you
She was an ambassador for greater Richland area cancer elimination last year and this morning we welcome a year later Amy Lenz into our studio is here at WRC radio talking about a new book which will tell you about it's called coloring hope and we'll tell that story here on today's morning show Amy so good to see you again
Thanks for having me Phil.
I'm glad to be here.
I have to say I have a little bit of a cold so People probably can hear that but I'm here and I'm super excited about
this project.
We appreciate you putting this all together.
Well, talk us a little bit about your cancer journey.
It's been a year since you told your story, but a year ago you were still pretty fresh.
I'm at three years now.
This is my three year anniversary really coming up in a couple of weeks, my anniversary of
diagnosis and then you know my treatment went through the latter half of 2023 so yeah coming up on three years now and as we talked about last year and when I was here as an ambassador my real focus what I talked a lot about was mental health.
and you had mentioned really nobody had talked too much about that in the past and I wanted to be very transparent that I went through a real struggle after my treatment was over and throughout 2024 into 2025 had some physical things I was going to some physical therapy and just really struggled mentally with anxiety and depression and ended up talking to an oncology therapist going to some survivor classes to really help me with that and
As I started to form a grace team, which I did this year, I thought about how to carry that forward.
And that was the genesis of this book.
I don't know that anybody has come up with a fundraising idea of writing a book before, so you might be the first.
Well, you know, there's a lot of grace teams have been in place a long time and there are a lot of well-established fundraisers.
And so I thought, okay, I'm going to form this new team and I'm going to
What am I going to do for a fundraiser?
I wanted it to be kind of true to who I am and what was important to me as an ambassador last year with mental health.
And what are things I like to do?
Like I do a lot of crafts at home and this is a Mandala coloring book.
And so yeah, I'm like, I don't know how to write a book or how to publish a book or how to print a book, but I will figure it out.
And here I am.
with a book.
You know, your cancer journey, nobody, nobody wishes for that,
but
it makes you the person that you are today, right?
Exactly.
And as you look at that journey, did you feel at times where you were kind of out on an island?
Like, you know, when you, when you were first diagnosed, that, you know, really didn't know what to expect.
And
did
anybody understand what you were going through?
Well, and, you know, I think I mentioned last year, I didn't tell anybody like really Alan,
And maybe, you know, like my best friend from, you know, grade school, um, my boss because I had to take time off work, you know, but like I just, I didn't tell people and, and that's a personal choice about how you do that.
Some people are very open on social media and I just, I don't know.
I went into this little cocoon.
I didn't want to talk about it.
I didn't want to.
I don't know, maybe I just didn't even want to acknowledge it that it was real, but that was just how I chose, I kind of isolated myself and all through treatment.
I also, maybe because I live so far away from my family, I didn't want them to be worried.
And then I didn't want to have to be like, how are you?
How's it going?
Like what's your prognosis?
Like, you know, I didn't know any of the answers to that.
And it's like every two weeks, you're getting a biopsy, you're getting scheduled for a test, you're on this roller coaster.
And emotionally, I just couldn't deal with it.
And so I just didn't talk about it.
And, you know, that was my choice, but I think it affected my mental health later.
when you know then it was over and it's like well now I don't want to how do you announce six months after you've had cancer hey I had cancer you know I don't know so it was just kind of a weird headspace for me and I thought well I can't be the only one and so I need to talk about this so I started talking about it and the struggles that I had so yeah it is very isolating in some ways
you know, there's so many people who go through this, but you may not have people in your circle who have gone through exactly what you've gone through.
And so that's, that's just what I found to be the case.
You dedicated the book to your husband,
Alan.
I did.
I did because, uh, well, you probably know Al.
He's a man about town doing his, uh, you know, his Simons foundation and he was on the school board at Ithaca.
So a lot of people know him, but, uh, you know, he's just such a rock and, uh,
I did dedicate it to him because while his wife was going through cancer, his mother was in the last year of her life.
And he was primary caregiver for Mary, who a lot of people know.
And so he was so supportive of me.
And he's just supportive of anything I do.
And I say, oh, I'm going to write a book.
And he's like, great, let's do it.
I mean, he's just so supportive of everything.
And so yeah, I dedicated this to him because I wouldn't be where I am without him.
I couldn't do what I do without him.
You're a fan of color books?
I am.
I like to color.
You know, like I always like to color when I was a kid, right?
The Scooby-Doo coloring book or whatever, but as an adult, I do like these Mandela coloring books and I find them to be relaxing and just kind of a way to focus and make something pretty, you know, make something unique because no two people are going to color this the same way.
And so you can express yourself through that.
I like these coloring books, but I will say this one is a six by nine size.
Everything was very deliberate in this and the size was deliberate because when I get those big coloring books, I get halfway through one of these and I'm like, I am tired of this picture.
Why is it not finished?
You know, I don't want it to be a chore to do the coloring.
I want it to be relaxing.
Once you start one you feel like compelled to finish it and I wanted it to be the kind of pictures that weren't so overwhelming that they took a lot of energy out of you to do so some of them are you know less intense not so intricate and I mean I don't know I felt that was appropriate for somebody you know maybe going through cancer treatment or after treatment where it was contained and it wouldn't be
something that was like turned itself into a chore.
Does that make sense?
Yes, it does.
And how did you come up with the designs?
Are these all ones that you created?
So it's a mix.
Yes, I did.
So I already knew how to use Canva.
So some of these are images that are royalty free images from Canva Pro.
I bought a program for my iPad called Procreate.
It's a digital drawing pad.
And I taught myself how to use it.
and taught myself how to make mandalas.
So some of these are ones I drew.
Some of them are, like I said, royalty free art.
And some of them are based off of, I actually used some AI to generate some and then trace them out on my drawing tool.
And so it was kind of a combination of things.
And then I added some text, like this one has text on it.
So it was a real combination, but they are all original or, you know, royalty free things that I purchased.
So yeah.
And you have sayings on just about every page too.
And the first one that as you open the book that caught my eye was, I am more than my diagnosis.
Did you, why did you choose that as your first page?
Well, because this one, this really spoke to me as I thought about, so I created all of these like inspirational quotes.
So the book itself is a coloring on one page and on the opposite page is a quote and a journaling prompt.
And
and lines for journaling.
And I wanted it to kind of be a mix of those.
I know a lot of people get those journal books, you know, you can buy them all around and coloring.
So I kind of combined the two and I wanted the pictures to kind of represent what the quote was.
And this quote, you know, as I just thought about it, this was really, this is how I feel.
I am more than my diagnosis.
That diagnosis kind of consumes
people and you get a label.
You're, you know, breast cancer survivor, breast cancer patient, you know, cancer patient.
And I didn't, I wanted to break out from that label and be like, I am, I'm still me.
I'm still the person I was the day before I was diagnosed.
I'm different now, but I am more than that diagnosis.
And so when you're going through cancer treatment, it's, it just consumes you and all the air in the room.
And so,
I don't know this you know as I started jotting down different quotes and playing with them and then you know some of them like the next one is surrounded by faith hope and love I rise so that to me I wanted all of them to be inspirational they're not
like Bible quotes, they're not religious because I wanted it to be accessible to everybody.
You know, I'm selling this as a fundraiser and I think there's a diverse population of people and not everybody's into that, but I wanted it to be inspirational and positive focus, mentally positive.
So I just played around with a lot of quotes.
I wrote a lot of quotes on paper and then I narrowed them down to 60 or 30, 34, I guess, because there's like 60 something pages in here.
Um, and so half quotes and half, um, pictures, but, um, this one I, I let off with because I think that is the most important.
It was also on my cover page to always remember you're much more than your diagnosis.
So that's the one I started with.
And the one that it ends with is I have walked through the fire and kept going.
So, you know, it just, to me, it just needs to be quotes that are very mentally positive.
And it's a workbook, obviously, not only coloring, but it does bring out, I guess maybe sometimes you're in that what was me thing, which I
can
understand.
But it does bring out some things to think about that maybe there's a reason you're here and things
like that.
Right.
And some of them are focused on letting people support you, which I didn't do because I didn't tell anybody.
So letting people support you.
being kind to yourself because you really start to beat yourself up like, oh my gosh, if I had eaten one less hamburger, maybe I wouldn't have gotten cancer.
Your mind just goes to these crazy places, right?
And so you struggle with all these negative thoughts about how this is your fault.
I mean, maybe everybody doesn't, but I did.
And so just being kind to yourself, especially after cancer treatment because
you're not the same.
I'm more physically limited now.
I mean, of course I've aged three more years and I'm at that age where everything's falling apart.
I'm turning 60 this fall and so you feel like, oh my gosh, I'm falling apart anyway, whether I had cancer or not.
But I do have some residual impacts of my treatment and so just realizing I am not who I was before and don't,
Don't beat yourself up about that.
You know recognize it, but walk with it You know your scars are part of you now and Your physical limitations are part of you now so be kind to yourself about that you have to adjust but you know it just like it's a whole mental framework of being positive Through your cancer journey because your cancer journey doesn't end with the I mean I'm still on the journey till you know the last breath I take I will always be that survivor and so
It's just a long-term
process.
Who would you like to see read this somebody, you know, they're killing time while they're, they're getting chemo
and those kind of things.
Exactly.
I mean, it's really for anybody who's on the cancer journey.
So a patient that's just been diagnosed, someone who's going through treatment and again, people in that survivor space a year out, two years out.
I mean, it could be any number of years out.
I think that those thoughts of recurrence, the concerns about.
cancer coming back, they stay with you for a long time and so I think it's appropriate for any of those spaces and I wanted it to be really pretty, it's color, it's got a color cover and it's um I made it spiral bound so that you can flip it open and you know actually lay it flat and color those um you know the the
Cloth binding seems like the coloring books you get in the store.
They come apart if you break the spine, if you try to flatten them out.
So I made them with a spiral bind.
And I wanted them to just be real nice so they could be given as a gift.
And you know, I hope I'm selling them for $15.
They are not super cheap to produce and I paid for them.
Like I sent them off to be published.
And so that's, you know, my Aunt Liz said, you should print a thousand.
I started with a hundred.
I'm like, I don't have enough money to go print a thousand of these Aunt Liz, but thanks for the confidence that I'm going to sell that many.
But so I printed a hundred to start and I'm hopeful.
Maybe if someone wants to sponsor some that I could then donate to the Kramer Infusion Center, I think they would make great gifts for people.
I've already sold a few, mostly to family and friends, but they're like, I have a friend that was just diagnosed.
I'd like to buy one and send it to them.
And so I just want it to be as diverse.
of an audience as it can be.
It is focused on cancer and I think somebody already mentioned you should just take the word cancer off because this could be for any kind of illness or diagnosis or life struggle and that's true but this particular one is for cancer because that's where I'm coming from and what the audience that I wanted to have a meaningful experience with.
So
Um, I mean, my goal is to have a series of books, not just the coloring book, but then also a book, um, on strategies for dealing with anxiety, um, and some, some strategies for overcoming negative thoughts and dealing with negative emotions and, um, ways to be kind to yourself, um, kind of like a mind body spirit.
So I'm kind of, this is the spirit working on the mind next and then something related to
um, you know, body and, and health and cancer.
So, um, survivorship.
So I want it to be a series.
I don't know.
I mean, it would be great if it takes off.
Um, I'm going to ask around, maybe there'll be a few places that might want to carry it locally.
I'm going to have a booth at the grace walk, uh, where I'll have the books available.
Um, I think I mentioned their $15.
Um, and everybody's been really gracious and, um,
Some people have just said, here's a 20, you know, or whatever, um, because all the money is going to grace.
So this is not a money making endeavor for me.
It's my, um, team fundraiser.
My team is called in the pink.
Um, and so we can talk about maybe later, um, how people can find me and find this if they're interested.
I think you bring up a good point, Amy, is that, uh, yeah.
I mean, these quotes are inspiring, whether you're going through an illness or not, many of them, aren't they?
Yeah.
That was the goal.
A few of them, one or two does mention cancer specifically, but the others are really appropriate for any kind of struggle you're going through.
This quote here is, my scars tell a story of survival.
Well, people have all kinds of scars, relationship scars, mental, physical, emotional, so that can be interpreted a lot of ways.
I mean, I certainly had my mind on the survival of cancer and physical and emotional scars of cancer, but yeah, there's a lot of life that we all live, right, that this can apply to.
Yeah, if you go through any health crisis, you are going to have some doubts
and
fears and things like that, and mental health
is
a big part of that,
isn't it?
It is.
And it's not talked about, which is why I'm back again to talk about it, because I just feel it's so important.
there is such a stigma attached to mental health and needing help.
Recognizing that you need help is a big step, but then getting it is that extra step that's hard for people.
And I don't know what it is about.
I mean, maybe it's something about our culture, that there's just this stigma attached to being crazy.
Well, no, it's not about being crazy.
It's about getting the help you need to deal with
Trauma.
Cancer is a trauma, and that's a paradigm I really want to focus on.
PTSD is a real thing for people who've been through all kinds of traumas.
You know, we think of that with the military, but people who've been through natural disasters, who've had their home destroyed in a tornado or earthquake or fire or hurricane, those are traumas that cause PTSD.
And a physical trauma like cancer is no different, and I think that's what I was experiencing.
some form of PTSD.
It was a traumatic situation that I wasn't emotionally ready to handle or had ever had to handle in my life.
So we're not born equipped to deal with tragedies and traumas, and those are learned skills.
And that's what I learned in my survivorship classes, was this is a skill you can learn, how to manage your emotions, how to manage your thoughts, how to deal with a trauma.
And I don't know, that's just what I want to bring to other people because I was really just struggling with it until I kind of found that lifeline of how to deal with it.
Amy Lins, our guest, we'll have more coming up on The Morning Show after the timeout.
We'll talk a little bit more about where you can find the book and also maybe about book number two, and it is for sale now.
I understand your husband, Al, is the salesman of the week.
He sold the most so far this week.
Yes, he did.
Yeah, so good for him.
We'll have more coming up on The Morning Show.
On our morning show today, we're speaking about the book Coloring Hope, a cancer journey companion, mindfulness, and mandalas, and written by Amy Lins, who is in the studio with us.
Did you have a 64 crayon Crayola box when you were a young girl growing
up?
Oh, I did.
Yes.
I had the maximum number of crayons
with a sharpener.
Yes.
Oh, man.
You were
spoiled.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
I am well, well acquainted with Periwinkle and burnt Sienna and not just brown and blue.
Right.
I got to have all the colors.
You've got them all.
And for some of the illustrations in your book, I could see using many of those 64 crayons.
Yes.
Yes.
And I have coloring pencils.
In fact, I have them.
metallic
So what works best?
Well, you know some people use the ink pens and so I did try to make this with like premium paper So people can use the pens But I use like the coloring pencils like the map color style what we would call map colors back in the day, right?
I use the coloring pencils.
I like them, but some people like the pens and so I tried to make it where I
Hopefully this paper is good, you know, it's supposed to be good paper that it won't bleed through.
But that's another reason I only put images on one, on every other page.
So if it does bleed through, it doesn't, you know, disturb the coloring experience.
Do you know of any other book like this that exists?
There are some different books on, I mean, not one quite like this, I don't think.
I mean, I think there are other coloring books with like journaling or quotes or different things.
available online, places like Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
There certainly are a ton of the coloring books.
I mean, you can get them at Walmart, just the generic ones.
And I looked at some of those and I was like, the quality is not that great or the story really isn't there.
A lot of the ones for cancer, I mean, there's not anything quite like this, but a lot of the ones for cancer are actually kind of irreverent.
They are
lot of profanity in there really yeah yeah like it's like mad at cancer oh and um bad word cancer and um i wanted it to be different i wanted it to be positive i mean i think that's great yeah because i was definitely sort of you know rage in the machine kind of such you know you do rage you do have anger at getting sick and being diagnosed
but I just wanted this to focus on a positive mental space and not kind of like to me that was all like I mean you know that's fine that's that's somebody's jam it wasn't my jam and I wanted something that was more along the lines of what I wanted to experience and didn't you know wasn't really out there so yeah I don't know I just thought like this is a great thing and I want to do this and
Hopefully people will want to buy it.
Well, I think it's appropriate for all ages, all beliefs
and everything, isn't it?
Right, right.
If not, I'll have a hundred books to color
myself.
Well, Al sold seven this
morning, so you're down
there a few.
Let's talk a little bit about publishing, Amy.
How difficult was that to get that started?
Yeah, so it's interesting because I think these days everybody can be a publisher with places like Amazon and Kindle.
But a physical product like this, like I think, you know, selling a book that's
like a book that could be downloaded on an e-reader is one thing, but a physical book was a different sort of animal.
And so I had to do a lot of research, where to get it printed, how to get it printed.
And I ended up using a digital printer that had all of the things I wanted, you know, the spiral binding, the premium paper for coloring.
And that's not available really on Kindle.
So Kindle Direct Publishing does not do this YRO binding, which I really wanted for the coloring to lay flat.
and premium paper.
And so to sell on Amazon, because that was one of my family members was like, you should put this on Amazon.
I'm like, well, let me explain how that works.
When you have a book like this, a physical book, you have to buy it and send it to them to their warehouse to do Amazon fulfillment, which you have to pay for.
And you have to pay for their storage.
You have to pay their processing fees and they get a cut.
Or you have to buy it
keep it in your garage and do fulfillment yourself with the postage and the whatnot.
And you don't get any of the like the Amazon Prime discounts for shipping and whatnot.
And, um, and they still get a cut.
And so I was like, well, this is for a fundraiser for, for grace.
And I, I don't want to whittle it down to like, I made 57 cents on this thing, you know?
And so I really, I didn't go that route and I just went with, I'm going to publish it.
I'm going to print it myself and I'm going to try to sell it locally.
And then if,
friends and family want to buy it, great, they can pay me for the postage.
And so it was an experience figuring out how to physically publish it and then learning more about on Canva about how to size it and with like there's concepts of like the bleed where it cuts, you know, where they cut the paper to size and how to make sure you don't get any of your printing in the seam here, you know, where they're binding it.
And so, I mean, I had to learn some about printing
Um, but I had done some of that for work because, um, in my job, um, you know, we do educational, um, workshops and products.
And so I had designed workbooks before not anything quite like this, but I was a little bit familiar with printing.
And then I just had to figure out how to do it on my own because like another department at work always handled that.
Um, and, and then figure out what was realistic, you know, so I started with the hundred and I can always order more and I would love it if people want to.
buy some to donate to, like I said, the Kramer Center or Gundersen or UW.
I mean, you know, I want to be realistic, but I also want to be like, wow, I sold, you know, the more I sell, the more grace, many grace gets.
So, you know, um, so yeah, that's, that's the printing process.
I just had to figure out how to do it from sort of scratch.
I can think of it as just such a great gift because, you know, somebody that, you know, your friend or whatever, you kind of feel sometimes like you don't know what to do.
Your hands
are
tied.
Um, this would be a great
thing
to just hand in the book as
a gift.
And I feel like it's, it's for people going through a cancer journey written by someone going through the cancer journey.
So it kind of takes a little bit of that, like, I don't know if this is appropriate or not.
Or, you know, I feel awkward about giving this to somebody, but I'm hoping kind of,
Having it be by a cancer survivor for cancer journey people that maybe it that helps a little I don't know everybody's experience is different, but I think if you know your friend and that this is something they would enjoy You know and it's not really written just for women or men although I think more women than men probably want to color things but I tried to kind of make it neutral in that way too But it's probably a little bit more for women I would say
You really put yourself out there when you do a book like
this.
Right, yeah.
You know, it's like, for those of you old enough to remember Sally Field at the Oscars, oh, you like me, you really like me, right?
Like, yeah, you do put yourself out there and you have thoughts like, what if I buy a hundred of these and I still have a hundred of these at the end of the day and maybe my mom will buy one or 10 or, you know.
So, yeah, you put yourself out there.
But that's okay.
I mean like that's what I'm ready to do because I you know the last couple of years were just so you know like I Don't know I was just in this mental fog and really struggling and now I'm like I'm ready to help other people I'm in a stronger mental place and I am ready to put myself out there and what's the worst can happen?
I made a hundred books and I Give them to the library.
I don't know you know what I mean like I give them away because nobody wants to buy them But I mean I don't think that's gonna happen
But I just put myself in that space like, I'm going to do this.
And what's the worst thing that can happen?
Well, okay.
Having a hundred books to give away is not such a bad, bad thing.
So yeah.
Not at all.
And it's a grace fundraiser for your team.
Tell me about your grace team.
So a formed team.
It's a team of two.
It's me and Alan right now.
Um, it's called in the pink.
And, um, I spelled pink.
The I in pink is a cancer ribbon, a little dot over it.
Um, cause I was sort of getting into Canva at that time to do this book.
So I made myself a logo and I have a Facebook page.
So it's in the pink RC is Facebook.com slash in the pink RC.
Cause there are some other in the pinks out there on Facebook.
So, um, so I have in the pink RC and then I set up an email address, which is, um, in the pink for number four grace in the pink for grace at gmail.com.
And that's
associated with this Facebook page, the in the pink RC Facebook page.
And so people can go out there.
I set up an order form to kind of like gauge how many people might be interested so they can fill that out and it's got a place for them to put email or phone, how many books they want.
You know, I said I'm going to have them at the grace, the grace event at the walk, at my booth.
And then I'm hoping maybe a few businesses might want to
help me sell them, but otherwise it's just gonna be me.
So people can direct message me or they, you know, like this Al sold six at his exercise class this morning or seven.
So, you know, just in the community and we will have them, but to gauge interest and like, should I order more or is 100 enough?
If people want to fill that out on my page, that's great.
After this, I'm gonna share it on my social media.
Other people can share it.
So I don't know, it's just kind of word of mouth.
I've never done this.
I'm, I'm not a salesperson by nature.
And so I'm like, I gotta, I don't know how to sell a book.
So, um, here I am on the radio selling my book.
A new adventure.
Yeah.
And you're going to have one in the, uh, auction at
the,
at the walk
as
well, or a little basket.
That's going to be a basket.
So we'll have, um, one, a coloring hope, um, book and some premium style coloring pencils and some other relaxation.
themed items in the basket.
So that will be at the grace auction.
This was a part of your healing or there's some books that you read during that time that
were
helpful.
Well, I went to these survivor classes and they had workbooks.
And the workbooks were focused on managing negative emotions and dealing with negative thoughts, being kind to your body, recovering physically and mentally.
But I also, I started following this doctor, Dr. Liz, I don't know what her last name is.
She's British, but she was a breast cancer surgeon who got breast cancer.
and had to quit surgery because she had damage in her, like she couldn't, she couldn't do surgery anymore because her nerves were damaged.
And so she is now spokesperson, she's on YouTube.
I follow her podcast and she wrote a cancer book.
And I can't remember the name of it cause it caught me off guard.
But anyway, O'Reardon is her last name.
Liz O'Reardon, she's British, but she wrote a cancer book and it was really good.
And I read that and I listened to her podcast and I watched her on YouTube.
And she's very inspirational because she was a breast cancer surgeon.
She had breast cancer and she's had two breast cancer recurrences.
So she's had an aggressive breast cancer and she's still out there debunking myths and giving strategies for recovery and talking about bad days.
She's on some proactive medications to prevent her cancer from progressing.
have some serious side effects and so she talks about the good days she talks about the bad days and i'm like she was inspirational to me because here she was her whole career was destroyed by cancer because she couldn't do her job anymore and so she had a very big crisis i mean i can sit at my desk and do my job um but as a surgeon she couldn't and so i thought wow what if i had to reinvent myself at this age and this stage and
You know, and then she's trying to help other people by doing this podcast and everything.
And so, um, I don't know, I've just found these people in the cancer community that inspired me and I thought, well, if she can do that, I can do this, you know, and, um, and so yeah, that, that's how my journey has evolved.
So have you thought about the next book, Amy and what that might involve?
Yeah.
So I really want to do a book, um, a kind of a workbook, not, not a coloring book, but a workbook focused on,
those techniques I learned to deal with my mental negative emotions, negative thoughts.
I haven't got a name for it yet, but it'll be something in this sort of vein of positivity.
And it'll be more of a workbook style book of like, and it could really be for any trauma because it's based on something called cognitive behavioral therapy, which sounds like a big word.
And I'm not a therapist, I'm not a counselor, but this is accessible to people.
And there are
you know, trauma-focused care, trauma-informed care, those are things that are out there in the world that I can grasp onto and I've done for work.
We deal with people dealing with trauma.
And so I just want to take all of this that I've learned and make it something that's accessible to people, you know, just everyday people.
And so that's my next project.
And then the third one I've got an idea for already is really
So spirit you know bought a mind and then body One of the big Two well they tell you obviously don't smoke but the next one in line after don't smoke after you've had cancer is don't drink because alcohol is linked to high recurrence of cancer and so I Don't I'm not really a big.
I wasn't really a big drinker before
But I like to go out and, you know, have like mocktails, right?
And so I kind of have this idea about maybe doing like a mocktail, it's not a cookbook, but a mocktail mixology book, but how to have those kinds of fun experiences without alcohol, because that is not something a cancer survivor should be engaging in.
You know, everything in moderation, a glass of wine is fine, but, you know, they really say, like my doctor told me,
No alcohol.
Don't drink alcohol.
And so I'm kind of thinking that for the body part is being something fun and engaging.
Like these are fun things to make and drink, but they are also not damaging, you know, to your body.
So I don't know.
That's what my ideas are.
We'll see where it takes me.
I've never tried to make a cookbook before, but you
know, or a coloring book
or coloring book or any kind of book, but I don't know.
I just figure like, look, people do this every day.
Like they, I can do it too.
That's what I'm going with I can
do it sounds like the wheels are always turning there.
They are all kinds of ideas Yeah,
yeah,
so I don't know is that a silly idea?
We'll see
No, I don't think so at all.
So I admire your perseverance and I told you just thought about it because a lot of us can say I'd be cool to write a book, but you've actually done it.
Yeah, I was in that space a year ago.
I want to do this.
And like everything else I do, I was quiet about it.
I didn't tell anybody about it until I got really close.
And then it's funny because I actually had this ready.
I had the book done in January.
But I had some trouble figuring out how to do the formatting for the printing.
And then I got, well, here I am sick again.
But I got this bad sinus infection, a series of them actually.
I had three in a row and I could not shake it.
And I just got really sick.
And then I traveled for work and all of a sudden it was like May.
And I'm like, oh my gosh, my book has been sitting there for five months.
And so I got back on it after Memorial Day.
I'm like, I have to figure this formatting thing out.
And I finally did and sent it off to the printer and it took me a few weeks to get it.
I actually wanted to do this a lot sooner, but it just didn't work out.
Life happened.
What was it like when you saw that first copy open
the box?
Oh my gosh, I was so excited.
I was like a 10-year-old running around.
Look what I did.
Look at this.
It's so cool.
Yeah, immediately as soon as the box arrived, I was like, cut it open.
I want to see.
Yeah.
And so it was really great.
And the printer did a great job with it.
It just exceeded my expectations.
I was excited about it.
the concept of it.
It was really hard too because I proof read it.
If there's any mistakes in here, they are all mine, but I proof read it like four million times.
And then I'm like, okay, go.
I pushed the button to get it printed, you know, and it was kind of scary, but I was, I'm excited about it.
Yeah.
Well, you, you should be.
Did you journey a journal when you were going through your cancer?
I did.
I did.
And actually after, so, um, when I was really struggling,
It wasn't a cancer journal, but it was just like when I picked up in a bookstore It was one of those like journaling prompts and I did do some of that, but then I found like They weren't speaking to me.
Right.
I was like this This isn't This isn't touching what I'm dealing with it was just because it was generic and that's kind of part of the inspiration of this so I was doing a book that had journaling prompts not freeform journaling but the the kind that had the little prompts but
It was more like that.
What color is your parachute sort of thing?
Like that's a book about what do you want to do with your career and what do you want to do with your life?
Like that's not where I was.
And so after I got the book and I started in it, I was like, yeah, I'm not loving this.
And so I just decided to make something that I would love.
Yeah.
Can you imagine now?
I mean, you're, it's out there.
Can you imagine if somebody contacts you and says,
This really helped me during my journey.
Oh, that would be great.
That
would.
Yeah.
I mean, that's obviously that's not why I did it, but I certainly hope.
And that's why I said, you know, I'm making a book for fellow travelers.
Like I feel like that's who we are.
We are in this club, not by choice.
And so we are just travelers on this earth.
And now we are all walking that same post cancer path.
And I do hope it helps people.
Um,
I mean, if it's just people who like to color, that's great.
But I hope that the journaling and the, um, the prompts, you know, help people with their, with their cancer journey.
Yeah.
And who knows, maybe you can help out or, you know, like a grandchildren, a grandchild or a child could help you color it.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Could be a, uh, definitely a group.
type of project, like you said, like some of your grandchild helping color.
Or you know, my mom said, I'm not coloring this.
I want to leave it just the way it is.
I'm just going to use it for a journaling.
I'm like, OK, mom, you know, whatever you want to do.
But she didn't want to color it because she just liked the way it looked.
I think if you color it, it comes to life, though.
Yeah, it does.
It does.
But I mean, she's my mom.
She has to
say that.
So you'll have a booth at Grace coming up
in a few weeks.
It's pink and it has pink lights.
All right.
you'll find the pink booth.
We'll point people in your direction there.
They're on sale for $15.
All the money goes to grace.
All the money goes to
grace.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, it's
cash or Venmo.
I mean, I'm trying to stay away really from checks, although for local people, I might do that if I, you know, know them, but I'm not really set up, um, you know, like in the pink bank account or anything.
I mean, this is just me doing this.
And so Venmo and cash are probably going to be my primary.
ways.
And if somebody wants to, you know, fill out the form online, um, I'll be happy to, you know, meet them in town and hand off a book or whatever, you know, it's like Facebook marketplace, meet you at the quick trip kind of a thing.
Yeah.
I'm happy to do that.
But likewise, you know, feedback or if somebody has any questions, maybe about what they're going through comparing
to yours.
Yeah, absolutely.
They can, they can direct message on, on my Facebook in the pink page.
Um, I have my
Personal settings are private, but this in the pink is public and they're welcome to direct message or post on there the form like I said I set up a Google form so they can click right into it and Do an order if they'd like
wonderful and don't even have to stay on the lines if you don't want to when you're coloring, right?
No, you do not I mean they could choose to color just the picture or they can choose a color the whole page
Have a good
time.
I want to
do yeah, Amy.
It's been a pleasure
Thank you so much for having me.
Maybe next year, this time you'll come back with book number two of
them.
Yes.
Yeah.
Or maybe sooner.
I don't know.
Okay.
This one took longer than I thought, but now I kind of know what I'm doing.
You're always welcome.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks so much,
Phil.
Amy Lynn's joining us on WRCO talking about coloring hope, a cancer journey companion.
It's an awesome journal and color book for those that might be going through that tough time with that journey through cancer.
A little more about grace tomorrow.
We'll talk about this year's walk coming up during the Friday morning.
show right here on WRCO.
