I received an email at the end of August from author Ellis Avery asking if I’d be interested in reading and sharing my thoughts on her newest essay, On Fear. This is the second offering in The Family Tooth series. I had read the first essay, The Sapphire and the Tooth and was very moved by the author’s writing regarding events and emotions surrounding her mother’s death. I knew I would want to continue with the series so I jumped at the chance to check out book two.

Then life got in the way and the essay got buried in my email inbox. Well, my podcasting partner, Andy, and I are scheduled to talk with Ellis on Cocktail Hour tonight so I thought this would be the perfect time to bust it out. I plugged it into my text-to-speech reader and got down to business. Here’s the blurb from Amazon:

After three years on a drug called Humira, prescribed for a crippling autoimmune condition, Ellis Avery was diagnosed in 2012 with leiomyosarcoma, a rare uterine cancer, and given a 26% chance of five-year survival. When Avery learned that there was no evidence to show that the radiation and chemo she was offered would save her life, she turned down treatment. But even brave decisions can be terrifying: suddenly, Avery had to learn how to cope with constant fear – that she had made the wrong choice, that her doctors would call with bad news, that her time was limited. ON FEAR, the second essay in a series on Kindle Singles, tells the story of how Avery learned to live one moment at a time, from meditating to singing in the shower to befriending a black cat named Fumiko. While most readers will never face leiomyosarcoma, all of us sometimes face fear: Avery’s essay offers hard-won wisdom, tools, and hope. ON FEAR is the second in a series of essays on grief, illness, and food entitled THE FAMILY TOOTH.

Much like the first in the series, On Fear gets right down to the nitty-gritty. One of the things that I enjoyed the most about this author’s style is the way she lays it all out. At first glance, her writing seems very direct, without many emotions showing but they’re all right there, just under the surface. I could feel her fear and her need to try to control that fear. And like my experience with reading The Sapphire and the Tooth, I saw so much of myself in her words. I have a nice sized collection of fear videos and it felt good to know that I’m not the only one who isn’t quite sure how to make them stop and that I’m not alone in my inability to give love and encouragement to my inner-child.

I know that I’ll read her essays again and I’m certain that I’ll discover some nuances that I missed the first time through.

You can download a sample or purchase On Fear by clicking here.