Giveaways and Contests discussion

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In her touching memoir, Finding My Invincible Summer, professional translator and author Muriel Vasconcellos shares how seemingly insurmountable challenges can eventually lead to a positive and inspiring outcome.

This heart-rending story tells how the author’s prognosis of six months to live becomes a catalyst for discovering the secrets of being truly, joyfully alive. After a tumultuous life that included tragedy, betrayal, and corrosive guilt (told in flashbacks), she finally finds love and happiness, only to be stricken with breast cancer. It appears that she has won that battle, but life takes another challenging turn with the wrenching loss of her soul mate and, soon afterwards, another alarming diagnosis—this time of metastasis to her bones. Unremitting physical and psychological pain sends her to the depth of despair.

Rather than giving up, Muriel embarks on a courageous quest for health that includes not only her body but also her psyche and spirit. Readers follow the author as she discovers that all aspects of her being are part of a single tapestry. A third bout with breast cancer ultimately empowers her to walk away from conventional treatment. As the author openly and honestly shares her story, readers come to feel the joy and serenity that abide in the deep recesses of her soul.

Finding My Invincible Summer

In order for a memoir to capture my attention, I must love the voice of the writer and be made to care enough to travel the entire distance with them as they tell their life story. This happens when the writer is exposing their vulnerabilities honestly and the story itself is also utterly compelling. With Finding My Invincible Summer, not only did the author take you into her completely confidence but the story was so intense and relatable that I could not put it down. During a week of reading where there were many other distractions in my life and in the greater world, I kept yearning to return to this quiet, deeply involving and highly personal story, even as difficult and painful as that life was in parts. Ultimately, the reader is given their own sense of possibilities - that there are indeed attainable solutions to even the most difficult of life's problems. I found this to be one of the best memoirs I have ever read - and I am a tough critic of memoirs. I recommend sitting in front of the fire and taking some quiet time with this book and you will indeed be rewarded.

I just received this book yesterday and enjoyed it very much, though I have not understood how to master your fears and problems. Thank you so much, Muriel, for the book. I wrote a review which may be too harsh - probably because I am craving the answers. Or maybe the book would deserve a second tome, to explain how to get better. I really have a close friend with cancer and am afraid to disappoint her with this book. When it came n the mail, I thought it was meant to be. Now, I hesitate. What do you think, Muriel?
thanks again anyway.

Hi Anne, Thanks for writing. I appreciate the chance to have a dialogue, though I'm sorry I didn't get my message across very well. My intention was to take the reader along on my journey - to teach by telling what worked for me. I can't say that I know the answers for someone else, but I can say that cancer patients who have read it have told me they felt encouraged.
I strongly recommend Carl Simonton's "Getting Well Again" for any cancer patient. As I wrote in FMIS, Carl demystifies the feelings of fear, guilt, hopelessness, and helplessness that make sick people feel sicker. His work has been a wonderful gift to the field of cancer. By changing patients' attitudes he was able to achieve full remissions or extend the active life of patients for many years. Perhaps your friend should read Carl's book first. If it inspires her, then she might like mine.
Thanks again for writing!

maybe Simonton's book could help. I don't know how to explain it clearly, but although the first part of your book is very clear and frightening -because of the amount of problems you had to face, the path to health is a lot harder to follow. I do believe in alternative medicines as a complement, but can they really cure bad physical diseases? I may suffer from lack of faith, I agree. I have seen people helped with homeopathy for serious chronic conditions, like asthma, but I never heard of something acute cured with it, whether pain, or an illness like cancer, or an asthma attack which will prevent the patient from breathing properly. And I feel the same for whatever "soft" medicine. I probably think they can modify your reaction to adverse elements in the long term, but I can't think of their utility in an emergency.
Sadly, most of the problems, th real ones which happen in one's life don't give you enough time to plan long term procedures. Don't misunderstand me, I was quite interested by the following part and the end of the book, just more skeptical. i realized you have great genes, according to the age your mom and aunt reached. Maybe that plays a part too.

Hi Anne,
Thanks so much for your comments. I don't know the answers to your questions. I agree that alternative approaches may not help in an emergency (though my homeopath is pretty miraculous) and that some diseases are impossible to stop. An example is advanced pancreatic cancer, which is usually not discovered until it is too late (though Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg found hers early and has survived for 5 years). Even so, the people I know who had pancreatic cancer all held out hope up to the end. I think that's innate in the human condition.
A friend who has stage IV breast cancer read my book five times and declared that it's the best book she ever read. She took courage from it. I think it's fine to have hope and courage even though logic would dictate otherwise. If a change in thinking makes you feel better, what's the harm in it?
I believe that feelings about an illness can make a big difference in a patient's capacity to tolerate it, and possibly its progression, and we do have the power to change our attitudes.
I also believe that every illness is an opportunity to learn more about oneself and take life's journey on a new path.
After I put cancer behind me, I developed asthma, which you mention. I haven't been able to control it without medication, and I've had to accept that. But I've learned that it gets better with exercise and other strategies, so it has revolutionized my lifestyle.
All that said, I don't expect everyone to like my book or to agree with me. I'm very grateful that you wanted to open a dialogue.

I do think your book is great. I am unfair, because I was hoping for the moment of truth, when you will understand what makes the world move- what you describe in some pages, when you understand you do have a choice, or that your thoughts can change your way of life. I found some passages amazing and telling some truth you never find -about American doctors and practice of medical science, about systematical mastectomies and total lack of respect for the patient. I missed a part you have not written, when I thought you would have gone back to the first doctors who helped you, or learned more about Steiner, for example. I kept looking for that until I had to accept the book was finished, as there were no more pages to turn.
About asthma, if you can find a good homeopathic doctor, I know they can do wonders. I had some friends whose kid had bad asthma attacks and who had his inhaler etc but they looked for something to change the ground without any danger and tried homeopathy. They said as years passed, their boy stopped slowly having attacks, and finally stopped having asthma. Of course, it is known that a lot of kids will get better with puberty, but they could convince anyone it worked.
Now, another problem is the way America changes things until they are meaningless. Acupuncture gets a pure electrical tense machine with no knowledge necessary to put plenty of needles anywhere. It was not the original way it was thought in China -maybe it works, though?
And your book would be perfect to start a discussion about what is healing. I would like to see it. Actually, I am going to change the rating i gave it to 4 stars. If I could find the answers I was looking for, it would be worth a million stars.
Out of curiosity, when I wrote earlier I am lacking faith, I wanted to use the French expression, la foi du charbonnier, the perfect faith which cannot be tested. A tale from the 16th century said that the devil wanted to tempt a charbonnier,but el carvaeiro was very constant. "I believe what the church believes". The devil tried another approach "and what does the church believe?" "well, the same as what i believe". It is said that the devil gave up after several hours... I have been trying to translate the expression, but could not find anything except maybe 'creer a pies juntillas" in Spanish. Any idea?

Hi Anne,
I'm really enjoying our discussion. You're not unfair at all. Don't worry about the stars. I'm more than happy to have this conversation. I hope I didn't give the impression that I had found a universal truth. I found what was freeing for me.
Of all that I wrote about, the most transformational experience was biofeedback - discovering the effect that our thoughts have on our bodies, and how deep relaxation can release our attachment to them (in the same way that meditation does).
Don't you think that part of our purpose in being on the planet is to keep on searching for answers? The oral and written traditions teach us what our forebears have learned, and it is up to us to keep on learning more.
By the way, if you haven't read it, you might be interested in Anita Moorjani's "Dying to Be Me." She tells about her near-death experience and her miraculous recovery from end-stage cancer. She believes that releasing her fears was what cured her. My homeopath read it and added that the four years she spent "trying everything" contributed more to her recovery than she realizes. What seems random may sometimes be very purposeful.

P.S. About "la foi du charbonnier," perhaps 'faith beyond reason'? You might consider posting the phrase at http://www.proz.com/ask/ to see what the professional translators say.

yes, if we have a purpose, it must be to find your answers. Some are the same for everybody (why are we here? why does evil exist? etc? some can be more specific, depending on what a person deeply wishes and sometimes cannot have -or gets to be disappointed. And as weird as it sounds, there is an evolution is most societies which accept slowly for most the idea of natural law, of equal rights, all of which was heretic 150 years ago. I wish some organizations in the USA mostly would be more reasonable -for instance, I do believe it is better for a baby to be breastfed for a while, but not for a year or two. Otherwise, that means taking most women with kids out of work for so long that it sends us 50 years back. We have recently reached the stage when most wisdom is accessible to anyone with a couple of clicks. And that is amazing! As a kid, I had to go to a library to find information, and organize it, while now everything is there, available through internet. Fantastic!
I understand biofeedback in theory, but am not sure I am good at relaxing. That is the kind of stuff where a class surely helps.
No, I have not read "Dying to be me". I'll try to find it. What I read not so long ago is a blog by Claire Matteau, published as a book "l'Embellie" which is a close analogy, as she had ovarian cancer -not good, then breast cancer, some chemo, some surgery, and although they gave her six months in 2008, she is, I think still alive and kicking. She had the same kind of reaction as you, she wants to live and enjoy life.
What fascinates me with languages is the way they mold us, as some usual words in one do not exist in the other.

Hi Anne,
1. Regarding answers: I think the "answer" is that there will always be questions - some universal, as you say, and others that arise either from living our lives or from uncovering new layers of philosophical and scientific exploration.
On the subject of answerless medical questions, I recently wrote a blog at http://www.findingmyinvinciblesummer....
2. Yes, facts are now available with a couple of clicks. Wisdom may be a bit more elusive, but that, too, shows up in printed images on the social media.
3. I agree. As a translator I'm constantly surprised to find pathways of thought that do not exist in my own language. I believe that each new language we learn expands our understanding in immeasurable ways.

I tried for years with my then husband, who was German, to translate "degourdi" from French to German. Never managed... neither do the dictionaries, because the word does not exist. In English, streetwise implies the same idea, but instead of being a gift of nature, it is acquired by street experience. In Spanish, I cannot think of anything close to the idea. I searched dictionaries without being convinced by any of their propositions.
I found Dying to be me for free on internet, although in Spanish. Why not? t is a good way to refresh a language. I have read half of it, but so far, I prefer your book which is more authentic to me.
And yes, alas, more knowledge does not always mean wisdom, but it is a beginning.

Hi Anne, It's like the Eskimos/Inuit and their many words for snow--distinctions we can can't even imagine. That's why languages fascinate me so much.
The part I like best about Dying to Be Me is her description of her near-death experience. I also enjoyed reading about her formative years and her mixed cultural background. (I'm flattered by your compliment - my homeopath said almost the same thing.)
I'm having my book translated into Portuguese. It's almost finished. Also, several people have suggested that I "bury" the first two chapters later in the book so that it doesn't start out giving the impression that it's all about cancer. I have a new rearranged draft up the point where Sylvio gets sick. Right now I'm sending it out to a few people for their opinion - to see if it's worth making the change. Either way, I will be issuing a revised edition. I've come across a critical mass of little things that I want to change.

Silvio getting sick is the saddest part of the book, the part which cannot been fixed, the most unfair one, as he is struck by tb at a moment when the disease is curable. I did not have the feeling the book was only about cancer. It is about life, the happiness we sometimes find, the emptiness we feel too often, the few times love exists and how you can be robbed by fate of what matters most. It is too the most credible criticism of the US system of medical care, showing the quantity of mistakes made by doctors, with the best intentions, just because they are so sure to be almost divine in their knowledge. It may be a different pov to begin with that.

Thanks for your comments, Anne. Indeed, the TB part was terribly unfair. His disease was so far advanced that I don't know if it could have been cured, but it would certainly have been worth a try. As you can imagine, I now have very little faith in doctors.
I have sent a new draft of the first 40+ pages to four people to see what their reaction is. I'm very interested to see what they have to say. My housemate has already said she prefers the original version. My editor suggested that I consult the I-Ching, but there's too much at stake. I'm not that much of a believer.

sorry, it took me long to answer, but my husband was hospitalized and I was going back and forth for almost a week. It gave me a new insight about the insanity of hospitals, where logic does not exist.
I don't know what is the best way to begin the book. The way it is now is very fluid, just goes along the natural time lines and it is pleasant to read and easy to grasp -there is nothing I hate more than Faulknerian ways to write, when you have to read something 3 times before you know what it means. If you begin with Silvio's death, it may be a thriller like beginning, which catches the reader's attention, but brings him to expect the same suspense all along. So, it could be a bit riskier... I wish reality could have been like romance and fairy tales, and your husband could have survived, even with a long treatment. But the real world is harsh.
I would have liked more information about the way the doctors felt (see, I do believe in fairy tales, if I think it is possible to understand them!), even more criticism, as the way you have been treated is unreal, more like a number than like a person. I thought very interesting and frightening the feeling you had you must compel to their orders. Why is it so? I mostly grew up in Europe and that is a reaction you don't get there.
I don't know anything about the I-Ching, never tried it. I don't even know if it is easily accessible. If yes, you could try, just for the fun of it.
I had answered before, but it seems goodreads did not memorize what I typed. So, if you get the same kind of message twice, it would mean that they did mange to send it to you, even though it was not kept in the thread's memory.

Hi Anne, Sorry to hear about your husband. I hope he's safe at home again and feeling better.

Thanks for getting back to me. The new version puts everything in chronological order from the time I meet Sylvio, so his death comes after my first round with cancer. I'm very undecided at this point.

yes, he is home and I hope better. He was scheduled for a back operation, but had some cardiac arrhythmia during it and they decided to implant a pacemaker. It changed the length of the hospital stay a bit, from 2 days to a week.
The two versions can work fine. The chronological one starting with your meeting Silvio will be as clear as the other one.
My husband's grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time as you, and they probably wanted to do a radical mastectomy, but she said she came with all her parts and will leave with them (she was a first generation Italian immigrants, very Catholic, I believe). Nothing was done, and she lived 20 more years until 91. I did not know the woman, just heard the story.

Hi Anne,
Glad that your husband is home and safe.
Hat's off to your grandmother-in-law! She sounds like my own grandmother. Because people who survive cancer with little or no treatment are considered "anecdotal cases," there will never be any statistics demonstrating the effectiveness of non-action. It would certainly be helpful to know how many there are out there.
Thanks for your encouragement on rearranging the order of my book. I'm still sitting on the fence. I'm sure the answer will come to me if I stop stressing.
Have a nice weekend!

you know what would be a plus? pictures. The drawings Silvio made which are sweet could be bigger and some photos of you, your house, your dog, of Silvio if it is not too painful would take the reader deeper in the story. I read the beginning of the book again, and and would work good too if it started with the part you call "A Love Story".
I had read the Simonton's book years ago. If I remember well, if was the first book telling people to find with their minds, figure their white cells defeating the cancerous ones, figuring them a white knights. It was the first time cancer was presented as a psychosomatic disease, at least partially.
About the final version of the book, you need to take some distance, maybe write it, and let it rest a couple of days. Then, if you see it as something "new", it could give you a fresher way to look at it.
How can we continue talking with a bit more privacy?

Hi Anne,
Thanks so much for your suggestion. Another friend suggested also suggested photos, and I'm considering it. I lost a lot of them in the theft, then a bunch more in a flood here in California. But a few of them are cropping up. I found some only yesterday.
You can connect with me through my website, www.findingmyinvinciblesummer.com.

hello, I checked your site, but cannot find photos, except the ones for the book launch. I finished Dying to be me, and did not like it. It is badly written (is there a ghost writer in it?) and the only interesting part is what she felt during the NDE. And I cannot get into it... Leave without fear and you will be happy and healthy? yes, and how do you get rid of your fears? and how come so many people did not have the same grace given to them?
Okay, I'll use the web site, through contacts, I guess. Easier to criticize other books than here!

Hi, I agree with you about DTBM. But it was a bestseller! I haven't posted the photos that I found. I still have to scan them. Before the weekend is over, I will have posted the ones from my Norway trip. I have 3 blogs written which I will post as soon as I get the pictures up.
You can connect with the directly through the form under the Connect tab. Hugs.

that is what I did. I fixed the email listed there (microsoft wats to check with cell phone number) so, it works fine now.

I sent a message using your site a few days ago. I don't know if it went through... that is the problem, I don't have anyway to check. Hope you are fine.

Hi Anne, I've written you. Let me know if you received it.