2025 was a terrible year for me—family members passing, tension in social circles, and the cherry on top: a breast cancer diagnosis followed by a flood of copays tied to life-saving treatment. It reached a point where I had to start a GiveSendGo just to keep up with the bills. Thankfully, through the kindness of others, the campaign met its goal, and I could go back to stressing about cancer instead of cancer+finances.
Even as someone who writes for a living, I don’t have the words to fully capture what the support around the GiveSendGo meant. It reminded me of something simple that’s easy to forget when life gets crazy: people are good.
After my double mastectomy surgery, while I was kept overnight in the hospital for observation, I spent hours staring at the wall—specifically the whiteboard with my medical team scribbled across it (Lacy was my favorite nurse)—alone with my thoughts. If you’ve spent even 10 minutes in a doctor’s office, you know how time stretches in those spaces. But I was grateful for it, and the time it gave me to ponder over the choices I made in my life, where I was, and where I wanted to be. The hospital sent me home the next day.
That night, back home in my recliner, I kept thinking about the people who showed up—those who gave, reached out, and took time out of their lives to help me through mine. And I made a promise. I told God I would find a way to pay that kindness back. Not someday. Not when it was convenient. Not as an idea I’d get to eventually.
As soon as possible.
Once the fog from the pain meds started to lift, I began going through my list of contacts, combing through who did what and the effect it had. A few hours later, I reached out to Mark at ComicBooks for Kids and said, “I want to collaborate. It’s hard to explain over text—when is a good time for a call?”
That call, meant to last 15 minutes, ran over an hour. We talked through everything—what I had been through, what I wanted to build, the challenges Mark faced getting appropriate content into hospitals, and the reality that he needed help to keep growing what he had started. By the time we hung up, the plan was formed in my mind.
That was how Tales from Twisted Ravens was born.
Who is ComicBooks for Kids?
ComicBooks for Kids is built around a simple idea that carries more weight than it seems at first glance: get comics into the hands of children who are sitting in hospitals and cancer centers, often facing more than most adults ever have to process.
This is not a vague initiative or a one-off effort. It is an ongoing, hands-on operation that works directly with hospitals, clinics, and care centers to deliver age-appropriate, child-friendly comics to young patients. These books are not randomly distributed or left to chance. They are vetted to meet hospital standards, packaged with care, and delivered under strict safety and infectious disease protocols to ensure they can safely reach the children who need them.
Comic book panels for Rippazine – Rippaverse
The organization has built relationships with healthcare providers and publishers alike, creating a steady pipeline of books that are appropriate, accessible, and ready to be placed directly into waiting rooms, treatment centers, and patients’ hands. In many cases, these comics are brand-new, specifically chosen to give kids something that feels like it belongs to them in an environment where very little does.
What makes this effort worth trusting is not just the mission, but the consistency behind it. This is work that has been carried forward through real logistics, real coordination, and a commitment to making sure the books actually arrive where they are supposed to go. It is not about awareness for its own sake. It is about follow-through.
From the outside, it is easy to think of a comic book as something small, something meant purely for entertainment. But in a hospital setting, it becomes something else entirely. It becomes a break from the constant noise of machines, a moment of normalcy in an unfamiliar place, and something a child can hold onto when so much around them feels uncertain.
That is the gap ComicBooks for Kids exists to fill, and it is one they continue to show up for, one shipment at a time.
What Tales from Twisted Ravens Is
At its core, Tales from Twisted Ravens is a dark fairytale–a hint of Brother Grimms and W.W. Jacobs–series centered on children who find their way into a mysterious wishing shop where every wish comes with a cost. The world leans into the strange and the magical, but it never drifts far from the emotional truth that anchors it. There is wonder in it, but there is also consequence, and the two are inseparable.
Tales from Twisted Ravens – Rippasend
The first story follows a girl named Anne in the aftermath of a fight with her best friend, a moment that feels small on the surface but carries the kind of emotional weight that only those moments can. In searching for a way to fix what went wrong, she finds herself inside Twin Raven Oddities, a shop that offers her exactly what she thinks she needs: a wish to make the problem disappear. But like most things in life, the act of fixing something is rarely as simple as undoing it, and what seems like a solution often reveals something deeper that cannot be ignored.
This is the first of several stories that are not written to talk down to young readers or to simplify the world into something easier to digest. These stories explore the reality of difficult emotions—fear, regret, consequence—and the kind of courage it takes to move forward when things do not go as planned. Children already understand these feelings in ways that are often overlooked, and these stories choose to meet them where they are rather than soften the experience for the sake of comfort.
Why This Matters More Than a Book
What gives this project its weight is not just the story itself, but what happens because of it. Through the partnership with ComicBooks for Kids, every copy contributes directly to placing comics–DC, Marvel, and more, oh my!–into hospitals and cancer centers, expanding access to something that can provide relief, distraction, and a moment of light during difficult days. In that context, a book becomes more than a piece of entertainment; it becomes part of a larger effort to create space for hope in places where it can be hard to find.
X-Men #4 (1964), Marvel Comics
Right now, that effort is tied to a very specific goal. We are working to help raise $50,000 to support and expand this mission in a meaningful way. That number is not symbolic. It represents the ability to bring in additional help, improve distribution, and reach more hospitals and care centers than are currently being served. Much of this work has been carried forward through persistence and dedication by a small group of people who believe deeply in what they are doing, but growth requires resources, and resources make it possible to reach more children who could benefit from these stories.
Each step forward means more books delivered, more rooms reached, and more moments where a difficult day is interrupted by something unexpected and good. It is a simple chain reaction, but it adds up in ways that are hard to measure and even harder to replicate without support.
What Your Support Actually Does
Choosing to support this project is not a simple transaction. It is participation in something that extends beyond the act of purchasing a book. It helps bring the physical story into existence, supports the process that gets it into the world, and ensures it reaches not only those who seek it out, but also those who may need it most without having the ability to ask for it.
It allows stories to move into places that are often overlooked until they become personal. It creates opportunities for connection in environments that can feel isolating. It gives a child something to look forward to, even if only for a short while, and sometimes that is enough to shift the weight of an entire day.
Superman #53 Cover Art by Jerry Ordway (1991), DC Comics
For those not interested in purchasing a copy, there is still a way to be part of that impact. Direct support through donations helps fuel the same mission and contributes to the same outcome.
You can support directly here: https://www.comicbooksforkids.org/donatestart
Every contribution, no matter the size, moves this forward. Or, you can also spread the word about ComicBooks for Kids and raise awareness of what they work hard for each and every day.
A Simple Ask
If you believe that stories can carry more weight than simple entertainment, that they can create space for reflection, comfort, and even healing, then this is one of those moments where that belief can take shape in a tangible way. Supporting Tales from Twisted Ravens: Anne, choosing to donate, or even sharing the project with someone else who might connect with it, are all ways of participating in something that is built with intention and aimed at making a difference.
There is no pressure attached to that choice. Only the opportunity to be part of something that began with gratitude and is now trying to turn that gratitude into something that reaches beyond a single person and into the lives of others who could use it.
Thank you for your time.
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