Happy Fourth Birthday, Intention Tremor!

Intention Tremor is my first book, a hybrid collection of poetry and prose published by the long-time PNW house, MoonPath Press.

It collects writings that helped me to process a new diagnosis, of multiple sclerosis, in 2013, through chronicles of my experience over the five years that followed and the profound changes that experience brought to my life.

I wrote much, if not most, of that book in my travel trailer or on campus at Fort Worden State Park and it captures the diverse nature of my writing life. I am a (retired) journalist and columnist, education writer, poet, storyteller, essayist and it shows in this book.

I still hope to make poetry films of some of the pieces inside this book in the near future. “Look Up” is not a poem that made it into the book (I wrote it after the book came out) but it represents the purpose of Intention Tremor: to capture the journey from Old Normal to New Normal following news of a chronic illness diagnosis.

Intention Tremor, and the lived passage itself, is a deeply personal voyage, to be sure, shaped not only by inner challenges (physical, emotional, neurological, psychological) but also by the suddenly raised awareness of obstacles, systemic and social, from the external world that one simply cannot see until they walk this plane of reality.

If you have a loved one undergoing the paradigm shift that uniquely follows a chronic illness diagnosis, and you think they would benefit from reading another’s lived experiences, please consider gifting them a copy. I have received many notes of thanks from readers who found my book and it changed how they viewed their ability to move forward. I write honestly but also from a place of humor and hope, and it would be lovely to extend that hope to others who might need it.

100 percent of my proceeds benefit the Accelerated Cure Project.

Much love and many thanks to editor and publisher Lana Hechtman Ayers for bringing my baby out into the world.