Hi everyone I’m Bronwyn
Heeley, and am over the moon that Wade let me on her blog. Seriously, fan
girling all over the place here. So thank you so much.
*Wade grins in the background, and thinks, "Thank you. You are very sweet." (Note: I have never met Bronwyn, but in the spirit of trying to keep Friend Fridays alive, she has stopped by!)
With this moment I’m going
to tell you about my latest release, it’s called Love Without Knowing It and is about prostate cancer, though don’t
let that have you shying away, I’ve written it in a way that is more about
awareness. I made it light, with a happily ever after. I didn’t want to take a
disease that kills more men in our lives than it should in this day and age,
and just have you pause and think of a moment.
The thing is, if caught
early it can be treated, and you can live though to have a perfectly normal
life. Yeah things may be slightly different, but what isn’t when you run up
against cancer, it’s about changing and moving forward.
Yet, I completely understand
the fear of what might happen if it’s true. The testing for prostate cancer is
still years behind, and even though you can get a blood test now to see if it’s
there or not (and I’m not joking, it’s just a little blood) the rest can get
harder and more painful the longer you leave it off.
For this reason and to help
the only way that I could, I have written this book, and thought the month of
November I will be giving all profits to the Movember charity. A charity that
not only puts money into early detection and easier ways to cure, but also
reaches out over the whole list of male health, including mental, with support
groups, and other such events, all in the name of helping men realise they are
allowed to get sick, and that’s okay.
If you wish to learn more
about the Movember charity here are the links
Canada: http://ca.movember.com/
Now onto some good stuff
with an excerpt, and I’d just like to remind you all, that this is a sweet, HEA
short story.
Excerpt:
Early the next morning Paul met Matt out
the front of his apartment block. He’d been lucky to get there early or he
would have missed Matt completely.
They walked to the doctor’s in a weird sort
of silence, emotion dancing around them; no need for words, or gratitude, or
small talk. Shifting his eyes to Matt, they shared a look and a bump or two of
their shoulders as they went towards the scariest building Paul had ever seen.
The thing was, he wished more than anything
they were not here at all. He wished they were still both home curled up in bed
together, in their morning glory.
The waiting room was like every other one
Paul had ever sat in. He tried to appear perfectly calm as he sat next to Matt,
waiting. Waiting. Fucking waiting for a name, one name in particular, but when
Matt’s name was called out, he suddenly wanted to grab him up and run like
crazy. His heart didn’t want to be doing this, all he wanted was for Matt and
him to run so fast none of this could catch up with them.
The waiting fear was so consuming he had
trouble sitting still. His legs kept shifting nervously. He couldn’t stop
looking at all the other sick people in the room. Why were they here? What
would it be like if he was in Matt's shoes? Would he be as calm, or would he have
started to rant and rave? Hell, knowing himself, Paul would have been on his
deathbed before he came to any doctor.
There was definitely no beauty pageant
happening in this doctor’s surgery. Why were these people here, what was wrong
with them? They didn’t look like they had been run over by a truck or anything,
so what was wrong with them? Were any of them dying of cancer and you just
couldn’t see it?
Leaning back in his chair, Paul pushed the
thought away while fear of the unknown settled to the bottom of his stomach.
He tried to pick something to read, finally
settling on an old magazine that had seen better days. Realistically, it
probably held more germs than if he’d decided to lick a handrail. He couldn’t
concentrate worth shit. What was wrong with the minute hand on the clock? It
ticked by, slowly—so fucking slowly.
Then suddenly time was up. Matt walked out.
Paul didn’t need to ask Matt how it went
with the doctor. He could see it in his face as soon as he walked out from the
back of the surgery and up to the counter to pay. Something was definitely
wrong. All Paul could see was his pale-as-shit face. Everything inside him
froze. He took a deep calming breath, stood up, and unknowingly became Matt’s
rock.
Paul took his time crossing the room as
Matt finished paying and making another appointment. It seemed as if Matt was
holding on by the skin of his teeth, and the last thing he needed was Paul
going up to him, standing there, commenting on something he was clearly trying
to hide.
They met at the door. Paul arrived first,
silently opening it for him. Matt smiled, not saying anything, just fiddling
with the papers in his hands, so many unspoken emotions running across his
shocked face.
The door clicked shut. Paul blinked in
surprise at the sounds of the world speeding by, as if everything was still
normal, still working. “So…?”
“So?” Matt echoed, as if he didn’t know what
Paul was talking about. As if Paul wasn’t dying—pun not intended—to know what
was happening, what was wrong.
“What next?” he asked instead.
Matt cleared his throat as he looked down
at his hands, but Paul saw the sad smile tilting the side of his mouth. He
tried not to see fear in Matt’s eyes and he defiantly clamped down his jaw and
didn’t ask any questions. He couldn’t push, mostly because he didn’t have any
right to know what the doctor had said. If he had, he would have been in the
room with Matt…
“Blood test,” he said lifting up the paper
to emphasise.
“Okay, do you need an appointment, or can
we just go?”
Matt shrugged. “Doc said if I went right
away there shouldn’t be any problems.”
He was right, of course. This early in the
morning, there was only an elderly lady and a pregnant sheila who had an overly
excited toddler she was trying to keep quiet. The thing was, no one there cared
about the rowdy little girl. To him it was distracting. It took his mind off
what they were there for, or rather, what Matt was there for. She giggled and
laughed, asking silly question he could barely understand, but couldn’t help
smiling with the answers.
“Can you come in with me?” Matt asked
unexpectedly, nervously licking his lips. When Paul got to his eyes he saw a look
of pure fear staring back at him, the kind that was normally reserved to having
a spider crawl up your neck.
Paul swallowed back a laugh. “Sure.”
Matt’s relief was a little too much to
bear. “Thanks,” he sighed, “I really hate needles.”
“Hate?” Paul smiled, because the
description Matt was looking for was
scared as all fuck.
“Yeah,” Matt nodded, smiled. It lightened
the mood for a moment even if it wasn’t really funny, but more relief at not
being left alone while he was being stabbed with needles.
Paul felt this weird little lift in his
shoulders, a pride at being let in
without having to ask.
“He said that this should tell if it’s
cancer or not,” Matt said softly after a long pause.
“That it? You don’t have to get cut up or
nothing?”
Matt shrugged. “Apparently a blood test
will tell us if it’s cancer or not.”
“Really?” It was asked as fact more than a
question. “So that’s it then, just a blood test?”
“Well, for the moment. Because of the
amount of swelling, and the fact that it hasn’t quite stopped me pissing
yet—oh, and I’m young. He said it could be an infection, but…”
Yeah…, He’d never actually known anyone with
prostate cancer, but from what he’d gathered it was the go-to disease, especially for men with a prostate the size of a
plum. He hoped he was wrong, but his imagination was already running riot, and
he couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were dealing with the worst.
“Yeah,” Matt sighed, a little calmer from
sitting beside Paul, even if the death grip on Paul’s thigh gave him away…
They stayed sitting liked that as the
elderly woman and then the mother went in and had their blood taken. They
stayed connected that way as other people came and went. It seemed to take
forever for their turn, and yet when Matt’s name finally got called it was as
if only moments had passed.
Matt tensed up like a plank, and Paul tried
not to laugh as he took his baby in to get his blood taken.
Bio & social links:
Bronwyn is always wants to be a what you see is what she is, kinda
person, but she’s not sure if she truly wants to succeed in that area. mostly
because the voices in her head, the ones that come out so well on paper aren’t
as well behaved in her head, and she’s a mother now, she’s got to hold
something form or sanity.
If you’d like to learn more about me, and the books I write, my links
are:
Blog: www.bronwynheeley.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bronwyn.heeley.5
or on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/beeheeley
Twitter: www.twitter.com/bronwynheeley
Tumblr: www.unrandom-randomness.tumblr.com
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/beeheeley/
Goodle+: plus.google.com/111764061256840145439
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