Help Jody write her book and avoid destitution after illness

Please help Jody write Dry Water, Blue Clouds

and keep her from becoming destitute after 40 years of brain illnesses

Dear Friends –

I am in crisis and am reaching out for help.

After losing forty years of my life to meningoencephalitis (a brain disease), a brain tumor, and the aftermath of brain surgery, my cognition finally returned last November—but the literary fellowship that was funding me ended a few months later, leaving me with $0 in savings (and no money coming in from anywhere like IRAs, parents, etc.). The illnesses also left me with an unfinished doctorate, and a career (in environmental sustainability) that never began.

If I cannot pay the remainder of November’s rent and bills and December’s rent and bills, I will be evicted and lose everything—including the opportunity to make something meaningful of my life—beginning with this book.

In the ICU after brain surgery:

Four days after surgery:

Dry Water, Blue Clouds is an ‘eco-adventure-memoir’ based on 22 months of cultural and environmental research in the Solomon Islands. It’s the doctoral work I never wrote up, now being written like a novel—from 100s of pages of field notes—for general audiences. Besides the nearly endless drama, the book includes the words and wisdom of insightful islanders re: the social, economic, and cultural values and behaviors that lead to societal and environmental well-being—and those that lead to ruin. Words our culture (and the world) could surely use today. The book is written with honesty, warmth and humor and employs story (vs data) to look at the values and behaviors that have caused—and continue to cause—the climate crisis. Dry Water, Blue Clouds delivers a message that is urgent while also offering the possibility of hope. A draft of the first two chapters can be read at jodysolow.com.

Sarah and friends on Vella Lavella Island:

101-year old birthday girl:

While falling barometric pressure no longer leaves me blind, deaf or incoherent (there were days I couldn’t recall my own name), it does still affect me (intense headache, dizziness, blurred vision, etc.)—but as of last November I’ve been able to focus and think clearly well over 90% of the time. Yet, instead of working on my book I’ve been wasting these past months trying to sell my belongings to survive.

Having the security of a home, heat, Internet, food and peace of mind would enable me to write a book proposal and complete a few more chapters to send literary agents. Years ago, I was represented (for another eco-adventure-memoir based in northern Kenya) by a literary agent who also represented Michael Creighton, Malcolm Gladwell, Diane Ackermann, etc., and when she moved to foreign rights, I was represented by the beloved Elaine Markson. At the time, meningoencephalitis made me too cognitively impaired to continue to write—and now Elaine has sadly passed.

Northern Kenya:

I hesitated to write this GoFundMe. It’s humbling to be in this situation, and so hard to ask for help, especially after being unable to communicate like before and losing contact with practically everyone I ever knew. The emotional toll of the immediate stress—and realizing that my adulthood has been lost—is impossible to describe, and has led me—a normally positive, optimistic person—down some very dark roads. But after the election, for the first time I began posting online, and replies by many of the people from my past whom I so dearly loved—and love—reminded me of me and gave me the strength to reach out.

I thank you with all my heart for any offerings you’re able to make. My hope is to be able to spend the winter writing and revising an agent-worthy nonfiction book proposal to be sent out by late March or early April.

Meanwhile, I’ll also be trying to sell paintings and seeking editing jobs with professors, grad students, and those writing non-academic books and other materials to keep me going after April—until I find an agent to represent the book and get a book deal. (I’ve been editing on and off for decades. It’s work I can do on my own time when my brain is working on all four cylinders—which these days is most of the time—and it’s something I’m strangely good at considering the only time I studied grammar was when I learned French!) If you know of any editing leads, I’d be grateful if you’d send them my way! I’m also trying to sell Yemaya, my sea foam green 1967 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser. She’s been with me for 20 years, drives well, and has her 2024 inspection sticker. I must sell her ASAP to become debt free so that this GoFundMe can be used solely for survival. Info and photos of Yemaya are available at: jodysolow.com.

3.5 years after brain surgery—a messy hair day from running in the wind on a "good brain" day:

The village where I lived in the Solomons before I had to escape to another island:

Budget:

November: $2,500 (includes remainder of rent, bills, and my Medicare bill that was due on 25 November)

December: $3,500

January: $3,500

February: $3,500

March: $3,500

April: $3,500

Repay a dear friend from France $4,000 for her kind loan to keep me housed: $4,000

TOTAL: $23,500

Anything received over this amount will be put into a savings account. One day I hope to design and build an eco-/green tiny cottage on a plot of land—my dream is to have a home, even a tiny one.

Again, thanks so very much for your kindness…

With love,

Jody