Sunday, October 29, 2017

Release Announcement: On Being Insane

NEW NONFICTION RELEASE!

Title: On Being Insane: In Search of my Missing Pieces
Author: Elliot Gavin Keenan
Author Website: http://elliot.ink
Publisher Website: dreamingbigpublications.com
Editor-in-Chief: Kristi King-Morgan

Amazon Link


Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Mental Health

Available in ebook and paperback, for immediate release


REVIEWERS, BLOGGERS, VLOGGERS:  Email Kristi at dreamingbigpublications@outlook.com to request your electronic review copy today!  Available in MOBI and PDF. We also have a written author interview available upon request.

FROM THE BACK COVER:
After being diagnosed with Asperger's Disorder at age seven, Elliot becomes fascinated with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the Bible of American psychiatry) and its enumeration, categorization, and systematization of innate human differences. This specialized knowledge of the DSM's rules and codes comes in handy as Elliot struggles through multiple psychiatric hospitalizations for severe bipolar depression, but his dreams of being a clinical psychologist seem ever further out of reach until a kindly professor and autism scientist termed herein as Dr. Pinball takes notice of his abilities. This is a story of one young man's searching: for sanity, for stability, and for the people who understand. They may be found in unlikely places.







Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Interview and Excerpt: Scavenger Girl

 What was your inspiration for Scavenger Girl?
I had a dream that I just couldn’t shake. It was the kind that simmers in your mind the entire day and makes you wonder how the particular snap-shot of what you saw came to be. I made several hypotheses as to why Una and her family were what they were to fit the construct of my dream. Some fit, some didn’t. When the pieces started to come together, I wrote them down in effort to keep them straight. You see, I can stop thinking about something if I write it down. Otherwise, I keep twirling it around in my head for fear I’ll forget. If I jot it down and put it in a safe place, I can let my mind relax and tend to other things. The problem with this was that it was not a grocery list, or a reminder of some sort of appointment; it was the details of a world and a life of a young woman in it. As such, Scavenger Girl was created.

What was the hardest part about writing this book?
The hardest part was trying to have a conversation about something OTHER than the novel! Once the people closest to me had read it, it’s all we’d talk about.

Tell us something surprising about yourself.
I rarely sit down, and when I do it’s to write.

What books/TV shows/movies do you enjoy and why?
I don’t watch too much TV, but when I do it’s generally something on Netflix. Before I started writing, I was a huge movie buff. I’d see anything that was out. I loved movies so much, my first ‘real’ job was as a cashier at a drive-in movie theater. That’s where I met my husband!

If Scavenger Girl were going to be a movie, what would be the tagline?
There are worse things than losing your birthright

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Write what you want to read. There is so much pressure to write for a particular audience, but at the end of the day, I can say I’m proud of what I created because I wrote from the heart. There is not a lot of opportunity to be authentically creative. Writing is one avenue, but you have to love it. Otherwise your readers will know.


Instagram
Scavenger_Girl_Series
Twitter
(author) @JennArntson
(characters) @Una_Ashlund  @Cal_of_Ashlund  @Mar_of_Ashlund

About the Book:
Stripped of their birthright and shunned by the people of Ashlund, Una and her family are forced to live on the fringe of society as Scavengers. There is no question that her family's bond is strong, but the law of the Authority is stronger...and soon it will come to collect her. After all, the family is on borrowed time already. 

When a night of torment and truth reveals well kept secrets, Una takes new freedoms - free from the Authority, her family, and possibly her fate. Pulled between the life she's always known and a world where status and rituals are everything, Una struggles to understand a culture that has rejected all she holds dear. As Atchem comes to an end and she learns who she really is, will Una find the courage to do what it takes to ensure her family's survival, or will she find the faith to follow her heart?
Find it on Amazon




Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.