What would you do if you were told that you were going to lose your ability to speak and write?
If you were a writer, like author and New York Times bestselling ghostwriter Ian “Blake” Newhem (pictured above), you might find a way to make an impact with your words. You might find a way to get your story out there while inspiring others to take immediate action on their passion before it was too late.
This is why he created A Million Words Away. Beginning by participating with National Novel Writing Month in November 2019, Blake will publish 12 original novels. One a month. For a year.
Blake recently did an AMA on reddit that exploded, becoming the most popular AMA for the month of October: https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/dg6xep/im_a_successful_writer_whos_about_to_lose_my/
Here’s the Story:
Three years ago, author and accomplished ghostwriter Ian Blake Newhem was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Not just any tumor though, one that sits immediately next to the brain’s language expression center. A surgery removed 80% of the tumor, but doctors told him it would most likely return in a few years time, removing his ability to speak and write before eventually killing him.
For the past fifteen years Blake (yes, he goes by his middle name) has had careers as a college professor of writing, a journalist, and most notably as a successful ghostwriter. In this latter role, Blake has worked with famous doctors, athletes, celebrities, and politicians. Some of these books have attained the highly coveted “bestseller” label with both Amazon and the New York Times and one was even endorsed by the Pope.
With all of his success over the years in writing books and obtaining publishing deals for others, Blake had neglected his own voice, his own personal works. As he recovered from his surgery, he began to develop a plan. Taking his knowledge of platform building for authors he decided the best way to get his unpublished manuscripts out there was to go big or go home. He decided he would publish a book a month for a year. 12 books vs. 1 tumor.
A complete list of the books can be found here: https://amillionwordsaway.com/books/
The books span genres from period drama, to mystery, to comedy, and crime. Blake is working with different collaborators for each project. Throughout the course of the next year, readers will be invited to donate what they can to A Million Words Away through the website and Patreon.