A Necromancer's Guide to Grave Mistakes
(The story behind the Author).
TL;DR
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- Melissa has been sick for a long time.
- They’ve found a surgery that can help. A lot.
- It’s far away and very expensive.
- Supporting this Kickstarter will help pay for it.
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First, who am I?
I’m Janice, I’m a fellow author and friend of Melissa Wright. Melissa is not the kind to tell you the details of all the things she has suffered—and still is suffering—through.
But I am absolutely the kind of friend who will tell you, because I think people should know how much supporting this Kickstarter would mean to Melissa.
And on top of heroically helping her, you get a delightful, funny, charming, gorgeous book.
Second, who is Melissa Wright?
She is the author of 22 books. Her most well-read, Frey, has a 4.2 star rating out of well over 8,000 reviews.
On a more personal level, she’s one of my favorite human beings. Melissa is unfailingly optimistic and funny and kind and generous.
And when you hear what her life has been like for the past six years, that’ll be even more impressive.
What has Melissa’s life been like for the past six years?
There’s a lot here. I’m going to try to be brief—but brevity is not my strong point.
Era 1: The “We-Have-No-Idea-What’s-Wrong” Era
Her History:
Melissa was always active an healthy—except for repetitive episodes of pain, fatigue, and brain fog.
The Injury:
In 2019, she jumped down from the bed of her truck and a strange jarring sensation went through her spine.
It didn’t feel serious, but by the next afternoon, when talking to a new acquaintance, she couldn’t remember what she did for a living.
It was only a blip, minutes long, but that evening, more physical symptoms started to appear.
This began three and a half years where the following symptoms grew gradually worse:
SYMPTOMS
Wait, stop.
The list is TOO long.
To shorten things up, here are my least-favorite of the symptoms she’s had to live with.
(Melissa has also created a website educating people about illnesses with intracranial pressure. You can read the list of symptoms there at www.pressureresources.com.)
- Cognitive issues (loss of memory, attention, complicated thinking skills)
- Exhaustion after exercise (even minor exertions like brushing teeth, sitting up without support)
- Worsening of symptoms upon standing
- Stabbing head pain when attempting to read
- Can’t tolerate tv, music, audio for long—visual or conversation becomes quickly difficult to be around
- Can’t tolerate car rides. Can’t walk or move around much. Can’t do physical activity even lying flat
- Handwriting/fine motor control issues
- Inability to summon enough energy to communicate when very ill, brief coma-like states.
Yes, that’s the short list. That’s actually the shortened version of my short list.
This progressed until she spent an entire year bedbound.
All of this led to a prolonged succession of appointments, specialists, tests, and misdiagnoses.
Finally, through endless research, she was able to discover the underlying cause of her illness.
Era 2: Cerebrospinal Fluid Leaks
Melissa had several large Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) leaks in her lower back. (CSF is the liquid that surrounds and cushions the brain and spinal cord.)
Once the cause was known, the treatment was shockingly simple.
In November of 2022, she received patches to heal the leaks…
…and she was able to walk again!
This, of course, was extremely exciting.
Era 3: Continued Intracranial Pressure
However, even though Melissa is no longer bedbound, she’s still mostly housebound.
For the past 3 years, she continued to have symptoms of high intracranial pressure, the cause of which was undiagnosed forever.
Until recent imaging revealed that the blood flow in both her internal jugular veins is obstructed. (These are the veins that carry blood from the head to the heart.)
This compression, which acts like a clogged sink drain, is keeping her intracranial pressure high, which has led to symptoms like:
- cognitive issues
- vision issues
- fatigue
- pain and shortness of breath
And also carries the fun risks of causing blindness or stroke.
BUT, there’s a surgery that can help!
A surgery with a high success rate.
Can We Reach Era 4? The Era of Feeling Normal
For the past six years, Melissa has been living between 10-60% of normal functionality. But others similar to her who’ve had this surgery end up at 80-90%.
And that’s where this Kickstarter comes in:
The problem is that the closest facility for this specialized surgery is 13 hours away and in a different state. She’ll be required to ride in a car for the long trip, which, due to cranial pressure, is painful. Then she’ll need to stay near the hospital for two weeks.
Insurance will not cover the lodging, and because she’s self-employed as an author with limited health insurance options, her premiums have spiked to over $1400/month. She’ll also likely have to cover some of the medical costs, since there will surely be out-of-network expenses.
What you can do:
Support this Kickstarter.
Really, this is not a chore, because the book you’ll get is absolutely beautiful and the story inside absolutely delightful.
It’s this cozy, hilarious story of Cinder Ella, a necromancer who can’t seem to put the dead back into their eternal rest once she’s raised them.
Prince Charming, whose name is Silas, is the most charming prince ever put into print.
He’s long-suffering and calm in the face of Ella’s increasingly unorthodox plans to find her father’s killer and keep her evil stepmother from sabotaging the royal family
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PLEASE, consider backing this Kickstarter campaign.
You’ll get a great, beautiful book
and we can at least lighten the financial burden this surgery will put on Melissa.