Insane Success: life with schizophrenia

 In the early 1970’s I was a psychiatric nursing student suffering Medical Students Syndrome, a term that describes medical students’ propensity to suffer each disease in turn as it is studied. There was one year where I suffered depression, manic-depressive disorder, sociopathic personality, paranoia, repression, depression, aggression, the odd panic attack and bronchitis, too, I believe at one point.

The one disorder I didn’t experience was schizophrenia—my imagination fell short. However one of my fellow students was sure she was schizophrenic. Several of us spent more than one evening in nurses residence convincing her she was not seeing a giant bottle of ketchup on the floor where there was none. I think she survived okay, she graduated with us eventually in any event.

 

For me, I could not imagine what it would be like to perceive a reality different that the one others about you are perceiving. Even the bizarre events we experience in dreams are at least shared by others in the dream. What would it be like to hear things, see things, react to things that nobody else can sense? Would it be frightening? Would it be lonely? Would you realize something was wrong with you? Would you assume something was amiss with those around you?

What it would be like to have schizophrenia?

One is not born with schizophrenia, it usually happens after childhood. What is it like to be normal for two decades or more and then begin to experience a reality, often a frightening reality, that your loved ones don’t share? What’s it like when medication kicks in and the hallucinations subside? Do you feel normal again? Do remember what it was like to hallucinate, how you felt?

Back in the early 1970’s medication for schizophrenia was in its infancy, side-effects were fierce, and although I saw patients become calmer and respond less to things I could not perceive, they never seemed cured. They never returned to that pre-illness self, that self that could talk to me about what it was like to be schizophrenic.

So when I won Kenna McKinnon’s recent contest and the prize was my choice of her books, I didn’t hesitate—I wanted a copy of her THE INSANITY MACHINE.  The fact that this lady, a long-time sufferer of schizophrenia, was able to become an accomplished author amazed and intrigued me.

And her story THE INSANITY MACHINE did not disappoint. I recommend it to all who wish to understand those who suffer alone in a reality the rest of us do not perceive. A great story about a courageous, persistent, positive-thinking lady who faced the figurative devil and moved on to become a great story-teller and an advocate for those who are so often misunderstood, ignored, mistreated.

To read my Amazon review of THE INSANITY MACHINE click here.

Click here to purchase THE INSANITY MACHINE.

McKinnon has also published a book of poetry DISCOVERY - an anthology of poetry . Her most recent release is SPACEHIVE, a children’s SciFi.

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 THE TRAZ

Get hooked on a series for only

£1.32  $1.99

 

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Eileen Schuh, Author
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

THE TRAZ -realism and credibility

I had lots of fun creating the Alberta Police Service and the Northern Alberta Police Detachment which figure prominently in my BackTracker series. In real life, my home province of Alberta doesn’t have its own law enforcement agency but is policed by Canada’s world-renown Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). So, as you might guess my police agency, although fictional, is largely based on the RCMP. 

I did take liberties in designing my police force. In THE TRAZ and FATAL ERROR, the Alberta Police Force operates both in the cities of Edmonton and Calgary and in rural areas, whereas in fact, Alberta’s major cities have their own separate police forces. But that isn’t too much of a stretch since the RCMP has a sweeping national and international mandate, often works in tandem with the Edmonton and Calgary Police Services on criminal investigations, and its K-Division headquarters is situated in Edmonton.

The description of the building that houses the Northern Alberta Police Detachment is roughly based on the RCMP Detachment in my home town of St. Paul but contains elements from other detachments. The uniforms I describe are pretty generic and sound like police uniforms across North America. However, for the sake of a great story, despite the fact my police aren’t RCMP, the famous, flashy red serge RCMP dress uniform just may appear at someone’s wedding in the yet-to-be released Book III of the series.

I could have designed my police service to more closely resemble the RCMP, or in fact become the RCMP, but for several reasons I chose instead to create one of my own. I've always enjoyed studying the people, underlying beliefs, relationships, and paradigms that drive organizations. It was an enjoyable, empowering excerise to create my own police service, staff it, and set it in motion.

Doing so also gave me flexibility in my story-telling. The policies, procedures, and lingo in my series can differ from that of the RCMP without ruining the credibility of the story. It also allows me to adapt my writing to suit my targeted young adult readership. For example, I can create realistic dialogue without feeling compelled to use and explain the unique phrasings, codes, or abbreviations used by the RCMP.

The main reason for creating my own police force, however, rests mostly with the kind of person I am. I hold an incredible respect for the men and women in law enforcement and wanted to do everything possible to ensure the less-than-stellar things that my characters say and do, don't reflect poorly on the RCMP or any individual within its ranks.

Over the years I've enjoyed many conversations as well as business and social relationships with RCMP officers, some of them family and some friends, and I didn't want to risk feeling I'd betrayed any confidences. It's not that I've been privy to law enforcement secrets, but officers have shared stories, expressed opinions, and given me behind-the-scene glimpses into the workings of a police detachment. At times, they've revealed their emotional natures, their dreams, frustrations, and regrets. Although none of the situations or the officers I portray in my novels are based on real life,creating my own police service establishes that fact implicitly.

Despite the liberties I've taken with the design of my police force, realism shines through. For half a century, I’ve followed crime stories in the news, read crime novels and true crime books, watched crime shows, and enjoyed conversations with police officers and others involved in the justice system. It is these experiences, coupled with my volunteerism with the RCMP, that adds the depth, flavour, credibility and colour to my characters and my story-telling.

My officers are mainly young men and women, still learning about themselves and about life and at times lacking confidence and knowledge. As in real life, their errors often come under the scrutiny of the media, can be judged harshly by their bosses and peers and, alas, sometimes prove fatal. 

But, you’ll love them anyways.

Book I in the series THE TRAZ is on special for a limited time through Amazon. Get the School Edition eBook for only 99₵ / £0.77 and the first edition paperback for $8.99 / £5.86

Deadly Buzz in the air...SPACEHIVE

There's a buzz in the air—and it's deadly…

SPACEHIVE - only 99₵ £0.77 May 3 - 10, 2013

After getting kidnapped by giant alien bees, twelve-year-old Jason Anderson is transported to a spaceship called SpaceHive. There, he learns of a horrifying plot to annihilate Earth's human population so that extraterrestrial bees and wasps can migrate to a new world.

3 - 10 May 2013 only 99₵

As a swarm of spaceships make a beeline toward Earth, Jason must convince two friendly worker bees to help him escape his space prison and find other humans to aid in his mission to stop the invasion. But General Vard, wasp commander of the Death Watch, has other plans.

Can Jason unite the nations of Earth in their common fight to destroy these alien invaders? Or will Earth be lost to the sting of conspiracy and a worldwide massacre?

Our special guest today on Magic of the Muses is Jason, the young hero of Kenna McKinnon's SPACEHIVE, a science fiction/fantasy young adult book set right here in Canada and on the plains of India. Also internationally, look for it on Kindle eBooks and print.

Jason, can you describe yourself for our readers, please?

Sure, dude. I'm red headed, green eyes, not too tall, pretty thin because the Bees didn't feed me well after that first experience with the roast rat. 

Roast rat, Jason?

Well, yeah. It was in the alien SpaceHive after Zibb captured me.

Oh, I see. You were captured by an alien?

Yeah, buddy. It was awesome.

How did you get away?

Music on my ZipPAD here. The Wasps and Bees started to dance and they danced me right out of the SpaceHive ship to the plains of India.

Fascinating. Where were your parents during all this action, Jason?

My dad was in Antarctica working in a lab and my mom was in an underground bunker in Kamloops. It was the end of the world, after all, dude.

And you saved the world?

Me and my buddy Aadab. We saved the world all right. Want to read about it?

You read my mind. Read SpaceHive, kids, on sale for 99 cents on Kindle eBooks May 3 – 10 inclusive  with Imajin Books right here in Edmonton, Alberta.

Apocalyptic.

 There's a buzz in the air—and it's deadly…

SpaceHive - only 99 cents May 3 – 10, 2013

Kenna McKinnon, Author

 

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THE TRAZ School Edition also on sale this week from Imajin Books for 99₵ / £0.77 the young adult action/adventure

Special Amazon price as well for THE TRAZ 1st Edition paperback

Insanely jealous...of my characters

Yesterday I had a rather frightening experience. It all started as I was loading groceries into the car. Just after the coffee got tossed in and while I was nesting the eggs and milk between the toilet paper and the family pack of Cheezies I got this incredible rush of jealousy toward my BackTracker characters.

I became abruptly convinced they're lives were much more exciting and fulfilling than mine, that I'd more or less wasted my own life on trivial pursuits and, was there not someway I could yet become an ace real-life crime fighter? Or, at the very least, a high-tech computer guru carving the leading edge of cyberspace technology? 

It took the entire twenty-minute drive home to fast talk myself out of these powerful feelings and reaffirm that I was, in fact, doing exactly what I had dreamed of doing my entire life--writing novels. That I never had, in any serious sense, wanted to be a cop and that people (like myself) who use their fingers to add, likely wouldn't do well in computer sciences.

I had not, I reaffirmed to myself, led a useless life and, despite the fact I have never bungie jumped, sky-dived, discovered a body, or been involved in a shootout, my life has not been boring.

I also reminded myself of the tragedies and pain my characters experiences. They, too, have unfulfilled dreams. I said that while the dangers they are constantly facing make for good reading, they wouldn't make for good living. And that although my heroes are handsome and fairy-tale loving--alas, they are too young for me.

Today, I'm okay with things again. The episode likely happened because I find grocery shopping an incredibly boring task. My mind just needed some stimulation...right?

NOTE TO SELF: load some heavy-metal music into the vehicle CD player, ready to blast the next time disturbing thoughts invade my psyche.

THE TRAZ paperback ON SALE! Only $8.99! & FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Who's Schrödinger and what's with his cat?

 That’s what my hapless heroine asked when confronted with that phrase. It all has to do with quantum physics, believe it or not.

“Oh, I thought you meant cat, like pussy cat,” Chorie said.

"I do mean a pussy cat.”

“Quantum physics has pussy cats?”

Yes, quantum physics has a cat. A cat trapped in a box. A cat that is neither dead nor alive. It all started like this:

The tiny building blocks that make up matter, like electrons and photons, have dual personalities. Scientists can do experiments that prove these quanta are not particles but wave functions. Unfortunately for those of us who are rational, they also can do experiments that prove they are not wave functions but particles. Quantum physicists learned to live with the ambiguity and declared that it was the observation of these entities that determined which face they showed to the world.

Along about that time, Schrödinger said something like, “Wait a minute, guys. That makes no sense at all. Suppose you put a cat in a box and then you shoot an electron at it. Suppose the box is rigged to kill the cat if the electron turns out to be a particle and not kill it if it is a wave function. What happens to the cat until an observer takes a peak to see which face the electron showed us?”

Everyone went something like, “Oh, yeah. You’re right. There must be something wrong with our math. With our experiments. With our equations.”

Then along came Everett. And he said, “Wait a minute, guys. Your theory is correct because everything that can possibly happen does happen. Each possibility splits off into a new dimension. Schrödinger’s electron is both a particle and a wave function. The cat both lives and dies. The observer sees the cat both dead and alive. This is my Many Worlds Theory and it gets rid of Schrödinger’s troublesome cat and lets you keep your math and science and ambiguity. For in one world the electron is a particle and the observer finds the cat dead. In another world, the electron is a wave function and the observer sees the cat alive.”

Or something like that.

"A speeding bullet of a story..."

“Ever wish you could live two lives?"

"A psychological mystery of the first order..." 

"Chilling -- a fast and fascinating read! " 

"The zinger of an ending? It will knock your socks off! (Don't say I didn't warn you.)"

video clip http://ow.ly/hLw4Z

Purchase Link: Amazon.com

Eileen Schuh, Author
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

Today I will...

For those of you fascinated by the life of an author, here’s a detailed account of what I’ll be doing today (provided I get off the social networks and finish this blog up quickly.)

I’ve joined forces with other Imajin Books authors who write young adult books for a week-long online promotion in May. This means I must write a few guest blogs to share on the others’ sites as well as write one for mine. I must also design some promotional tweets that Imajin Books, the other participating authors, and I can post during that week.  I will be promoting The Traz School Edition.

I just got confirmation that I, along with 2 other authors, will be doing a panel presentation on “self-publishing” at the Northern Lights Library System conference in the fall. I must start collaborating with the other authors on the topics we want to discuss, resources we may want to use, the format we wish to follow, etc. 

I need to apply to Access Copyright for my payback claim (token reimbursement for my books that are in libraries, schools, and such.)

I need to update my daytimer, noting all the “save-the-date” wedding invites I’ve received (it appears to be the year of love), the May promo, the September conference...etc.

At some point I need to run to the bank and deposit a cheque I received for an autographed book I mailed to a fan.

I need to get a hold of the Co-op Gas Bar manager as it appears all my books that he lets me put by his tills have been sold. I’ll need payment and (hopefully) permission to restock.

In real life, I must book both my dogs in for a shave (they don’t know that even though it is April, it is not spring and therefore not time to shed like crazy and grow mats on their bellies and behind their ears).  That reminds, I need to get my hair trimmed and 'lightened' (i.e. get rid of the grey). I need to phone a different groomer to book that appointment. :)

 

I must type up the minutes of last night’s meeting. I was happy that curling was over and I’d have my evenings free until I realized my charities have their annual meetings in the evenings this time of year. If I join an organization, I inevitably get voted in as Secretary because I write, they say.

I must phone my sister to check on the health of her and her family and also answer the letter my 85 year old uncle wrote me. (What a sweet heart—a four page, handwritten letter all about his kids, grandkids, great grandkids and himself.)

Got a notice my dogs are due for their annual vet checkup and shots, so need to set up that appointment.

I need to go for a quiet ski in the forest and try hard to appreciate the beauty of a heavy April snowfall...

None of this of course will happen until I finish my Bubble Shooter game...

Eileen Schuh, Author
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ