Hi! I hope you are having a gorgeous Tuesday. Over the past few months, the team at Unbound have been hard at work on our book cover and I'm so happy to introduce you to the final design.  
 
<img alt="" class="doksoft_image_img" src="/images/12930/preview/medium" width="324" height="500">

I hope you enjoy it! 
 
Yours with gratitude, 
Ellie

The book's cover is here!

Hi!

Exciting news…After a week of funding, we’ve reached 18% of our target. At this rate, we’ll get to 100% in 6 weeks - or twice as fast as the majority of successfully crowdfunded books!

This is all thanks to you. I’ve no words to say how grateful I am for your help, encouragement and kindness. I am humbled, flattered, fascinated, excited and deeply, deeply touched by all the generosity during this past week. 
 
It's meant the world to me to see some of my favourite humans, personal heroes and role models support the campaign:

<ul>
	<li>
Brad Feld – author, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, co-founder of Techstars</li>
	<li>
Julian Baggini – one of UK’s most loved philosophers</li>
	<li>
Christine Burns MBE – internationally recognised activist for transgender rights</li>
	<li>
Paul Gilmartin – host of the absolutely brilliant podcast The Mental Illness Happy Hour</li>
	<li>
Jason Silva – host of the Emmy-nominated TV series Brain Games on National Geographic </li>
	<li>
Dese’Rae L. Stage – suicide expert, activist, public speaker</li>
	<li>
Sathnam Sanghera – writer for The Times, author of the Costa shortlisted memoir The Boy with the Topknot</li>
	<li>
Nathan Filer – Costa-award winning novelist for The Shock of The Fall</li>
	<li>
Taylor Somerville – breath coach, endurance competitor, writer and holistic health expert</li>
	<li>
Belinda Parmar OBE – author and activist for women's involvement in technology</li>
</ul>

At the same time, we still have a way to go and this brings me to the question of why.


 
 Why another book? Why this book?
 


We’ve never been more aware about the importance of mental health. And that’s wonderful but it’s not enough. It’s time to talk, yes – but how?

We need stories, not just information and awareness. Stories are our experience-processing software, our sense-making mechanism, hardwired into our DNA. We are saved or ruined by the stories we tell about the things that happen to us.

As Dr. Brené Brown puts it:

<blockquote>
 “If we can learn to own our stories of struggle, we can write our own brave endings. When we own our stories, we avoid being trapped as characters in stories someone else is telling.”
</blockquote>

And this is, ultimately, why I rounded up 16 of the best storytellers in the UK – so that by sharing their own struggles, they can help the rest of us find the words to tell our own.


 
 It feels vulnerable to ask for help…
 


But this is something I believe with my whole being should exist and I’m not afraid to admit that I need your help to make it happen. It’s an all-or-nothing campaign, sink or swim, and despite the great progress and support, we still have a way to go.

If you are open to helping me, here are two small things you can do now in less than two minutes that will make a big difference and mean the world to me:

<ul>
	<li>
Spread the word: Here's a sample message if you'd like to share the campaign on your social networks:</li>
</ul>


 
 “We are saved or ruined by the stories we tell about the things that happen to us”. @rorybremner, @TechnicallyRon, @polarben and other great authors and comedians have teamed up to reveal the struggles that formed them. You can join me and support the project here: http://bit.ly/ThingsHappenT #ThingsHappen 
 


<ul>
	<li>
Tell one person: If you can think of just one person who'd enjoy/appreciate this book, send them a link to the project to let them know it exists. </li>
</ul>

Finally, thank you for being there and enjoy the rest of Sunday. 
 
And if you'd like to send me a virtual high-five, share your story or reach out for anything else, I'd love to hear from you at ez.skinner89@gmail.com. 
 
E.Z.

You are amazing. I am lucky. Stories are powerful

Hi! Last week we hit our funding target - and we keep going strong. I'm incredibly grateful for your faith in the project and your enduring support throughout it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 


 What happens next?


Only the best part - the writing of the stories and the making of the book. I will also get in touch with every Super Patron and pledger to the dedicated edition so we can craft the message you'd like to appear in the front. 

If you haven't done so, there's still time to pre-order signed/dedicated first-edition hardbacks for yourself, friends and loved ones - and we can even print their names in the back of every edition.  
 
An invitation

I'd love to meet you to exchange stories and hear what you'd like the book to be. For me, this is the best thing about Unbound - this collaboration between authors and readers.  
 
I'm planning a get-together in London on one of those dates:

<ul>
	<li>Saturday Sep. 29, in the afternoon</li>
	<li>Tuesday Oct. 9, in the evening</li>
</ul>

If you are interested, drop me an email at elitsader@gmail.com.  
 
Thanks again for being part of it all.

You did it, thanks - plus what's next

An explorer spends a decade preparing for an expedition to the South Pole; what happens when you live for a goal, but once it’s been accomplished, you discover it’s not enough? A successful broadcast journalist ends up broke, drunk and sleeping rough; what makes alcohol so hard to resist despite its ruinous consequences? A teenage girl tries to disappear by starving herself; what is this force that compels so many women to reduce their size so drastically? 
In this essay collection, writers share the struggles that have shaped their lives – loss, depression, addiction, anxiety, trauma, identity and others. But as they take you on a journey to the darkest recesses of their mind, the authors grapple with challenges that haunt us all.

<big>The Stories</big>
· A young man stands on the train tracks plotting a leap to end his life. What’s the logic of self-annihilation and what brings us back from the edge?
· An acclaimed memoirist finds that sometimes the only way you’ve got to cope with a broken reality is to go mad
· An athlete-turned-cognitive-psychologist examines how a fixation with proving yourself can lead to a personal loss you can neither expect, nor repair
· To process the trauma of his best friend’s suicide, a standup comedian cracks “sick jokes from the heart”, turning tragedy into craft
· A gifted writer of short stories discovers that her crippling anxiety may actually mask a deep-seated fear of success
· A crime novelist traces her creative impulse to a childhood accident that made her realise that she can both destroy and be destroyed by those whom she most loves
· One man spends 10 years preparing for the world’s toughest endurance challenge — and accomplishes it. But what happens when you live in the future and that future arrives and it’s not enough?
· A teenage girl tries to disappear by starving herself. What’s this force that compels so many women to stay small?
· A high-flying TV veteran ends up broke, drunk and rough sleeping on the English coast. What makes alcohol so hard to resist even as it ruins you?
· A child notices that certain aspects of her reality don't add up. Could it be that she's the only person who truly exists?

What Doesn't Kill You

What Doesn't Kill You: Fifteen Stories of Survival

What Doesn't Kill You Ebook

Be a part of our community! 334,112 people from 207 countries have pledged £11,980,334 to fund 646 projects - and counting!

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What Doesn't Kill You: Fifteen Stories of Survival

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