The next time you are in a crowded place, whether it is your place of work, the mall, or your friend’s BBQ, try the following thought exercise. Turn to your left and take a look at the person directly next to you. Then look at the person directly to your right. Then think of this: during your lifetimes, one of the three of you will suffer from cancer. That’s not some crazy “what if?” idea. It’s a statistical fact. Actually, it’s worse for men. For guys the ratio is closer to one in two.
My family, like so many others, has felt the touch of this deadly disease. My grandmother beat both breast and lung cancer during her lifetime. I lost an aunt to cancer of the lung. My dad was treated for basal cell carcinoma, while college buddy of mine beat melanoma several years back. And I know that as I push further into middle-age and beyond, cancer is going to a far too frequent visitor.
It’s the silent assassin with 100 names. Leukemia. Lymphoma. Hodkin Disease. Breast. Testicular. Prostate. Cervical. The list goes on and on.
Billions of dollars are spent on cancer research each year, yet there is still so much we don’t know about it. Everything about it scares the crap out of me. But I also believe that we have the means to beat it.
This brings me to Metastasis. As soon as I learned about it, I knew I had to try to be a part of it. Metastasis is a speculative fiction anthology being published by Wolfsinger Publications. Edited by Rhonda Parrish, all the stories will deal with cancer in some fashion. More than that, at least 50% of the proceeds from book sales will be donated to the American Cancer Society. 25% straight off the top, 25% from the editor, and each contributor will be given the option of donating a portion of their royalties.
And I am very proud to announce that I am going to be one of the writer’s included in the collection. My story, “Next Placement”, was one of 26 tales to be selected for the book. “Next Placement” is a full-fledged science fiction story. I don’t want to say anything more about it right now, but I feel I really pushed myself with this one, going well outside my comfort zone. While working on it I suffered nights of insomnia and headaches. I had to get it right. And now I couldn’t be happier to be part of this amazing project.