For both of you who had noticed that I’m not keeping up on my blog, thanks for noticing. In case you’re curious why, it’s because I’ve been writing a book. No, really. Yeah, a novel. That doesn’t mean I’m gonna go back to writing essays. (I guess we call them blog posts now.) So, don’t get all excited. Instead, I’ll probably write another novel. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. So, I wrote a novel. *footnotes, is the title. Right. About the novel. It’s kind’a serious. Here’s the synopsis from the back page:
*footnotes examines the suicide of a young woman and how the act affects three generations of people with whom she shared her life. The story flows from the dry Arizona desert to a growing Las Vegas to the rain-swept Pacific Northwest. This fictional account shares some of the lesser-known aspects and challenges of mental illness. People who carry the weight of an unsound mind often feel they are insignificant, mere footnotes. In this novel the burdens of war, childhood trauma, or merely faulty brain chemistry inspire compensations that become part of the character’s lives and maybe some of the best parts of who they are. *footnotes uses humor and vivid imagery to bring the reader into this often invisible world.
Here's the book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081RLNZL9?ref_=pe_3052080_397670860
The fact is I took this pretty damned seriously. I did research. Hung out with those who have suffered loss. Spent time with military corpsmen and medical people. Bounced sections of this book off of those in the know. When one of the people with whom I was consulting took his own life last summer, I hunkered down and wrote. So, here we are. 84,000 words of what I hope is a look into a world most have avoided. It’s not all serious. It’s kind’a funny in places. It also paints a picture of Arizona, Las Vegas, and our very own PNW a little differently than one might think. Also, I can throw a story together so you don’t get bored.
Now this is the part where I ask you to buy it. It’s available for Kindle and the paperback will be available at the local bookstores as soon as it is released. It took me 60 years before I could put these ideas into words that I hope will resonate with others. I hope you give it a shot.
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