Amelia Frahm

About

Amelia Frahm began her professional career when hired to convince a Texas public to build a nuclear power plant in their own backyard. It was after the Three Mile Island Incident and during the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident. She immediately learned the importance of making the complex and technical into something anyone could understand and find interesting.

It was Frahm’s personal life that led to her publishing career. In 1994 her children were toddlers when she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She was surprised to discover there was not a children’s book to help explain her cancer-tankerous behavior to her children. Undaunted, she wrote her own book and sent it to a parade of publishers– who turned it down.

In October of 2000, Frahm was summoned from her home in Hutchinson, Minnesota, to Houston, Texas, to say goodbye to her best-friend, Laura Bouldin Karlman, who was dying from Leukemia. Karlman left behind two young children; she was 39.

Back home in Minnesota, Frahm fulfilled a promise she had made her friend and established the Nutcracker Publishing Company. A year later the company introduced Tickles Tabitha’s Cancer-tankerous Mommy, which debuted on the Rosie O Donnell Talk Show. The cancellation of Frahm’s personal appearance on the show due to Anthrax being found at NBC studios at Rockefeller Plaza, where the O Donnell show aired, propelled her into the national spotlight and earned her a reputation for outstanding public relations amongst her publishing colleagues.

She is considered an expert on marketing, publishing, and children/families affected by cancer and has said, “"If anybody needs to be inspired to get up when you’ve been kicked down, and say thank you to whoever or whatever gave you the boot, I’m your speaker!”

In 2007 her company introduced a blonde, pig-tailed, Tickles Tabitha, and launched the first cancer education school program, created by a cancer survivor, designed specifically for elementary aged children.

One of her first professional job assignments was creating a school program about nuclear power plants and she plans to create a similar program to accompany her next book idea. A children’s book about how nuclear power plants work.

She has fond memories of working at a nuclear plant such as the time a group of elderly ladies were visiting the plant waiting for a spaceship to drop by and refuel. According to Frahm, “nothing I could make up about my experiences at a South Texas Nuclear Plant could be as farfetched as the truth.”

She’s appeared on radio and TV segments across the country, and is a member of the National Cancer Survivors Speakers Bureau. Today she resides in Apex, North Carolina.

More information may be found at www.nutcrackerpublishing.com Or you may e-mail her at Amelia@nutcrackerpublishing.com Phone: 919-924-2058, Home phone: 919-262-4692.

A King Under Siege

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Description

Richard II found himself under siege not once, but twice in his minority. Crowned king at age ten, he was only fourteen when the Peasants' Revolt terrorized London. But he proved himself every bit the Plantagenet successor, facing Wat Tyler and the rebels when all seemed lost. Alas, his triumph was short-lived, and for the next ten years he struggled to assert himself against his uncles and increasingly hostile nobles. Just like in the days of his great-grandfather Edward II, vengeful magnates strove to separate him from his friends and advisors, and even threatened to depose him if he refused to do their bidding. The Lords Appellant, as they came to be known, purged the royal household with the help of the Merciless Parliament. They murdered his closest allies, leaving the King alone and defenseless. He would never forget his humiliation at the hands of his subjects. Richard's inability to protect his adherents would haunt him for the rest of his life, and he vowed that next time, retribution would be his. B.R.A.G. Medallion honoree!

Story Behind The Book

Amelia Frahm was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 1994 at age 34, back when cancer was still whispered about, especially in front of children. Unable to find a picture book to help explain it to her toddlers she wrote "Tickles Tabitha's Cancer-tankerous Mommy." Publishers rejected her book idea and according to Frahm, " rejection is the last thing you need when battling Breast Cancer." So she put her manuscript away for years, but when her best friend, Laura Bouldin Karlman, died of cancer leaving behind two young children she found her courage and motivation. She established Nutcracker Publishing Company and published "Tickles Tabitha’s Cancer-tankerous Mommy." Her book had just gone to press when she received a call that her mother had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer Frahm won what for an unknown author was the marketing lottery when the Rosie O Donnell Show asked her to appear on the show in Oct. 2001 to introduce her book. The book made it, but not the author. First there was 9/11, and Frahm had no sooner been told that the show and her appearance would go on when Anthrax was found at O Donnell's New York studio. Frahm's appearance was cancelled, but the book made it and was recommended by O Donnell. Frahm used her non-appearance to garner more attention than she ever would have received had she been on the show. She said, "Nothing prepares you to handle a crisis like facing your own mortality." Today her company also offers Crack Open A Book! cancer education programs. Her book is used to teach the lessons her family learned battling cancer: Courage, Perseverance, Love …only schools call it character education. She concedes that only a few years ago going into an elementary classroom to talk about cancer was inconceivable, and today schools across the country are facing budget cuts, but "my favorite character trait is perseverance."

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Reviews

Rosie O’Donnell- “a great way to get your kids to talk about cancer.” Susan G. Komen Foundation- “covers even how the delicate infrastructure of day- to-day family issues between husband, wife and children are changed by cancer.” Randi Kaye CNN-News Correspondent, Atlanta, GA “I was so touched, it’s (cancer) not an easy topic to convey and Amelia Frahm’s done it.” The Midwest Book Review, “A clarity and candor laced with humor and insight. Very highly recommended for school and community library “health issues” collections.” Today’s Librarian, “It takes a humorous approach to one of the many down sides of battling cancer- being cantankerous. Eye-popping, gloriously colored.” Today’s Dallas Woman, “Includes the sudden hush children feel whenever their world isn’t what they expect.”

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