Giving to Children in Need
Tales from Twisted Ravens: When Gratitude Turns Into Action
There are moments in life that permanently change how you look at people.
For me, that moment came during cancer treatment. If you have been subscribed to my Substack for a while, this will be old news to you, but I want to do a recap for those here for the first time.
2025 was one of the hardest years I’ve ever experienced. Between family loss, personal strain, and a breast cancer diagnosis followed by endless medical bills, life became a blur of appointments, uncertainty, and trying to keep my head above water. At one point, things became difficult enough that I launched a GiveSendGo simply to help manage the financial side of surviving. Thankfully, through the generosity of others, that campaign reached its goal, and I was able to focus on healing instead of wondering how to survive both physically and financially at the same time.
What stayed with me most was not the fear. It was the kindness.
People showed up. Some donated. Some reached out privately. Some simply reminded me I wasn’t fighting alone. Even now, I still struggle to properly explain what that support meant to me. It is one thing to believe people are good in theory. It is another thing entirely to experience it firsthand when you are at your lowest.
After my double mastectomy, I spent a night in the hospital staring at the whiteboard across the room with my medical team’s names scribbled across it. Hospitals have a strange way of slowing time down. You sit there with your thoughts long enough that eventually you stop avoiding them. Somewhere between the exhaustion and the pain medication, I made a promise to myself and to God.
I wanted to give something back. Not someday when life settled down. Not eventually when it was convenient. As soon as I was able.
That decision eventually led to a long conversation with Mark from ComicBooks for Kids, an organization dedicated to placing comics directly into hospitals and cancer centers for children facing incredibly difficult circumstances. What started as a short call turned into a much larger discussion about storytelling, hospitals, children, and the reality of how much effort it takes to get appropriate books into the hands of young patients.
By the end of that conversation, the foundation for something new had already formed in my mind.
That project became Tales from Twisted Ravens.
What Is ComicBooks for Kids?
At first glance, comics can seem small. Entertainment. Escapism. Something meant purely for fun.
But hospitals change the meaning of small things.
ComicBooks for Kids works directly with hospitals, treatment centers, and care facilities to provide age-appropriate comics to children going through some of the hardest experiences imaginable. These books are carefully vetted to meet hospital standards and delivered under strict safety and infectious disease protocols so they can safely reach the children who need them most.
What matters most to me is that this is not a vague awareness campaign or a temporary initiative. It is real work carried out through real logistics, coordination, and follow-through. Books are actually reaching waiting rooms, treatment centers, and patients’ hands.
And in environments filled with machines, procedures, and uncertainty, stories matter more than people often realize.
A comic book cannot solve a child’s situation, but it can create a moment of relief. A moment of imagination. A moment where the world becomes bigger than hospital walls for a little while.
Sometimes that matters more than we give it credit for.
What Is Tales from Twisted Ravens?
Tales from Twisted Ravens is a dark fairytale anthology inspired by the emotional weight of classic cautionary tales. Imagine the atmosphere of old Grimm stories mixed with the uncomfortable truth that every wish comes with consequences.
The first story follows a young girl named Anne after a falling out with her best friend. Desperate to fix what happened, she stumbles into a mysterious shop called Twin Raven Oddities, where wishes are offered to those willing to pay the cost. What begins as a simple attempt to undo a mistake slowly becomes something much deeper about regret, responsibility, and learning that not every wound can be erased by pretending it never happened.
One of the things most important to me while creating this series was refusing to talk down to younger readers. Kids understand fear, grief, loneliness, regret, and hope far more than adults sometimes realize. These stories are not interested in flattening difficult emotions into easy lessons. They are about meeting readers where they are emotionally and allowing fantasy to explore truths that already exist in real life.
There is magic in the world of Twisted Ravens, but there are also consequences for that magic.
Why This Project Matters to Me
This project is bigger than publishing a book.
Every copy sold contributes toward supporting ComicBooks for Kids and helping place more comics into hospitals and cancer centers. Right now, we are working toward helping raise $50,000 to expand that mission in meaningful ways, including increasing outreach, improving distribution, and helping the organization reach more children than it currently can.
That number is not symbolic.
It represents more books delivered. More hospitals reached. More children given something bright in the middle of frightening circumstances.
When you go through cancer treatment yourself, hospitals stop being abstract places. They become real. The people inside them become real. The long hours become real. And the value of distraction, comfort, and hope becomes very real too.
This project exists because people helped me when I needed it most.
Now I want to help create something that reaches someone else during their difficult moment.
A Simple Ask
If you believe stories can do more than entertain, this is one of those opportunities to help turn that belief into something tangible.
Supporting Tales from Twisted Ravens: Anne, donating directly to ComicBooks for Kids, or even sharing the project with someone who may connect with it all help push this mission forward.
If you want to take a look, here it is:
https://rippasend.com/campaign/tales-from-twisted-ravens-anne/
Or if you would rather donate straight to the charity, here is their link: https://www.comicbooksforkids.org/donatestart
Every contribution helps create more moments where a child in a hospital room gets something unexpected and good placed into their hands.
And sometimes, that small moment matters more than we realize.