(2007-06-25) Aria Publishers
Kansas-born, Adelaide-based novelist James Houston Turner celebrates 16 years of health after a near-death cancer battle.
Los Angeles, CA (June 25, 2007)-- Kansas-born, Adelaide-based novelist James Houston Turner celebrates his second chance at life 16 years after his cancer operation. Not many people have two birthdays, but acclaimed fiction author James Houston Turner has been receiving “sweet sixteen” birthday wishes from all over the world via his MySpace site.
The “sweet sixteen” actually refers to Turner’s 1991 cancer operation, where doctors at Australia’s Royal Adelaide Hospital cut out half of his jaw bone in order to excise a malignant tumor the size of an orange. They then fashioned him a new jaw bone out of hip bone, grafted skin and vessels from his arm into his mouth, where teeth and gums used to be, took muscles and arteries from his other arm to reconstruct his face, then grafted skin from his thigh back onto his arm. Turner was told if he lived eighteen months, he would probably live to be 100. “After 16 years, I am happy to report I am well on my way toward that goal!” Turner exclaims. But it has not been an easy battle.
“I thought I had been given a death sentence,” Turner recalls about being told he had cancer. “To make matters worse, when the cancer specialist in San Diego found out that we didn’t have health insurance, he simply walked out of the room, leaving me alone in the examination chair. We cried all the way home, knowing we could not afford the $200,000 needed for an operation.” His wife, however, was an Australian citizen, and called her sister in Adelaide to find out if help was available there. She arranged everything, and although they had to pay for the operation and treatment, it ended up costing them $17,000. The experience was life-changing for Turner, both personally and professionally.
“Like many cancer survivors, it caused me to examine my life and refocus on what was important... to get off the fence and do something with my life. My passion had always been writing, but when the going got tough, I would quit. My fight against cancer taught me determination and perseverance, and those qualities inhabit my books. I don’t write ‘donut stories,’ either – all fluff and air - but stories of triumph, reconciliation, and hope... stories with ‘meat’.”
Like the characters in his books, Turner continues to defy the odds, and one of his secrets is laughter. “My wife and I laugh a lot,” he says. “I’m always poking fun at myself, mainly because I think laughter is one of the best recipes for health there is.”
Besides having a great marriage, Turner walks, takes supplements, lifts weights, climbs stairs, and does hundreds of sit-ups. He and his wife seldom eat out at restaurants. They prefer instead to cook favorite meals together at home or with friends.
Turner's latest thriller, The Identity Factor, will be published in October, with his US tour launched in January, 2008, during the prestigious Australia Week “G’day LA” festivities in Los Angeles.
Contact: Mona Loring, Publicist
M. Loring Communications
Los Angeles, California
(805)231-3182
contact@monaloring.com