The Bipolar Writer: A Memoir

It is already nearing the end of July. Even with everything that 2020 has thrown as us this year, the year is moving at a fast pace. I will be writing this week a few blogs that outline my future plans and projects, info on my Patreon account, exclusive content in video blogs for The Bipolar Writer blog from me, and the future. 

Today, let’s discuss my memoir because I haven’t really been talking about it much. My goal is always to get my work out there to the masses through this blog. Alongside my author’s website is the best place to market to you why you should purchase my book.

My memoir is about the first ten to eleven years of my diagnosis as Bipolar One. It revolves around the experiences that I had from 2007 to 2017. I wrote it as if I was sitting as a coffee shop with you, the reader, having a conversation. The memoir is very personal, and you get to see who James Edgar Skye and The Bipolar Writer became what he is today. My auhtor website goes into more detail.

There are plenty of ways to purchase my book.

• You can purchase my book two ways on my author website through this link: Purchase my Book
  • The first link is to the paperback copy I sell on Amazon.
  • The second link is to the eBook, which you can purchase, and also it is available for free on Amazon KindleUlimited for free!

I am Looking for A Few Good Book Reviewers

I am also excited to offer my book for freely sending you a copy through the mail at no cost to you. All I ask is that you read the book and give your honest opinion. I will be offering it to the first ten people that reach out to me. Use the contact button at the top of the page if you are willing to write a review after reading the book, and I will get my book out to you ASAP.

Photo by Stanislav Kondratiev on Unsplash

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A life in three halves

I apologise for the lack of recent posts.  A combination of overwork, overstress and … well, you know.   I don’t need to say because everyone on this site knows.

I love this image it feels like a perfect reflection of my current state of mind – half mad half elated, half depressed.   A life in three halves.

I recently went – or rather than use the mundane word ‘went’– I would say I recently crawled to my GP, feeling so ill that it seemed nothing short of a miracle to me that I got there and was able to negotiate the stairs, sit in a chair opposite this clipped, professional person and string a few sentences together that may or may not have made sense.  When in my 8 minute allotted window of GP time I tried to explain I thought I was suffering from stress (haha, who am I kidding).     I was met with the reply ‘do you have much stress in your life?’

Perhaps the inference was ‘you’re not a GP and if you were a GP you would know the meaning of the word stress.’

Next please.

Sometimes I worry less about stress than I do about losing the plot completely.  I worry that I’ll end up like poor Bertha Mason striding up and down Mr. Rochester’s attic and I really hope not because that didn’t end well for anyone.  Well, Jane Eyre perhaps.

Anyway I have succeeded in drafting out a novel so not all is disaster.  Not all is disaster all of the time.  And carrying on the books theme because books are mostly my life when I get depressed.  Also when I don’t.    I would like to point folks in the direction of this amazing work by Vietnamese American writer Ocean Vuong  called On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous(Jonathan Cape, 2019).  He has amazing thing to say about bipolar disorder in this letter to his mother:

It’s the chemicals in our brains, they say, I got the wrong chemicals Ma. Or rather I don’t get enough of one or the other. They have a pill for it.  They have an industry.  They make millions.  Did you know people get rich off of sadness?  I want to meet the millionaire of American sadness.  I want to look him in the eye, shake his hand and say, “It’s been an honor to serve my country.”

The thing is I don’t want my sadness to be othered from me just as I don’t want my happiness to be othered.  They’re both mine.  I made them dammit.  What if the elation I feel is not another “bipolar episode” but something I fought hard for?

I don’t know whether the author suffers from this disorder or not, or whether he takes medication or not.  I’m not quoting this to come down on one side or another of the medication argument, but everything he writes is so beautiful and feels true to me so I thought I would share it.

Sometimes I agree that any sense of elation is something to be fought for – even though we are inclined to think we’re not supposed to experience that because there is a depressive episode coming.  Who knows?  Not the GP obviously.

The Bipolar Writer Needs Help… Again

https://www.gofundme.com/rasing-to-upgrade-the-bipolar-writer-blog

This is my GoFundMe under my real name David TC (I wasn’t sure if I could get the funds if I used my Pen Name James Edgar Skye.) Thank you in advance for donating!

So, my goal is $300. The cost to upgrade. If 100 people donate 3 dollars, I can reach my goal quickly (the donation button is below through PayPal.) I am going to try and keep this post going all weekend in hopes that I reach my goal. Please, if you can help it would be amazing, and if you can’t, I understand. I haven’t done one of these in a while, so here it goes!

If you can’t donate please reblog this post or share my GoFundMe link above, it would mean the world to me!

You Can Also Donate Below!

Just Click the Pay with PayPal button!

Always Keep Fighting & Thank You

James

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A New Idea – The Bipolar Writer Blog

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to connect with more authors from the blogging world and also social media. I have been turning an idea over in my head over the last couple of weeks–a place where authors can sell their books through my platform. I am not sure how it could or would work.

I can also offer services like book reviews on Amazon and other retailers. This could be a place where people share their books related to mental illness or any authors. Why not? I think this idea could be the big thing for the Bipolar Writer blog 2019. I could really make use of the growing blog presence on my blog.

I am always looking for ways to expand my blog, and I have a local artist that I have worked for that wants me to grow my blog. I will think about it and find out what it would take. What are your thoughts?

Always Keep Fighting

James

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Book Review: Inside and Out

Inside and Out by Terry Fisher

Nonfiction memoir in “Ode” format

You can purchase the book here: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/Inside-and-Out

 Inside and Out What is it About?

Inside and Out by Terry Fisher is a non-fiction memoir in the form of odes and musings that chronicle the author’s life. The various odes were written at different times in the writer’s life and talk about things like dating, friendship, the author’s struggles with mental illness, the love that she had for her pets, and her experiences as a labor and delivery nurse.  The author lets the reader into her life as bares her soul through the power of Odes.

“Many of the odes are funny, some are sarcastic, and some are sad— excruciatingly so.”

My Thoughts on Inside and Out

In the many odes and musings in the book Inside and Out the author allows the reader inside the mind of a talented “ODE” poetry writer over the course of her lifetime. With every stanza Terry Fisher takes her reader through the ups and downs of this human life. Each ode gives the reader a glance at how life changes— all in just one to three-page odes. The people that were important in Terry Fisher’s life makes the pages shine. The pictures that accompany some of the odes allow the reader to make real connections into the life of the artist.

When Fisher talks about her pets in Inside and Out, she lets us into her family, and at the end of each ode, we learn more about how life is always moving forward. When tragedy came into Terry Fisher’s life, she turns to writing Odes and shares with us how pets are members of our family— and their loss is never easy to deal with in this life.

In “Ode to Depression” the author Terry Fisher gets real with her audience on the realities of living with depression. Terry Fisher uses her own sarcastic and funny way to talk about her own struggles with depression that memorably suits the message.

“The doctor said a vegan diet!/ What the hell, I’m trying it./ I take a mountain of pills each day— Morning ones. Night ones./ I obey.”

In other odes in the book Inside and Out the author takes us to some of the sad times in her life where she lost friends that break your heart. You see how Terry Fisher views the people and pets in her life— like family. Odes like Ode to John Belnap CRNA and Prayer for Mary pay homage to people in the author’s life that had a significant impact, at the same time we see how people can have significant implications in our lives.

What I adore most about Inside and Out is that the author Terry Fisher shows all sides of her personality and allows the reader into her world. I felt by the end of the book that I had become a member of the Fisher family— and I will cherish the experience that I had reading the book.

Message from the author to her Mother

Dear Mom,

I wrote a book that is brutally honest. It was either gonna help me or not help.

It is not meant to blame anyone, although sometimes it sounds that way. You were the best mother you knew how to be in horrible circumstances beyond your control.

I did not want to hurt you, but I love you so much it has been very hard not to share this with you.

I have a wonderful life. I know that. Great family, friends, no financial problems (thanks to all of you), no more work stress.

But I also have severe depression that is probably not curable. People get cancer. I got this. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. I don’t.

But I so, so much want to share this book with you. Most people are surprised how funny it is.

This is me and I want you to know her. And I hope you will understand and still love me as much as I do you.

Love
Terry

You can order Terry Fisher’s Inside and Out here: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/Inside-and-Out

Reviewer: James Edgar Skye

All images and links are © of Terry Fisher and Book Baby Publishing

Links to The Bipolar Writer Blog are © to James Edgar Skye, and all pictures and links are authorized by the author Terry Fisher.