Coping With Breast Cancer.: A Husband's Perspective
My name is Ricky Sides. I was born in Florence, Alabama, in May of 1958. My paternal grandparents were sharecroppers. During my early childhood I spent a great deal of time on their farm, which was bordered by thick woodlands. I roamed those woods extensively, which worried my grandmother to no end. I learned my work ethic on that farm where I often helped with the cotton crop.      In 1976, I met and fell in love with my wife, Sue. We were married in 1977, and have been together since that day. During the month of September, 1980, our son was born.        That same year, I began to study martial arts, and did so until the early 1990s. After learning that one of my female students had been sexually assaulted in the past, I gravitated toward specializing in teaching women self defense. This year I released a book on women’s self defense titled The Ultimate in Women’s Self-Defense. That book fully explains just why I invested years of my life in attempting to help women. It was originally written in 1992.      In the early 1980s, I met a Vietnam veteran who shared my love of the woods. We struck up a friendship. When he learned that I wanted to become skilled at survivalism, he decided to teach me. I wrote the first draft of The Birth of the Peacekeepers in 1985. The character Pete Damroyal is based upon the old friend who taught me survivalism. He still has the mate to my dragon dagger. That will mean something to people who’ve read The Birth of the Peacekeepers. But many of you will not have read it, so I will explain.      Much of the character, Jim Wilison, is autobiographical in nature. Of course, much is also fiction. Those who have read the series would probably be surprised to learn just how much of my real life is reflected in the experiences related by the character. Brandy is the most personal experience related in the book. I think I added those scenes to book one as a form of tribute to her. Some might argue that I shouldn’t have done it, but it made me feel better. In a way, when people read those scenes the child will be thought of with compassion. Those scenes were added in the extensive rewrite in 2007.