Hi, my name is Gordon Briley, author of "The Adventures of Lily and Ava" children’s rhyming book series. I would like to share my story hoping to create awareness and also funding for families who are dealing with sick children.  Here is a quick glimpse at my story and how I intend to help these families. The adventure of how this book series has developed has been a whirlwind story full of many twist and turns from the very beginning.  From the initial idea of writing a book coming to me in a dream, to discovering the tumultuous path into the publishing world, no matter how monumental the tasked appeared, things just seemed to fall into place.  I couldn’t help but feel like writing these books was meant to be and that nothing was going to stop it from happening even though I had no real sense of purpose or direction.  My book series originally began as a way for me to celebrate the birth of my newest child, Lily and I had very few expectations for how these books would do as far as popularity or sales. In the end it didn't really matter because I had something Lily would carry on for the rest of her life.  Soon after the release of the first book in the series “New Friendships”, I realized that not only did I have something for my daughter to enjoy, but soon there were a barrage of people contacting me telling how much they loved my book and the positive message it conveyed.  These messages urged me to continue to develop new stories and keep the series going.  With all of the excitement from the success of the first book, before I knew it I had written and released book number two, “A Day at Play”.  Once again, I was met with excited messages sharing with me how much they enjoyed the books so far and that I should keep it going.  Not long after, I began receiving invites to speak at school functions and author events and this is when I started to realize my direction. At these school functions I was surrounded by hundreds of children and it was at these events that I found a real passion for sharing my love of reading and writing.  It amazed me to see how reactive these young minds were and that I had a part in sharing many positive messages through my books. Soon after my third book, “Sully the Bully”, was released I came across a Facebook post about a past friend whose nephew was suffering from leukemia. Their family needed help to keep up with the mounting medical expenses and without the help of generous outsiders then this kid may not have had the care that he deserved.  This was my AHH-HAA moment when I realized that I had something that could help this family. I soon approached this family and asked if I could help with the fundraising effort by donating the proceeds of my book to the family of the sick child.  In a one-day event we raised over $400 to give to this family and in doing so further solidified what my new direction would be.  This now brings me to current day and with the help of this fundraising site I hope to generate enough money to help with the huge cost of the Illustrations, editing, printing, marketing, and other expenses involved in the book making process.  With help from you I will be able to continue to donate 100% of the profits to children who are in need and give them a little less weight to bear during these challenging times. I would also like to hear from those who donate about potential beneficiaries of the funds we will generate, so please feel free to interact with me and help me discover those in need. In the end, I feel like this is a win-win for everyone involved, because purchasing a book will be promoting reading and writing and of course we are raising funds for those in need.  Please join me in helping those in need!