Author Archives: C.M.Mounts

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About C.M.Mounts

Author of Book of Snark and co-founder of American School of Storytelling. I write, travel, and cycle as much as a working schlub like me can manage. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’ve been told I am a funny gal with a big personality. Meh.

Stack of paper drafts with edits

To Edit a Book

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I am an accidental editor.

My friend Todd Park was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in February 2013. An avid writer, he wrote entries in his blog from his diagnosis until 24-hours before his death, caused by treatment related side effects, on December 16, 2013. The blog survives as a harrowing and honest chronicle of his journey through his cancer treatment.

Early in 2014, something began to gnaw at me- What will happen to Todd’s blog? It needs to be a book but who will edit it? Who indeed. I contacted Todd’s brother John and asked permission to convert his blog into a memoir. John agreed. Continue reading →

Empty hospital bed with bowl of popcorn on the stand

Popcorn from the Void: Observations, Manic Kvetching, and the Raw Truth of Leukemia

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Popcorn from the Void:
Observations, Manic Kvetching, and the Raw Truth of Leukemia
By Todd Park

6×9, 288 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1521532324
eBook $2.99/ Paperback $9.99

Available at Amazon

At 50, Todd Park did not look like a man whose bone marrow teemed with 50% cancerous cells. He had no symptoms. Settled into a new job in his hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah after a naval career and other post-military employment gave him a lifetime of moving, a simple blood test taken for a discount on health insurance led to an unexpected diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia. An avid writer, Todd blogged the raw physical, mental, and emotional experience of his treatment for this deadly disease. That blog became this posthumous memoir, Popcorn from the Void, fulfilling the commitment he made to write a book about his experience to help others struggling with leukemia.

Continue reading →

Multi-colored V set against a green background

Artist Life

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Success comes from years of failure and practice and headache and despair. When you finally succeed at whatever it is, there is often a surprise as if you popped out of a magic hat that way. I feel the real danger for artists is to compare themselves to commercially successful artists, assuming they did it all on their own- Maverick with little more than grit and determination. While that is true, they did not start out successful and back then, back then they didn’t have staff. There was not a whole team of corporate paid handlers, marketers, cleanup crew. Yes, the artist has the raw talent but their team polishes them. So please, for the love of God, do not give up on your art because it is not perfect. You don’t have staff to help you. Not yet.

-Copyright C.M. Mounts, May 2017