Author Fran Lewis Writes about Alzheimers and More
Anyone who has ever had to deal with a loved one having Alzheimers or even needing specialized care should check out Fran Lewis's books, taken from her own experiences with her late mother.

Welcome to my blog, Fran. I know you write multiple genres. What are they?
I write children’s books, horror and non-fiction.
Quite a diverse mixture. Which of those do you want to feature in this post?
In this post I would like to feature my non-fiction titles and my two children’s books. The proceeds for my books go to a foundation set up by Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx to find the cause of Alzheimer’s. The foundation is named for my mom.
Tell us about them.
My three non-fiction books are MEMORIES ARE PRECIOUS, BECAUSE WE CARE and SHARP AS A TACK OR SCRAMBLED EGGS, WHICH DESCRIBES YOUR BRAIN?
The first, Memories are Precious, focuses on my mom’s journey from start to finish with Alzheimer’s as readers hear her stories and poems in her own words. This book includes her journal too.
Because We Care focuses on Caregivers, Elder Care Abuse and Traumatic Brain Injury, and the third, Sharp as a Tack or Scrambled Eggs, Which Describes you Brain? focuses on ways we can all keep our minds and brains alert and active. It sounds like most of your books have messages.
All of my children’s books have strong messages: Tolerance, understanding, why bullying is wrong, loyalty to friends and family, education is paramount to success and getting good grades should be your goal. I also include stories about peer pressure, parental pressure and learning from your mistakes.My two books Faces Behind the Stones and Bad Choices are told from the point of view of the person that is behind the stone in the cemetery. Both books help or should help both adults and teens learn what happens when they make the wrong choice, do not think before acting and just might wind up behind a stone in a cemetery.
Did you self-publish or query and hope a publisher would accept your work? How did that work out for you?
I self-published Bertha and Tillie Forever and Bertha and Tillie Sisters Forever. Faces Behind the Stones and Bad Choices were published by World Castle Publishing.
My publisher created the cover for the Bertha and Tillie series using my own ideas and the pictures of myself and my sister Marcia who passed away last year and who is Tillie.
What do you do to promote your writing?
I have two radio shows on Blog Talk Radio and mention my titles on every show either at the beginning when I introduce myself or at the end when I include my websites and titles and announce the next show. I put my links on twitter, my facebook wall, my blogs and on friendfeed. I bring my books with me wherever I go and give them to the mailman, the FedEx man for his daughter, my super for his daughter and to the guard in Kmart and the sales person in Staples. This helps to spread the word and it even allows others that would normally not know about my books to learn about them.
Sounds like you do a lot, but why should we buy your books?
Montefiore has a caregiver center with my three non-fiction books on their shelves. For those people that want to understand more about Alzheimer’s my Memories are Precious Book has been stated as a great resource, which I have sent to many hospitals and they have in their libraries. Because We Care will enlighten readers about Elder Care Abuse, Nursing Home Abuse and Traumatic Brain Injury. Caring for my mom for ten years as her primary caregiver with the help of home health aides, I learned a lot about homecare, Alzheimer’s and Nursing Homes. Visiting many, I looked carefully at their plan of care, their services and even more at their staff and how they interacted with the residents. My mom was home in her own apartment until the day she passed last March.
My children’s books are great for all teens and younger children ages 7 and up to learn about tolerance, understanding, peer pressure, how to deal with bullying, being overweight and overcoming the comments and other childhood issues.
Fran, thank you so much for this post. I hope it will inspire those who read it to buy your books on caregiving and Alzheimers and gain some emotional relief from them.
I'm sure anyone with children or grandchildren will want to take a look at the children's books. It sounds like they have something to benefit every child.
FRAN'S BIO
Fran worked in the NYC Public Schools as the Reading and Writing Staff Developer for over 36 years. She has three masters Degrees and a PD in Supervision and Administration. Currently, she is a member of Who's Who of America's Teachers and Who's Who of America's Executives from Cambridge. In addition, she is the author of three children's books and a fourth that has just been published on Alzheimer's disease in order to honor her mom and help create more awareness for a cure. The title of my new Alzheimer’s book is Memories are Precious: Alzheimer’s Journey; Ruth’s story and Sharp as a Tack and Scrambled Eggs Which Describes Your Brain?
She was the musical director for shows in her school and ran the school's newspaper. Fran writes reviews for authors upon request and for several other sites. You can read some of my reviews on Ezine.comand on ijustfinished.com under the name Gabina. Here is the link to her radio show www.blogtalkradio.com, I have ten titles. Five are children’s books, two are horror and three are non-fiction titles. I have two radio shows on The World Of Ink and Red River Writers on Blog Talk Radio. I have a review site on Facebook: reviewingyourbook which I run. Authors can post their events, links and positive comments and review on this site. I have two sites on word press where I post my reviews and where authors can request a review.
Please include a paragraph about you, your family, your interests… anything you’d like people to know about you. What made you decide to be a writer/author?What are your hobbies/passions/pastimes? Is there a key cause you support?I decided to write my first children’s book when I retired early from teaching. I was the dean of discipline, the assistant to the assistant principal as well as the reading and writing staff developer. When my mom was diagnosed in 2003 with Alzheimer’s I decided that I was not going to stay home and do nothing but do something different. Writing about my life growing up in the South Bronx and sharing my stories with young readers really enriches my life.
I am a five star Indie Book Reviewer and I am one of the reviewers in the Yellow Pages of Book Reviewer. I love reading and I enjoy providing positive feedback to authors. I provide a service for a fee to authors who want their unpublished manuscripts not edited, but critiqued for plot, storyline, mood, character strengths and weaknesses, story pacing and flow and much more. My cause is Alzheimer’s the Ruth Swerdloff Clinical Foundation at Montefiore Hospital to find the cause of Alzheimer’s and the Kessler Foundation in memory of my sister Marcia Wallach to find out more about Traumatic Brain Injury.
Where can we find out more about you and your work?
http://www.freewebs.com/gabina49/apps/profile/39903491/ http://www.facebook.com/fran.lewis1 http://gabina49.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/franellenahttp://www.amazon.com/Memories-are-Precious-Alzheimers-Journey/dp/144158479X/ref
Published on February 27, 2013 07:40
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