by Tom Ashford

Welcome to the SPF Weekly Write-Up, where each Wednesday we collect together the self-publishing news of the week so you don’t have to.

A couple of heartwarming stories this week: a 94 year-old gets her poems secretly published, and a woman writes erotic novels whilst undergoing chemotherapy.

Care Home Staff Secretly Publish 94 Year-Old’s Poems

Nora Burt is writer of poetry, but at 94 she never expected to see any of her poems in print. Unbeknownst to her, the staff at her care home in Ipswich, England, were busy producing a collection of her work in hardcover form! Presented to her by the Mayor of Ipswich, the book will now be available in care homes across the area. They mention putting it on sale if there’s enough demand – perhaps they’d consider making it an ebook as well?

You can read the original article over at ITV here.

A Novel Way to Get Through Chemo

When Catherine Wiltcher was diagnosed with stage two bowel cancer, she was devastated. But she wanted to show her two children that she was living a life with no regrets, and so decided to use her free time during chemotherapy to pursue her dream of writing a romance novel.

And not only did she manage it, but she dedicated all of the profits of Eyes To The Wind to Bowel Cancer UK! She went on to self publish her second novel as well – Hearts of Darkness – and it did well enough that she now has a publishing contract. The third book in her trilogy, Hearts on Fire, is coming out in May.

You can read the whole story here.

Tom Ashford

Tom Ashford is a professional copywriter, author of numerous dark fantasy and sci-fi novels, and the Head of Content at the Self Publishing Formula Blog. His books include the Blackwater trilogy and the Checking Out series.

He lives in London with his wife, in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. Find out more about Tom here.