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“Sellman’s intelligence and experience as a prose writer comes through
in this hybrid manuscript: poems that bristle with scientific accuracy,
prose pieces that border on dreamy intensity and longing.”

—Jeannine Hall Gailey, author, Field Guide to the End of the World

INTENTION TREMOR: A Hybrid Collection

Tamara Kaye Sellman

INTENTION TREMOR collects prose and poetry that chronicle my life in the five years that followed my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). I wrote the majority of these pieces next to a campfire or inside a travel trailer at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, WA. [Read my soft launch post here.]

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Publisher: MoonPath Press [MoonPathPress@gmail.com] || ISBN: 978-1-936657-57-5 || Perfect bound, 78 pages, release date Jan 2021 ||
MoonPath Press is an imprint of Concrete Wolf, PO Box 445, Tillamook, OR 97141. All MoonPath Press titles are available from the Ingram catalog at 55% retailer discount and are fully returnable.

What is an intention tremor  ?

As defined by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: “Intention tremor is produced with purposeful movement toward a target, such as lifting a finger to touch the nose. Typically the tremor will become worse as an individual gets closer to their target.”

from INTENTION TREMOR—

COALS

in a circle, glowing red pomegranate seeds,
a random blue flame licking its way through the cracks
of light and dark, tasting the wind for direction.
I poked at the flares, my mind black as the night sky,
I stirred the embers so they could not grow silver
skins. I could not know they were a puzzle to be
solved. Flares and embers in white and black film taken
every six months, with and without contrast dye.
This night, the moon hovers super behind a veil
of preternatural mist, brighter and closer to
the answer than any fire I could ever build.

—dedicated to the Fall 2015 YAWP contingent

100 percent of my proceeds from the sale of this book (buying options below) will be donated to the Accelerated Cure Project (ACP)

The ACP’s mission: To improve health, healthcare, and quality of life for people affected by multiple sclerosis (MS) by connecting those with MS, care partners, clinicians, and researchers, and to work together to accelerate innovation, research, and the application of new knowledge.

Read my interview with the ACP here.

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More reviews…

NEW! From MultipleSclerosis.net (3/17/2021): “Hers is the first disease memoir I have read that uses metaphor and imagery so extensively and effectively to mine deeper truths about living with MS …these verses describe what it feels like in ways I have never read in a medical text.”

NEW! From BookReporter (3/13/2021): “The lyrical and often humorous pieces in INTENTION TREMOR illustrate the challenges, joys and sorrows of life with an MS diagnosis, allowing the reader to open her heart to another human’s journey.”

“Lyrical and inventive, this book is a sum of all those parts that make the human spirit hard as nails as well as achingly vulnerable. Intention Tremor invites readers into multiple worlds—be it a diner, a doctor’s office, or the uncomfortable confines of an airplane aisle—each recreated with vivid imagery and authenticity. Sellman writes about illness and healing with a poet’s gaze, a dancer’s agility, and a scientist’s rigor. The world needs this book.” —Sayantani Dasgupta, author, Fire Girl: Essays on India, America & the In-Between

“Intention Tremor approaches the MS odyssey with wit, grace, and an inquiring mind that is refreshingly quirky at times.” —Jennifer Culkin, author, A Final Arc of Sky

“Intention Tremor is ultimately a book about compassion. Sellman shows us the unseen: the interior experience of living with a stealth disease. I’m grateful for this book for expanded my understanding of a condition I thought I understood.” —Michele Bombardier, author, What We Do