Sneak peek at PARDON MY PSYCHOSIS: To the Edge of Insanity and Back

Coming March 19th, 2024!

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PARDON MY PSYCHOSIS: To the Edge of Insanity and Back

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I'm excited to announce that my memoir is in the final stages of completion for publishing! On October 31st, my copy editor will be done going through the manuscript, and from there, I'll have a couple of weeks to go through and make all the needed adjustments. November 15th is the deadline for turning the manuscript over to the proofreader, and she'll take a couple of weeks to proofread for any typos that may have slipped through the cracks. I had no idea how many rounds of editing it takes to reach a clean and complete final manuscript, but I've been blessed with some amazing professionals throughout the process.

After the proofreading editor finishes, I'll have one more read-through and make any adjustments needed. The final step is the interior formatting for the eBook and the paperback. I hope to have the audiobook available within a few months of the initial release, so if that's your favorite way to enjoy books, it's in the works too.

If you're doing the math, you're probably wondering why the publish date isn't until March if the formatting will be done at some point in December. As it turns out, March 30th of every year is World Bipolar Day. It's a day designed to raise awareness about bipolar disorder and to combat the social stigmas surrounding it. I had no idea it was a thing until my own diagnosis after a psychotic break hit me out of nowhere without any prior symptoms.

March 19th is a Tuesday, a couple of weeks before World Bipolar Day, and Tuesdays are the day of the week new books are published. Much like most movies are released on Fridays. I hope you save the date and grab a copy. I promise it will be an eye-opening read that will keep you turning the pages!

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Sneak Peek Excerpt From Page 1:

A once-normal life now shattered like a piece of defective pottery at the hands of its distraught maker. How did I break so easily? Or better yet, why did I break so thoroughly? I’m sure those answers won’t come this side of heaven, but knowing God is not the author of chaos, I can only hope to unravel the confusion that is now my life.

I’ve had a normal life for forty years. A loving wife of eighteen years, two wonderful children, and a yappy little dog. We were the type of family that comes with the frame, picture perfect. Now here I sit in a psychiatrist’s office, pretending to listen as my eyes shift from the floor to the photos of jazz legends lining the walls. Bipolar 1 with severe psychosis is the diagnosis. At this point, it doesn’t even register. Memories of the previous weeks were nothing more than broken bits and battered pieces. The doctor seemed amicable enough, though. His calm, compassionate speech and silver-laden hair said more about his level of expertise than the degrees hanging behind his head.

For my wife, the diagnosis came as a relief. Sunken into the electric blue chair on my right, she now had an answer for the chaos she endured on my behalf. Her heavy eyes and slouched shoulders reflected the aftermath of my psychotic break. On the other hand, I had no clue what was happening around me, and things weren’t normal anymore. It would be weeks before I came to terms with what happened and how intense my erratic behavior had been toward my family and friends.

Was the combination of hallucinations and delusions the absolute truth of my experience? Were brain chemicals and environmental conditions truly responsible for launching me into an alternate reality that only existed in the theatre of my mind? Or was there a chance spiritual warfare played a role in what the natural world considered my psychotic break?

To get there, I had to go back to when the boundaries between reality, spirituality, and mania began melting together...........

Back Cover Copy "The Blurb":

Pardon My Psychosis delivers a raw and humanizing perspective of the mental, physical, and spiritual toll a psychotic break takes on an individual and their family.

Hallucinations and delusions of grandeur weave through James’s perception of reality, setting in motion the swift unraveling of time and space around him. Speaking with angels and defending his home against demons becomes an ordinary day.

Until it’s not.

When his mind shatters at work, the ER doctor suspects drugs, and his wife fears a tumor, but James wonders what all the fuss is about. His ability to see beyond the natural realm has burst into the open, and he is none the wiser.

As the doors to the psych ward close, his wife disappears into the darkness, leaving him to fight the spiritual battles that ensue.

This memoir will have you questioning if more is at play than brain chemicals and environmental conditions as James shares his unfiltered account of walking in God’s love through psychosis-induced chaos.

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