Straight Chatting from the Library: Howard Brown

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

READ THE INTERVIEW

Tell us about your current book in 10 words.
Entrepreneur and cancer survivor Howard Brown shares keys to resilience.

What is the favorite book you remember as a child?
Goodnight Moon. My parents read it to me and my sister; and my wife and I read it to our daughter Emily.

What is your favorite book today?
Bounce by Dr. Robert J. Wicks, because it is a book all about keys to resilience from one of the international experts in the field. Dr. Wicks graciously wrote the Foreword to my book Shining Brightly.

Keep books or give them away?
I keep many books but I also love to give away books that I think my friends will enjoy. My whole life is dedicated to sharing inspiration with others, and sometimes that may be the gift of the perfect book. I would love to see readers buy one copy of my book for themselves and one to give to a friend who really needs a boost.

What would make you not finish a book?
Books that wander through too much text without giving me a “take away” don’t hold my attention. In fiction, the “take away” may be a wonderful plot twist, or a narrative of suspense. These are moments I enjoy, so I take away a little bit of joy in my day and I keep reading. In nonfiction, authors who aren’t clear on what they’re trying to explain will test my patience to the breaking point. In nonfiction, I’m looking for true stories about moments that made a difference in people’s lives, because those stories might make a difference in my life as well. I hope my book does that, too.

Favorite genre?
Personally, because of my background as an entrepreneur, I like business memoirs. I like books that address the question: How did the author struggle through life’s inevitable challenges and traumas to keep working and eventually succeed in some way?

READ THE BLURB

In Shining Brightly, Silicon Valley pioneer, cancer survivor and interfaith peacemaker Howard Brown shares keys to resilience for successful entrepreneurs, patient advocates and community leaders. He shows us how to reach out through our families, our communities and around the world to form truly supportive connections and friendships. From Howard’s career as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, to his conquering metastatic stage IV cancer twice, to his compassionate outreach as a peacemaker, to his love of sports—this ultimately is not one man’s story. Shining Brightly is a story shared by countless men and women—and may wind up changing your life as well. With each true story he tells in the pages, Howard invites readers to picture how they might join him in shining more light in our world.

READ AN EXCERPT

Basketball is a lot more than just a game to me. Basketball is a cerebral sport, a community sport, a sport of relationships, respect, chemistry and teamwork. Each time I have been knocked down by a physical disability, a surgery or a chemo series, one of the goals that gets me out of the bed each morning is getting back onto the court as a milestone in the healing of my mind, body and soul. I’ve had a chemo port installed, neuropathy, chronic diarrhea and the fogginess that I call chemo brain—and I’ve played through all of that. I don’t know too many stage IV cancer patients who’ve kept playing before, during and after treatment.

It’s hard playing full-court basketball several times a week with all that running, zigging and zagging. It’s even risky. I sometimes worry that a hard hit to the chest might disturb my chemo port. This is simply a part of my healing journey. The blueprint to my own survivorship. Basketball was the light that got me through some of the darkest periods of my life. And that’s the story behind that little photo caption that keeps bouncing around the internet: “I, Howard Brown, Stage IV Colon Cancer and now No Evidence of Disease (NED), celebrate survivorship by going to my happy place: the basketball court!” No, I’m not trying to convince you that you have go out and shoot hoops. Maybe some people will be prompted to get out on the court again after reading this chapter. Most won’t. The whole point of this chapter is to tell you about my “happy place.” We each need to find at least one of those for ourselves. My happy place is anywhere I’m playing with my hoops with my boyz. What’s your happy place?

MEET THE AUTHOR

Howard Brown is an author, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, interfaith peacemaker, two-time stage IV cancer survivor and healthcare advocate. For more than three decades, Howard’s business innovations, leadership principles, mentoring and his resilience in beating cancer against long odds have made him a sought-after speaker and consultant for businesses, nonprofits, congregations, and community groups. In his business career, Howard was a pioneer in helping to launch a series of technology startups before he co-founded two social networks that were the first to connect religious communities around the world. He served his alma matter—Babson College, ranked by US News as the nation’s top college for entrepreneurship—as a trustee and president of Babson’s worldwide alumni network. His hard-earned wisdom about resilience after beating cancer twice has led him to become a nationally known patient advocate and “cancer whisperer” to many families. Visit Howard at ShiningBrightly.com to learn more about his ongoing work and contact him. Through that website, you also will find resources to help you shine brightly in your own corner of the world. Howard, his wife Lisa and daughter Emily currently reside in Michigan.

http://www.shiningbrightly.com

https://www.amazon.com/Shining-Brightly-resilience-entrepreneur-interfaith/dp/1641801476/ref=sr_1_1

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