Hello! Thank you so much for
hosting me on your blog today!
It's my pleasure!
Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book? When did it come out? Where can we get it?
Sure, Marie. Sammy: Hero At Age Five by M. Schmidt and Gene D. Donley, tells of
my son’s story of his fight with cancer but this time from Sammy's point of
view – a five-year-old’s point of view. This is a book that breathes. It is a
gallant saga of Sammy and his mother in battling cancer with incogitable
courage and resolute determination. The story is a compelling, first-person
narrative of the journey that Sammy and his mother undertook when cancer
plagues Sammy. The story has Sammy, a child barely out of the toddler-stage,
as the protagonist who gets affected with cancer but does not let it shred his
substance, his spirit, his ebullience. The story is a slice of real life and it
shines in its own glory of candor and courage. The story, with its impeccable
sincerity, sets in the cascade of emotional pathways and the empathy is
momentous and super-instant. Sammy suffers and the agony hits you hard in the
face; you find Sammy vulnerable amidst a sea of medical professionals and
paroxysms of protective instinct jolt you and overpower you; you find a febrile
bout tormenting Sammy’s well-being, lassitude automatically grips you hard.
The
child-like glee thickly layers the narrations of the mischief that Sammy and
Gene (the brothers) indulged in. Their bond is profound and all scattered in
the subtext, ‘two peas in a pod’ as the author sums up. The craze of putting
their favorite red backpacks in the morning even before getting dressed, the
chutzpah of pulling radishes out of the ground and eating them in the field, the
legend of cookie-monster and the monster residing in the sand-pit, the joy of
riding lawn mowers and fishing and riding big Red Wheels, the picnics on sunny
days with an unending supply of chicken nuggets and honey, the charm of creating
a ruckus behind mother’s back, the thrill of fast-climbing steps of the slide with
no one around, the guilt of adventures that took a wrong turn. The substance of
the book is knitted with life-sized narration of events that induces a
high-definition visual imagery, running on loop, giving a highway ride to the
sensory nervous system. This book just came out and it is found on Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, and everywhere so if you walk into, say, Walmart, and they
don’t have it on their shelf; ask if they can order it for you.
The Amazon link is here: http://tinyurl.com/yxme5ne3
Okay.
Is there anything which prompted this book? Something that inspired you?
Is there anything which prompted this book? Something that inspired you?
Definitely! This book is like my
first book, When Angels Fly by S.
Jackson and A. Raymond, but it has a different feel to it as it details the
same story, albeit from a different viewpoint. The story feels completely
different, though. Where When Angels Fly
is full of determination, hurt, anguish, love of family and an unerring belief,
Sammy: Hero At Age Five is positive,
full of hope of a better life (afterlife), a strong belief in heaven and of
things getting better for little Sammy. It is awe-inspiring to read how his
faith and braveness grew as he met Jesus and his older brother, Shane, a
brother he never met in life. For Sammy:
Hero at Age Five, it was time to tell the world how a little boy thinks and
feels when in this real-life situation.
Wow. I always find it interesting to see where the muse takes us as writers.
Let me ask a different question.
When did you know you wanted to write? Or has it always been a pastime of yours?
Let me ask a different question.
When did you know you wanted to write? Or has it always been a pastime of yours?
As a child, I wrote little stories
to go with my paper dolls and Barbie dolls, and I read all the time. Due to my
health, I hung up my registered nurse hat in January of 2013, and I found
myself with time on my hands. Now, I’ve written two memoirs, and numerous illustrated
children’s books, one art book and one cookbook. I’ve published 18 books and
I’ve been included in three anthologies.
My youngest son, Sam, had a cancer
battle and passed at age five in 1990. Since I had journal notes that detailed
this part of my life, and my boy’s lives, I decided to put my journals into
electronic form for my living son, Gene. A multi award-winning memoir came from
that, When Angels Fly, written using pen names of S. Jackson & A. Raymond,
and changing of all names and places. That was a huge project and is an epic
length book, on sale right now for $0.99. Then I thought ‘now what to do next’ and illustrated children’s books came to
mind. From that another multi
award-winning book, The Big Cheese Festival, a book about bullies was written
and a book dealing with good touch/bad touch, Suzy Has A Secret, was written.
From that point, we went to books involving squirrels and a small dog. We have
wild squirrels come into our backyard, and my husband started to leave them
walnuts and bell seeds. One squirrel, Stubby – aptly named as he had just a
stub of a tail and he became brave when the nuts were all taken. Stubby took to
standing up on his hind legs on a ledge outside a picture window. He let us
know he wanted more nuts! The squirrels are still wild, as we would never dream
of taming one, but they did become fodder for an illustrated children’s book
series, Shadow and Friends, and each book is fine as a standalone. Shadow was
chosen as our daughter has a small dog, so we decided that dog and the squirrels
would have many adventures.
Do you have any favorite authors yourself, Mary?
Oh yes! I grew up on Laura Ingalls
Wilder and Carolyn Keene books. I truly loved and still love those books! I
have all of them in digital format now. Do we ever grow up or out of the books
we loved as children?
Nice!
So, do you write in a specific place? Time of day?
Usually, I am busy with promotions
and author everything in the morning, after which I start my writing. I write,
read and edit during this time and when my husband wakes up, we go through and
think about what we want to include in our next children’s books. We are in Denver
a lot of the time, so road trips include loose outlines for each of those
books. We brainstorm together, yet I do the actual writing and illustrating. I
write at home 99 percent of the time.
Great!
Are there any words you'd like to impart to fellow writers? Any advice?
Yes, I do have advice. Hire the best
editor you can afford. Family and friends are nice, but they don’t fix/help
your book. English teacher friends are nice, but they can’t do right by your
book. It is good to have those people give you insights on your book, but you
still need to hire the best editor you can afford. Ask for recommendations and
get a sample from those you wish to choose from.
Such a helpful tip!
Thank you so much for stopping by to visit us here today at Writing in the Modern Age. It was wonderful having you! :)
Readers, here is the blurb for Sammy: Hero at Age Five.
“Kids can get hungry sometimes while
on chemo,” says five-year-old Sammy, having a good day despite the malignant
tumor invading his brain. Based on true events from the 1980s, Sammy’s story is
imagined by his mother and brother as if the young boy might tell it himself.
The result is gripping. Told in two parts, Sammy’s account first invites us
into the everyday middle-American lives of a mom and her two boys. Sammy is a
sweet, good-hearted kid, even as he faces the most difficult challenges in Part
2: “Cancer Arrived.” Here Sammy talks us through hospital trips and procedures,
the hardest parts as well as moments of simple joy. It is not always possible
to survive such a grim diagnosis, so Sammy and his family must embrace the
smaller victories from one day to the next. Finally, our young hero is given
one last opportunity to find his own unique path toward triumph. Listen closely
as Sammy tells us all what matters most.
Purchase Links:
Universal Reader Link: https://books2read.com/u/mZNAJe
Publisher: https://freshinkgroup.com/fig-book/sammy-hero-at-age-five/
Here is an excerpt from the book.
Mom told me that
I was born the day before Easter in 1985. I don’t remember myself as a baby or
toddler, but in pictures I have seen, I smiled a lot. Mom also told me that I
had an older brother named Shane, and that he died while still inside her
tummy. I never understood how this could happen, and if I asked Mom, she would
start crying. As I grew up, and
got a few months to my age, I
realized that I had a big brother
- Gene!
One Christmas Mom bought both of
us red Big Wheels, and she put them together by herself, one at a time after we
had gone to bed. Then she hid them in the laundry room until Christmas day.
I always looked up to my big
brother. He was a year older, and he knew a lot more than I did. We would play
chase or ride our red Big Wheels, and we could fight just as easy as we could
play. Mom said we were “two peas in a pod,” but I never understood what that
meant. Mom took us to the park in town often, and she would pull us in a red
wagon all the way there and back.
We had crawdads. They had pincers
and it was fun for Brother and me to figure out how to pick them up. Back then,
we fished a lot in the Smoky Hill River, trying to catch catfish and white bass
each spring.
Summers were hot and humid in
Kansas, and some days it was hard to breathe. Mom told me I had
exercise-induced asthma, and I never really understood what that meant as, I
was just a little boy.
Gene and I were out in the east
garage one summer day, and we found a huge bull snake! We went there to ride
our Big Wheels around inside and in and out of the garage like we had done in
the past. I was three and a half years old at the time. Mom was cooking dinner,
and Gene went and told on me! He told her that I had cornered a snake in the
garage. Mom ran out and found me riding closer and closer to a coiled, and
ready to strike, king-sized bull snake. Our neighbor Slim heard the
ruckus going on and he came over.
Once he saw the snake, he took a shovel and killed it. Slim knew that the snake
could hurt us, and he knew that Brother or I might have an allergy to it. Slim was
a smart man and all of us loved him.
I have lots of memories of Slim.
For one, Mom always gave Brother and me a bath together as we were only ages
three and four. She never trusted us in the bath by ourselves, and she gave us
our baths right before bedtime. She washed our hair and rinsed it with fresh
water. When it came time to get out of the bathtub, we were adamant that we
would not get out and, as usual, Mom would grab one of us boys and help us dry
off. Mom took turns each evening as who she would pluck out of the bathtub!
Once dried off, both my brother and I would take
off, and run stark naked through
the kitchen and dining rooms, and into the living room. We would run naked
around the sofa our father was always sitting on and the stuffed chair that
Slim would be sitting in. It was only a matter of time until Mom caught us and
made us put on our pajamas.
Slim was in our home three or
four evenings a week, sometimes he ate dinner with us, and other times he only
had dessert, usually homemade cherry, peach, or apple pie. He was like a
grandpa to us boys, and we loved him. He didn’t date, drink alcohol, or go out,
as he preferred to be at our house or his families’ homes in town.
Slim grew a huge garden and gave
us a lot of corn, onions, watermelons, cantaloupes, and else he grew. He always
gave us a lot of fresh produce, and he also gave away fresh produce to other
family and friends in our town of about 700 people. He loved to grow his garden
each year. Mom planted a garden too, but it was tiny. We always had a lot of
fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. Sometimes Gene would sneak into the little garden
and find a radish. After yanking it out of the ground, he wiped it off and ate
it! He did this with those small skinny onions, too. I never told Mom, but I think
she knew anyway, as she always seemed to have eyes in the back of her head.
So, what are people saying about this book?
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“” - Brenchris, Amazon
"" - Gwendolyn Plano, Amazon
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“” - Fred Fanning, Amazon
"" - Jane, Amazon
Inspiring...add this title to your Goodreads bookshelf, readers!
It sounds like a great read! We'll be sure to check out this Christian family life/juvenile non-fiction book!
Get it now!
Author Bio
Mary L. Schmidt aka S. Jackson is a
retired registered nurse; a member of the Catholic Church, and has taught
kindergarten Catechism; she has worked in various capacities for The American
Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Cub and Boy Scouts, (son, Gene, is an Eagle
Scout), and sponsored trips for high school music children. She loves all forms
of art but mostly focuses on the visual arts; amateur photography, traditional,
and graphic art as her health allows. She loves to spend time with her husband,
Michael, and they like reading, playing poker, Jeeping, and travel adventures.
They both love spending time with their grandson, Austin, and soon to be born
granddaughter, Emma.
Mary L. Schmidt aka S. Jackson is a
retired registered nurse; a member of the Catholic Church, and has taught
kindergarten Catechism; she has worked in various capacities for The American
Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Cub and Boy Scouts, (son, Gene, is an Eagle
Scout), and sponsored trips for high school music children. She loves all forms
of art but mostly focuses on the visual arts; amateur photography, traditional,
and graphic art as her health allows. She loves to spend time with her husband,
Michael, and they like reading, playing poker, Jeeping, and travel adventures.
They both love spending time with their grandson, Austin, and soon to be born
granddaughter, Emma.
Author Links:
Newsletter Sign-Up: https://bit.ly/2LgS2CN
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MMSchmidtAuthorGDDonley
Newsletter Sign-Up: https://bit.ly/2LgS2CN
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryLSchmidt
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/M.-Schmidt/e/B07QFG6ZB7/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/M.-Schmidt/e/B07QFG6ZB7/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/marylschmidt/
Mary's Books:
Written as M. Schmidt:
Written as S. Jackson:
Written as A. Raymond:
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