Welcome to my new blog ‘CATHY KONING WRITES’.

For my first article I’m looking at Cancer and Creativity. I discovered the hard way that illness can offer a unique opportunity to transform yourself. Sharing my experience may encourage you to take a chance and ‘seize the day’, especially if you want to pursue your creativity.

I found my writing voice quite late in life due to a huge tussle twelve years ago with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), a rare, aggressive, blood cancer. I have a deep-seated aversion to medical procedures due to childhood hospitalisations, but without immediate treatment I would not survive. Thanks to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital and my anonymous stem cell donor I am still here!

Cathy pic in bed with chocolates 1 April 2012

During my long recovery, I finally explored a battered suitcase of memorabilia belonging to my husband’s great aunt Dorothy Rudder, a beguiling, and feisty, Sydney soprano and theatre performer who needed to perform no matter what life threw in her path. After writing Dorothy’s biography, Dainty Diva, I added it as a free e-Book to my website.

What next? Everyone knows someone with cancer, or possibly has gone through it themselves. Why not chronicle my expedition for readers interested in better understanding the patient experience? The result was Life Blood: Lessons from one woman who survived serious illness against the odds, created with the invaluable assistance of my editor Amanda McMahon, book designer Sophie White and self-publishing mentor Julie Postance.

Next I unearthed the incredible story of one of the world’s most creative and notorious con men, thanks to two letters to Dorothy Rudder from an American she met in Borneo on New Year’s Eve 1918. The book, entitled Hoodwinked: The Extraordinary Life of American Con Artist Peter Grimes, will be available around April this year. It’s a Catch Me If You Can story on steroids!

So my point is without my cancer experience I would not now be calling myself an author. There is no way I would have chosen AML but thanks to Dorothy Rudder’s suitcase I now have three books under my belt, and counting.

I look forward to writing some unique con man stories for you, along with other topics which catch my eye. I would like to share ruminations on self-publishing, collecting Czech Art Deco vases, the experiences of my Dutch immigrant family, sustainable gardening, photos from my theatre photography archive, vignettes featuring the fascinating activities of people I know, and various books I have enjoyed.