by James, Ella
In many cases, no one has even bothered to calibrate child-friendly dosages of radiation and chemotherapy, so children receive adult dosages by default, often with devastating consequences.
Lilianna, the girl with leukemia who was at the children’s hospital when we were there so frequently, received a bone marrow donation from a woman in another country through an organization called Be The Match. (www.bethematch.org). I remember her mother’s Facebook post explaining how incredible this was—that in all the world (at least as far as the bone marrow donors’ registry knows), this woman was the only possible match for Lilianna. Quite literally her only hope.
The quote at the beginning of part three (“Unless you love someone, nothing else makes any sense.” –e.e. cummings) is personal to me because it reflects the only conclusion I was able to reach with any peace.
When I learned about Be The Match from Lilianna’s family, how easy it is to sign up for the registry (they mail you a q-tip, you swab your cheek and mail it back), and how unlikely it is that you will even be called to donate blood (only 1/500 get a call) before the cutoff donor age of 44, I started pushing my friends and family to sign up, too. This book is really just an extension of that effort.
I took some liberties in the hospital scenes—mostly to give Cleo and Kellan more…ahem, access to one another—and oversimplified other parts of Kellan’s transplant to move the story along faster. But many of the details are correct, and I think it’s safe to say that Kellan’s experience is realistic.
(In a stroke of irony, I received an email from Be The Match a few months after I started working on Sloth, telling the story of identical twins who both needed transplants at the same time).
One of my main goals for Sloth was to be able to give a portion of my income from its sales to Be The Match, which offers the money to families of transplant patients who have financial needs. I can’t announce this contest on my social media without revealing Kellan’s secret, but…I’m giving away signed Sloth paperbacks to the first 20 people who sign up for the worldwide bone marrow donation registry via Be The Match, and the first 5 who donate $25 or more.
If you decide to do this, e-mail me at [email protected] with proof, and I’ll try to get a paperback out to you in the next few weeks.
Bone marrow transplants are often the last ditch option for children (and adults) with chemo-resistant leukemia. The idea is to use unusually harsh doses of drugs and radiation to kill the cancer cells (and, unfortunately, lots of healthy cells as well), completely demolishing the patient’s immune system, to the extent that the patient will be unable to recover without the transplant, in which a donor’s bone marrow (blood cells, etc.) “fills in the holes” and essentially re-maps the immune system. When successful, the donor’s immune system is “engrafted” in the recipient’s body, begins making healthy blood cells (on the basis of the healthy person’s DNA), and saves the life of the recipient.
A large number of donors who do get a call from Be The Match are only asked to donate PBSCs (so, basically, donate blood). A smaller number are asked to donate bone marrow (like Cleo did), but the procedure is so minor many are back to work within a few days.
And…I think that’s all I have to say about that. ;) You should probably get a prize for reading to the end of my little sermon.
I wrote Sloth during a tumultuous seven months—a long incubation time for an indie author. It was supposed to take no more than two or three months, and was formatted as a series of serials.
Sloth threw me lots of curve balls—in large part because of its inspiration (my son’s issues) but also because of my personal experience with someone I loved who had leukemia, a more direct basis for this book. I missed Sloth’s original late February release date, struggled my way through a serious depressive episode, and spent more than a month truly (and more than a little frantically) wondering if I could ever finish the book, and if I couldn’t…what would I tell people? Writers write, right? What was wrong with me?
During this difficult time, I was supported by many friends. Without these people talking me off a ledge (sometimes tethering me to the cliffs or loaning hang-gliders, mostly at the worst possible times and oddest hours), I truly don’t know where I would be. I talked to a number of readers online during the six or so weeks I was shying away from social media, and occasionally confided small details of my situation, which at the time felt shameful and humiliating. No one—no one—was ever anything but kind. If you were one of them, THANK YOU.
To Jamie, Rebecca, Kiezha, Leah, Sharon, Kim, Arethea, Ashley, and definitely at least one or two other people who won’t be surprised to hear they slipped my mind: THANK YOU. I’m grateful to you for more than I could list here—and you each know why.
To the amazing women of Ella’s Elite: Thank you for hanging in there with me. Your encouragement and enthusiasm means so much to me.
To my author friends, who offered kind advice (Roxy Sloane, M. Pierce) and technical assistance (Alexia Purdy), blurb assistance (Roxy), web assistance (everyone), ARCs (K. Larsen, CD Reiss)…thank you. I appreciate each of you so much.
Thank you to the incredible bloggers who have supported Sloth, and me. So many of you sign up for every blitz and tour—and I know your names. It means so much to me. Thank you. Thanks especially to Rockstars of Romance, The Literary Gossip, and Give Me Books, for helping with Sloth promotion.
To Jessica and Beth, for dealing with Sloth in all its various incarnations, and waiting patiently for me at times and rushing at other times—thank you.
Milasy and Lisa, Rachel, thank you for being kind in February.
And to my family, for making many sacrifices in the name of Sloth. I love you.
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Ella’s Bookshelf
On My Knees Duet
Worship
Adore
Communion
Sinful Secrets Romance
Sloth
Murder
Covet
Wrath
Manhattan Monsters
Twin Flame
Dark Heart
Twisted Fate
Off-Limits Romance
Crown Jewels
The Boy Next Door
Fractured Love
The Plan
The Love Inc. Series
Vegas Royals
Selling Scarlett
Taming Cross
Unmaking Marchant
Something Blue
* * *
YA Novels
Stained Series
Stained
Stolen
Chosen
Exalted