: A Mother, Her Son, and the Brain Tumor They Survived hit the shelves (and it’s on sale now, at a price you can’t pass up!).

Here it is, the cover so beautiful in its simplicity:

And here’s a summary:

Karen is a happily married, slightly frazzled mother of two when her eight-year-old son, Matthew, develops a strange eye-rolling tic. Matthew’s tics quickly multiply. He becomes clumsy and lethargic, a gifted program dropout. Karen tries to get her husband and their pediatrician to acknowledge what’s happening, but they dismiss her concerns. As a people-pleaser, Karen lacks the skills to assert herself and stifles the growing dread in her heart.

For three years, Matthew steadily deteriorates while Karen questions if she has the fortitude required of motherhood. Finally, desperation breaks through her fear of conflict, and she demands answers, only to be horrified by the truth. Matthew has a brain tumor.

A delicate surgery and promise of complete recovery convince Karen her battle is over. But she is wrong. The ensuing years launch her on a journey of perseverance and personal growth she never imagined, teaching Karen just how weak she is--and then exactly how strong.

Full disclosure: Karen and I have been writing partners since early 2020, have learned so much together, and have ridden this roller coaster from manuscript draft to publication (well for me, almost!). Because of this, we know each other’s stories intimately.

Trust me when I say that you’ll learn far more from reading her story than information about brain tumors and child development, though that’s certainly there. Themes of people-pleasing, the shattered expectations of motherhood, and finding one’s voice are woven throughout in a way that makes you care deeply about the characters and root for their survival, which means something different for each of them.

Here’s the review I posted to Goodreads, then Amazon:

In Growth: A Mother, Her Son, and the Brain Tumor They Survived, Karen DeBonis takes us along on a journey both surprising and relatable. Many will recognize her desire to raise a family with the husband she loves, the unexpected challenges motherhood brings, and the stress that results when life doesn’t go as planned. She takes us along on a journey all her own, however, when her eldest son begins exhibiting strange behaviors—tics and decreased coordination among them—and she is launched into a years-long battle to unearth their cause. Along the way, DeBonis gradually faces her own lifelong people-pleasing qualities and other ways she’s learned to cope, which she comes to understand have never served her.

Ultimately, Growth is a story of perseverance and love, one that will give so many of us hope that we, too, can overcome life’s most daunting challenges. Highly recommend you pick this one up.

And I still do—highly recommend you pick this one up, that is!

Book News!

The clock keeps ticking! In exactly seven months—February 18, 2025—my memoir, The Full Catastrophe: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared, will be released from Motina Books. I’m so happy you’re with me on the journey to publication and look forward to engaging with you, my readers, in the coming months.

IF YOU’RE ON THE LAUNCH TEAM: Digital ARCs went out this past week. If you didn’t find one in your inbox (sent from BookFunnel), please let me know right away, and we’ll be sure to clear that up. Check your junk folder first! I’ve had reports of launch team emails ending up there, so this may have happened here as well.

That’s all for this time. Thank you so much, each of you, for reading this far, for sharing, and for joining this growing community of folks who believe in the importance of educating and supporting and sometimes holding each other up through all life throws our way.

As the sticker on my car’s rear window proclaims, “You Matter.”

• If you’d like to join my launch team (or if you’re a member but didn’t receive the digital ARC), please reach out.

• If your LDL-C cholesterol is over 190, doesn’t change with lifestyle modifications, and you have a family history of early heart events, you could have FH. And ask your physician to test your Lp(a) (say it: “L-P-little a”), since it’s elevated in 1 in 5 individuals yet is hardly ever checked. Feel free to get in touch—I’m happy to chat with you and point you in the right direction to get the information you need.

• Check out Karen DeBonis’s beautiful memoir, Growth. It’s on sale now, and well worth the read.

Till next time,

Casey