Come What May

I'm actually really nervous about this story. This (and the next one I'm writing) are the most nervous I've ever been about a story. The next one is just because it has topics that I'm sure will be very unpopular with Fiyeraba readers. To be honest, I'm even like "oh, I don't want this to happen", but it's such a good story and the idea came to me so clearly... I can't not write it.

I've been nervous about Come What May because... well, it's so different than anything I've ever written so far or anything that I've ever seen on the site.

I guess the main reasons I'm nervous, is because... this subject is a sensitive subject. To a lot of people. Including me, long-time readers (especially those who read Out of the Blue and Three Leaps Ahead) will know my grandfather died of cancer during the posting of that story.

I also spoke to a lot of people about the logistics of the story. Given that this is Oz, and Oz has magic... I wasn't sure. I figured there was no reason cancer couldn't exist in Oz- it's just bad cells. Oz doesn't change their biology. They're still human, still made of cells despite living in a land where magic exists. But we (me and a few select friends) decided that all that would change was the way cancer would be treated. I couldn't do chemo, because chemo didn't exist until the 1950s. So we did the Oz equivalent... with pretty much the same side effects. I don't believe that magic is a simple fix for every problem. Cancer? Do this spell/take this potion and you're all cured. I didn't want to do that.

I chose Hodgkin's Lymphoma for 2 reasons. One, it is the cancer I had the most knowledge of, being that 10 years ago in 2003, Delta Goodrem (Australia singer and one of my idols) was diagnosed with the cancer. She fought it and is now in remission. One of my mother's best friend has fought Hodgkin's lymphoma twice and survived both times. (The first time I was like 5 and I don't really remember it. The second time was a few years ago). And the second reason is that (according to the internet) lymphoma is the most common cancer diagnosed in young women. It's also (again, according to the internet) one of the most easily treatable cancers.

I had the idea in June 2012.

The number of ideas I get near midnight, usually when I'm trying to fall asleep is ridiculous.

OK, so I might be slightly vindictive... it's not that I get pleasure from your pain. Really. 

 So before and during the writing process, I did a lot of research, as I try and do with any topic I write about. I have 52 websites bookmarked in a folder. Websites, blogs, articles, anything I could find. And do you know what I found? The terminology on so many of these sites, or trying to find answers.... it's a good thing they have cancer forums where you can talk to other people going through it, because so many sites I found either don't have the information you want or have it written in complicated terminology.

Seriously, if I had been actually diagnosed with cancer and looking for information to explain it all to me, the forums or a really great doctor who could explain everything in layman's terms would be my best hope;  because the internet kinda sucks in that regard.

But there was something else I noticed. To try and get the full understanding of the experience of fighting cancer, I also read a lot of books, watched a lot of films and TV shows... basically anything I could find. And what I noticed is that every time in film or literature that a character had cancer, they were nearly always terminal and/or died. If you want a character to survive cancer, TV might be your best shot. Which I find quite ridiculous, actually.
Again, if you had cancer or had a family member or friend who did, it would just depress you and not give you any hope at all. I get that having the character be terminal or die adds is more dramatic, but is that the message you want to send?

I know how many people die of cancer each year, and it's this stuff that brings awareness... but just as many people survive cancer each year (OK, I don't know if its "just as many" but it is a lot. Maybe its more?).

I'm not going to claim I got everything 100% exactly right with the medical stuff, due to the first point I raised about how hard it was to get and understand some information. But I've tried really hard, and I've done a lot of research. The only thing I took a bit of liberty with was the time frame with the diagnosis and tests results, because in real life... that could take weeks or months. But at the same time, it's not instant or magic, it's probably more like how TV medical shows do it.

There were very few films/books/etc things I found where they had someone survive cancer. TV had a few instances, so TV execs can have the drama without actually losing a character.

I don't really know what my point is here, but I just wanted to let you know that I didn't write this story lightly, and I hope I've done it justice.