Mountains In My Body Jet Booster
Donation protected
In April 2014, nearly 300 people came together to fund research for my book project, Mountains In My Body.
Mountains In My Body examines the global supply chain of my internal cardiac defibrillator, considering whether this lifesaving device could have caused loss of life elsewhere. The book wrestles with the contradictions inherent in a global economy, including the environmental costs of technology, the problem of corporate citizenship in resource extraction, the complexity of conflict minerals, and the fact that a life saved in one place may be a life lost elsewhere. But the core of the book is memoir, following my journey to understand my relationship to my body, the ICD, and in the end, death itself.
My Kickstarter funding enabled me to conduct primary source research at two mines on the island of Madagascar, visit the largest gold reef in the world, search for my great-great-grandmother's gravestone in Texas, and begin the long task of writing this book. Yet the writing continues, and the funding is gone.
Those of you who have followed the project for a long time know that I recently had my defibrillator replaced for the first time. During the surgery, medical staff discovered that the wire from my heart to the device has been repeatedly crushed between my clavicle and first rib. This week, I'll have the wire replaced, a dangerous procedure that requires cutting the old wire out of my heart tissue with a specialized laser.
Ever since my low battery vibration went off in mid-March, I've been thrust back into the plot of my own book. It's become harder and harder to do other forms of work: the book is beckoning to me. I am having to learn new technical material; I am making decisions about how I relate to my cyborgy parts; I am negotiating power relationships with doctors; I am dancing with death again.
The experience demands attention. After my lead extraction surgery, I expect this to be even more true.
To make matters more exciting, I learned last month that one of my essays will be included in the Best American Essays 2016 anthology (ed. Jonathan Franzen and Robert Atwan), which will be out in October. The honor could open doors for me in a publishing world, but in order to move forward I need polished sample chapters and a book proposal--something I haven't been able to accomplish while juggling multiple jobs. MIMB synthesizes information from a number of technical fields, and the work is exhilarating but very slow.
This summer, I have a seven-week position mentoring youth in Arusha, Tanzania, as part of Global Leadership Adventures. Knowing I would have little free time during most of this, I've set aside two weeks in June and two weeks in August to work on the book project. However, allocating these weeks to the book means going without pay.
The timing is right; I'm hoping this GoFundMe will fill the gaps.
$4200 is an amount that will cover my fixed costs for one month. This includes rent, insurance, utilities, and food. It includes a bit of wiggle room for payments on medical bills (currently of indeterminate amounts, but inevitable). And of course it builds in the small percentage that will go toward the GoFundMe fees.
Because I often write best on the road, it's likely I'll spend this writing time outside Tucson, away from my responsibilities. Some of these funds may cover a bungalow or hotel room abroad, then--a literal space for my dreaming and drafting. Any extra funds raised will allow me to devote more time to the book this fall. It's been a long road, and I'd like to push a little harder, to see where I can get. But I can't do it without you.
Maybe you want to support me as an individual in following the rocky path of this gorgeous and terrifying profession. Maybe Mountains In My Body is a book you need in the world. Either way, I thank you so deeply for your encouragement, intellectual engagement, and financial support. I'm so grateful to have you in my tribe.
Mountains In My Body examines the global supply chain of my internal cardiac defibrillator, considering whether this lifesaving device could have caused loss of life elsewhere. The book wrestles with the contradictions inherent in a global economy, including the environmental costs of technology, the problem of corporate citizenship in resource extraction, the complexity of conflict minerals, and the fact that a life saved in one place may be a life lost elsewhere. But the core of the book is memoir, following my journey to understand my relationship to my body, the ICD, and in the end, death itself.
My Kickstarter funding enabled me to conduct primary source research at two mines on the island of Madagascar, visit the largest gold reef in the world, search for my great-great-grandmother's gravestone in Texas, and begin the long task of writing this book. Yet the writing continues, and the funding is gone.
Those of you who have followed the project for a long time know that I recently had my defibrillator replaced for the first time. During the surgery, medical staff discovered that the wire from my heart to the device has been repeatedly crushed between my clavicle and first rib. This week, I'll have the wire replaced, a dangerous procedure that requires cutting the old wire out of my heart tissue with a specialized laser.
Ever since my low battery vibration went off in mid-March, I've been thrust back into the plot of my own book. It's become harder and harder to do other forms of work: the book is beckoning to me. I am having to learn new technical material; I am making decisions about how I relate to my cyborgy parts; I am negotiating power relationships with doctors; I am dancing with death again.
The experience demands attention. After my lead extraction surgery, I expect this to be even more true.
To make matters more exciting, I learned last month that one of my essays will be included in the Best American Essays 2016 anthology (ed. Jonathan Franzen and Robert Atwan), which will be out in October. The honor could open doors for me in a publishing world, but in order to move forward I need polished sample chapters and a book proposal--something I haven't been able to accomplish while juggling multiple jobs. MIMB synthesizes information from a number of technical fields, and the work is exhilarating but very slow.
This summer, I have a seven-week position mentoring youth in Arusha, Tanzania, as part of Global Leadership Adventures. Knowing I would have little free time during most of this, I've set aside two weeks in June and two weeks in August to work on the book project. However, allocating these weeks to the book means going without pay.
The timing is right; I'm hoping this GoFundMe will fill the gaps.
$4200 is an amount that will cover my fixed costs for one month. This includes rent, insurance, utilities, and food. It includes a bit of wiggle room for payments on medical bills (currently of indeterminate amounts, but inevitable). And of course it builds in the small percentage that will go toward the GoFundMe fees.
Because I often write best on the road, it's likely I'll spend this writing time outside Tucson, away from my responsibilities. Some of these funds may cover a bungalow or hotel room abroad, then--a literal space for my dreaming and drafting. Any extra funds raised will allow me to devote more time to the book this fall. It's been a long road, and I'd like to push a little harder, to see where I can get. But I can't do it without you.
Maybe you want to support me as an individual in following the rocky path of this gorgeous and terrifying profession. Maybe Mountains In My Body is a book you need in the world. Either way, I thank you so deeply for your encouragement, intellectual engagement, and financial support. I'm so grateful to have you in my tribe.
Organizer
Kati Standefer
Organizer
Tucson, AZ