So, it’s been a while, but I started this project back in 2024 when I was active at MakeICT. Some of my book was written in one of the classrooms and the lounge. It’s about a ten year period of my life since my first heart attack in 2015, where I navigate bare bones survival, repeat medical crisis, and the death of almost every long-held dream I had for my life. Given one narrow window of opportunity to hold on to my one true dream, I risk everything to embark on a quest to heal my permanently broken heart. Also it’s really mostly about this cool dog I found along the way.
I’m currently the #62 book in survival biographies, right behind “Black Butterfly Rising: A Trans Woman’s Story” and “Alive” a New York Times bestseller. My small bulk order for myself probably helped put me a little higher in the field than usual
One of the ways MakeICT helped me make this, other than having chairs and power outlets for my laptop, was through the laser cutter certification class that introduced me to the basic concepts in the use of Inkscape. It was way cheaper for me to do my own graphics design and far better for printing than submitting a bitmap and just hoping it would print cleanly on whatever process Amazon used.
Oh and ignore the “not for resale” band printed on the cover - this is just the artist’s proof copy. I only have this copy because I made a couple dozen changes since the proof and publishing, otherwise someone would have already stolen it.
By the way, if there is any interest, I would be more than happy to hold a social hour for cardiac patients to discuss recipes, workouts, facilities, and treatments. Or even just normal support group stuff. Let me know if you’re interested.
Im interested in the book, in a chat, and wherever else this goes. Very.
I write, but fruitlessly and never yet properly as a project.
The last thing I did was take a pamphlet making class with (—-) [Ladymondegreen MakeICT handle] in the multimedia room. 2 yrs ago …ish. I still have my hand drawn pamphlet and scattered chapters on multiple devices.
Its sorta The story of our family [raising 6 kids, 1b 5g] but centered on “fun we had together” and written to be funny/entertaining run of successes, failures, and how we dealt with tedium of daily life.
Although my books inception precedes my 2016 coming out, i do weave some of my whacky attempts at burying and repressing authenticity, coz thats how i lived. And its sort of an apology to my family and friends for the consequences of feeling like i needed to hide, when everyone may have known [or not cared] that i was wearing the costume i was expected to wear. Sometimes well. Sometimes awfully.
My book has a title, Wild Bridges and the names inception is a short chapter of its own.
My book wont be like yours. But im interested in your process. Howdjoo write without getting.. buried in the emotion? Then recover? Maybe self triggering dint haunt you as much, …if so nevermind.
I’ll reach out to @rustin.atkeisson to get on the schedule for a meetup. The book is on sale paperback and for kindle on Amazon (link the blog post linked), but I’ll bring some copies of the paperback if people want to pick it up, and probably a chapter about the dog for people to get a feel for my writing style.
I’m also happy to talk about the self-publishing and authoring process for the writers out there.
Hey guys, next week - Thursday, April 9, 2026 at 6 pm, I’ll be presenting my novel, Hamburger Heart at MakeICT. The plan is to do a little 10 minute intro with photos to introduce what the book is all about, then I’ll be happy to have a discussion about the subject material: life with a cardiac condition, traveling across the US, the ketogenic diet, etc. I’m also more than happy to discuss self-authoring, self-publishing, and etc.
I’ll be donating a copy to MakeICT to put on display with some of the other things people have made. I’ll also have a handful of copies to sell for $10 (inclusive of sales tax, I’ll figure that part out myself), but if you’d like, they’re available on Amazon for $9.99 (before tax). I will probably bring a couple of printed out samples to read too.
Anyways, I’ll also figure out some light refreshments
I think I used the forum wrong and I thought I replied days ago… My book is on sale on Amazon, both paperback and for Kindle. The Amazon link is in the blog post linked at the top of this thread.
I hope that Wichita Public Library will carry a copy soon so we’ll see! Come by next Thursday evening to check out a sample or catch my presentation about the book.
Hello again, just a reminder that I’ll be holding a maker presentation and discussion tomorrow, Thursday, April 9th at 6 PM. We’ll be in room 4. Push the doorbell if you can’t get in. I’ll do a presentation about the book, my story, and the process of self-authoring and publishing. Very light refreshments. Stop on by any time between 6 and 8.
I’ll be discussing the authoring process Thursday night at the maker space if you want to chat about it with some more depth, but the simple truth is that whatever you write has to compete with serotonin inducing TikTok videos, and that means that if you want someone to read it, it’s got to have that emotional connection. My point in writing and sharing this story I had was to get buried in the emotions as deep as I could, grab the heart of it, and strangle it out on to paper. I did my best to make the readers fall in love with the characters and feel everything I dragged out of the mess.
Why someone might do such a thing, what their motivation is, I think is highly individual. It’s haunting and horrible, but the good news is that you’ve already been through it and you get to discover everything you just ignored for years along the way. (yey)
perfect.