An Interview with Author Scott D. Hetherington

 Author Bio (tell us about yourself)

I live in Alpharetta GA, with my wife of 16 years and our 9-year-old son. I am an assistant principal at a high school in town and have been an educator for 18 years. I enjoy soccer, music, and horror movies.

Tell us about your book. What is it about?

I was diagnosed with leukemia at 14 years old. I turned 20 when I was officially done with all my treatment. It dominated so much of my adolescence that I never really dealt the with the emotional piece of going through something like that. So, several years later, as an act of catharsis, I began writing down stories and memories from my time in the hospital and being sick. These short essays and stories became the book.

What motivated you to write this book? (Inform? Educate? Share?)

I never sat down to write a book. I mostly just began writing down these memories as way to expel some of the things I was thinking about and dealing with in the years following my treatment.

Who is your target audience for this book? Why should they read your book, or how will it help them?

Now that these passages are collected in a book, it really is for anyone who finds themselves diagnosed with cancer. I was a teenager when I was sick, but this book could be for anyone. It’s meant to show people that you can get through it and live a productive normal life afterwards. The title, “It’s A Lot Like A Bee Sting”, came from another little boy in the hospital at the same time with me. He shared his experience about a procedure he had when first admitted to the hospital. I would be facing that same procedure later that day and was extremely nervous and scared. His response of “Oh yeah, that! It’s a lot like a bee sting” helped me to calm down a bit. And knowing someone else went through it, and appeared to be fine, made it easier for me to face my fear.

Are your books tied to a business you own or work for? If so, tell us about that business and how the book and the business work together.

I don’t have my own business. However, I do feel that working with children every day can be stressful and my traumatic experience having cancer as a kid has helped me to relate to kids with a bit more insight, patience, and care. We all come into the building every day bringing some things from home that no one else sees. I remember going back to school after that long hiatus in the hospital. My backpack wasn’t the only baggage I carried into that school. I felt pain, fear, anger, and was very self-conscious about my physical appearance chemotherapy had produced. I try to keep those memories in mind when a student comes into school yielding some baffling behavior. One never really knows where it may have been generated and how it impacted his/her morning.

Are you ever concerned that the language of your book is either too technically difficult or too elementary and potentially insulting for your target audience? How do you decide?

I do have some chapters in the book that have some harsh language as well as some topics that may not be suitable for young children. However, these were experiences that happened to me as a teenager, and they are true to what happened. So, for my own purposes and my own emotions, I felt that I needed to include those things in my writings.

How long did your book take to complete?

About a year.

Are you currently working on another book? Is it the same genre?

I have no plans to write another book.

What is your goal as an author?

I wrote this for my own clarity and emotional help. I suppose if there was/is ever a time where I find the need to do it again, I would hope that I can devote the time to sit and write again.

Why did you decide to self-publish?

Honestly, my mother was the one who was able to have it self-published. She encouraged the stories to be put together and created the artwork for the cover of the book. She was really the one who made it become something that people could consume.

Did you use IngramSpark, Amazon KDP, or another company to handle the printing and distribution of your book?

Lightening Source/Ingram. It’s published under Little Worm Publishing. My mother is an author, Linda Oberlin, and self-publishes under her own company, LWP. She had a great deal of help from Jera Publishing and still uses them frequently for formatting, etc. for all of her books.

Did you purchase your own ISBN or have one assigned to you by Amazon KDP or IngramSpark?

I purchased my own through Bowker Identifier Services.

Now that your book is in print, do you have any regrets?

No regrets for me!

What parts did you do on your own, and what did you hire out to have done? (Editing, book design, cover design, eBook, marketing, etc.)

As stated before, my mother did the artwork for the cover and published under her publishing company, Little Worm Publishing. She typically is the one to market the book on her professional and private FB pages, LinkedIn, and Instagram. But neither of us are very interested in marketing. The technical formatting and editing work was done by Jera Publishing. All of the writing was done by me, however.

What is the most difficult part of writing this book?

Finding the time to do it. With work, family, and other interests it is important to spend the time on things in general that help you, motivate you, etc.

How old were you when you started writing?

I began thinking about and writing the essays for this around 24 years old.

What skills, education, and/or experience have you acquired that helped you develop as a writer for this topic?

Being an educator requires a lot writing and presenting every day. Even as a math teacher, you are constantly communicating with students, parents, school personnel, and the community in general. Finding ways to deliver material that fits, relates, educates, and informs all sectors of that community can be challenging.