"Dancing with Rejection" Available Across Platforms

I was happy to discover some advanced features at the FriesenPress portal for my first book ...

"Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality"  this morning.

Cover Art features a remake of my "Recovery" mural, originally designed in 1979.

The book is now available at Amazon.com in the "Kindle" version at this link.

You can now preview the first 40 pages at this link.

Who will this book appeal to? Certainly my fellow Dialysis Warriors (this book is for YOU!) and also kidney transplant donors (Earth Angels ALL!) and of course kidney transplant recipients...but also, art lovers of all stripes.

With a couple of my bestselling author buddies in Saskatoon...Left -Right: Jefferson Smith, Wes Funk and myself.

Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality. 

He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters. 

Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.” 

Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.

The Excitement Mounts as "Dancing w Rejection" is PUBLISHED!

After about two years of intense focus...despite or maybe because of...battling the mental fogginess that comes along with kidney failure... I am so excited. Why? Because as of late last week, I was informed by the great folks at "Friesen Press" that my 1st book, "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" has been published!

After juggling countless moving parts, I was thrilled to finally hold the "proof copies" in my hands!

You can imagine, after all of this time, that it is a big deal to finally see this "Passion Project" come to fruition. Even at this early juncture, it is now possible to go ahead...to begin generating sales. This thanks once again to FriesenPress, as their policy is to "print on demand".

I stacked my "Proof Copy" units to invoke my first official order!

My father Robert sadly passed away at the tender age of 29, leaving behind his wife and six young children. It was therefore my joy to dedicate my "Passion Project" to his memory. I will be so happy and proud to see his memory surface as a heroic figure in "Dancing with Rejection". In fact, this aspiration is one of the paramount reasons why I set out on this writing adventure.

Robert Joseph Gaudet, my loving father, who was struck down in his youth by kidney failure. 

I will do everything in my power to honor and cherish the memory of my dad. His indomitable spirit will live on in the pages of "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Once you read the book, you will clearly understand the thinly-veiled reference to this!

The author shown receiving life-saving "dialysis therapy", a 3x a week measure, with no end in sight.

Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality. 

He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters. 

Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.” 

Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.

Dancing with Rejection: COMING SOON.

COMING SOON ! 

Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality. 

He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters. 

Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.” 

Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.

3 Top Reasons I Love Dialysis

Happy to be alive to fight another day.

Now that the I am coming around to one full year since I started dialysis again (after my first kick at the can way back in 1979, before my first kidney transplant in 1979 that sustained me for 34+ years!) I think I have a bit of perspective on it. Hence, I can list the "3 Top Reasons I Love Dialysis". 

1) It's keeping me alive to fight another day. There is no question, without the life-saving intervention of dialysis, I would not be here to tap the keys. Some of the toxins in my bloodstream were so elevated before I started that my doctor told me I was in danger of a heart attack or stroke. He said something to the effect..."Please consider starting dialysis BEFORE we see you in an emergency situation. We don't want to lose you." 

Three times a week...I sit for 4 hours in this chair.

2) My blood is getting cleaned to qualify me for another transplant. Though we know dialysis is a life-saving therapy, it is NOT the most preferred lifestyle for a (relatively) young, busy man like me. Dedicating three days a week to this is a big commitment. Even a kidney transplant...miraculous as it might seem...is NOT a cure, and I am a living testament to this. On the other hand, a kidney transplant is certainly a huge improvement over thrice-weekly dialysis IMHO.

3) I spend my dialysis time being productive, thanks to my trusty laptop. In the past year I have been working on fine-tuning my memoir called "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Point your search engine to this link to read more.

Holding the first "Copy Proofs" of the "Dancing with..." trilogy.

Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality. 

He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters. 

Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.” 

Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.

Life as a Dialysis Patient...It Goes on!

As promised, here is the 10-minute film created and produced by Bamboo Shoots Inc. for Sasktel Max TV that went to air a couple of weeks ago:

 

To read more about "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" (coming soon!) please point your browser to this link.

From One Human Bean to Another

At the age of 21, in 1979, I designed and painted the seminal mural Recovery 1 while receiving thrice weekly dialysis therapy at Sunnybrook Medical Center in "Toronto the Good".

Photo of  Recovery 1 in 1979.

I embraced the "Recovery" motif as the perfect masthead for the Facebook page that my wife Sharon and I founded a little over two years ago. Called "Kidney Transplant Donors and Recipients" (KTDR), the site garnered an impressive nine-hundred members within the first year. Little did we realize that within a couple of years, the site would explode to over eleven thousand worldwide members!

My best attempt to breathe some contemporary "life" into the fairly low-resolution, hazy, pixelated image.

Now that I was committed to pressing this image into service once again in a high-fidelity format...namely, as the cover art for my Book 1 of the soon-to-be-unleashed memoir "Dancing with Rejection..." my publishing consultant advised me that the (above) artwork appears so severely pixelated aka blurry that it would simply not suffice, should I desire to look professional. I took this as an immediate challenge and decided to respond by creating brand-new, crisp artwork for that purpose.

Getting very close to visualizing the Cover Art for "Dancing..."

An invocation for a successful hunt? It would appear so.

Now, I can say with confidence that the artwork for the cover of "Dancing..." is going to pass muster with nary a revision after this. As the careful observer will note, I have made two conspicuous changes to the design in the 2015 version. First, I have the last (vibrant red) figure on the right-hand side striding with purpose off the edge of the canvas. Second, I have included a "Kidney" motif in the guts of that figure. He is a successful kidney transplant recipient! 

Brand-new, crisp artwork is created in 2015 to dramatically upgrade the quality of the image.

Much as the artists of the Neanderthal Age would have meticulously painted iconic images of bison, deer and hunters deep inside their ceremonial caves, I paint the vibrant figure with his transplanted kidney. In my own way, I am emulating those cave paintings with an "invocation" or "visual prayer" for my own healing once again. Everything has come around full circle...I find myself once again facing down thrice weekly dialysis treatments as I wait and pray for my quest to yield the "Gift of Life". 

Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality. 

He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters. 

Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.” 

Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.