The Boy Who Could Not Smile

I'm Eldon Sarte, and I'm a writer.

I'm also a Dad. I have three very young children, none of whom have ever seen me smile. It's something they'll likely never see. They haven't seen it on my face, at any rate. But they feel it. It doesn't seem to concern them a bit; they've just learned that smiling isn't really their Daddy's thing.

I do remember the last time I smiled. It was nearly two decades ago, right before the fourth and last major surgical procedure to fully remove a large tumorous growth in my brain. That last operation took about fourteen hours, and they got it all out. The doctors called it a success.

I just haven't been able to physically smile since.


The inability to smile's just part of a laundry list of serious "side effects" from the surgery that changed my life. It seems fairly superficial when compared to the other issues on the list. But after nearly two decades of "experience," I can tell you this: Not being able to smile has been the biggest barrier to normalcy and overcoming the sense of isolation. It's amazing to think about how much we use and have come to rely on such a simple gesture, but we do. Simply put, smiling's a critically important part of being human among humans.

As a writer, I've long wanted to capture these observations, these thoughts and experiences, and get them down on paper. Put them into words to maybe help others gain some insight into this different world I now live in. None of the project ideas I came up with through the years ever felt right, so I've just been carrying the notion around in the back of my mind, not doing anything with it. Until now.

What changed? Simple: I had kids. Everything clicked when I decided to do it as a kid's book, a story for young readers, to be exact. Not a verse picture book for beginning readers like the few I've done and published to date (under a pen name), but a chapter book for the younger set.

And that book is The Boy Who Could Not Smile.

Instead of something too clinical or biographical with just too much (boring, maybe even depressing) detail -- no doubt the reason why my previous stabs at the idea were just blah and didn't feel right at all -- I've instead woven it all together into a kid's fictional story that revolves around its main character, a little boy who -- surprise! -- cannot smile.

I've done some very, very rough drafts, but I now have the core story down on paper. Now comes the hard part: turning it into a quality work. That means editing, surely some rewriting and even more editing, and so on until it's just right.  Then getting all the needed pieces together, turning it into a professionally produced and published product.


An indie publishing project, I plan to release it initially as digital book editions for the Amazon Kindle, BN, Smashwords, etc. And down the road, if there's a demand for it, I'll bootstrap a print edition, maybe sooner than later with a POD (print on demand) edition. But my focus at this point is totally on digital. You can see the rough working cover I designed for it above.

I am seeking your assistance to fund the project and my ability to focus my energies on it as much as possible to get it finished and released in the marketplace. Every contibutor will receive a digital copy of the finished product (so we can actually consider these contributions preorders) regardless of the contribution amount. Although I suggest a minimum contribution of $5, you may contribute as little or as much as you wish, and I will send you a copy when the book is released. I appreciate every contribution, no matter how small.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and considering helping out with my project. All the best...