When I was younger, I used to do a lot of writing and develop grand schemes for books.

Two of my biggest concepts:
1) A man wakes up in the middle of a nightmare, and after a long, bloody battle, he's successful in killing his demons. He wakes up only to find that it wasn't a nightmare - he had actually gone crazy and killed his family;
2) Two men decide to boldly sacrifice their lives in the name of peace. The concept was developed during the Reagan era, so one of the men was American and the other was Russian. The double suicide was to be something incredibly beautiful and touching, and the result of their suicide would plunge the world into peace.

So I have this creative ADD mind that sometimes explodes with creativity. But usually, an idea needs to brew and percolate before it sees the light of day.

"Cancerboy" started that way. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I somehow knew that I had to write about the experience. So as I wrote my Cancerboy updates and journal entries, I just threw them out there, not really knowing how or when all of the pieces would fall into place.

As I learned stuff - about cancer, the process and myself - I thought about how other people needed to know this. Keep in mind that prior to being diagnosed, I was a cancerphobe. And as the chemicals coursed through my veins and brain, my attitudes started changing.

It was only after I threw everything together into some sort of story, that I began to clearly define the concept and purpose of the book. That forced me to switch a lot of stuff around and do some serious editing.

The work was tough, but I am very pleased with the end result. In fact, it turned out better than I could imagine!

I talk about this mainly because Nanky - a Botswanan woman who touched my heart in Montana - e-mailed me yesterday to tell me that she has finally written the book she's been planning for years... and I'm SOOO proud of her!

We all have a story within us... it's just a matter of allowing it to get out.