—-Listen to the Audio Here—-

In 2003, Kay Bratt and her husband set out for a four year stint in China, as his business expanded its overseas operations. She left behind her home in South Carolina, as well as a part of her heart, when her one of her daughters opted to stay behind.  With their youngest child in tow, culture shock battered the three travelers and Kay looked to fulfill a lifelong, prayer-inspired craving for community service by volunteering in a local orphanage.

The dismal living conditions and the infuriating bureaucratic hurdles tempered her coping skills and her resolve. But by journey’s end, her heart wasn’t reassembled from just the two pieces of her divided family, but from dozens of new loves found for the lost children she’d worked so hard to nurture and help.

Kay was kind enough to talk to PsychJourney about her adventures, heartaches, hopes, and triumphs.  Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage is just a click away for delivery or download.  Read more on Kay and her work at her website, www.KayBratt.com.

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Why a memoir?  And don’t tell me it’s because everyone’s got a book in them.  This, I do not want to know until everyone also has a ghost writer on hand, or has a way with words like, for instance, Gail Konop Baker.

Cancer is a Bitch, Or I’d Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis is as honest a title as it is an amusing one.  What started as a journaling project after a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ morphed into a blogging endeavor and eventually yielded this terrific little documentary of one woman’s wallow.  Yes, wallow.  But not with the negative connotation that we’ve all been warned off of – or warned off of admitting, at least.

Gail Baker chronicled her dizzyingly fast cycles of hope, despair, anger, frustration, and triumph in words that are both frank and funny.  As a companion to someone going through a health crisis, ‘Cancer is a Bitch’, is a firm hand-holding and a gripe session and a hug.  And if you happen to be free of the fear of your own mortality just now, it’s a lesson in grace and a pleasure to read.

Gail spent a little time with me, talking over the spaces in between the lines of  Cancer is a Bitch, Or I’d Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis.  You can find the book here at Amazon.com for delivery or Kindle download, and you can learn more about Gail and her terrific blogs, The Accidental Memoirist, and The Secret Lives of Doctor’s Wives, right here.

Oh, and go get a mammogram.

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Author Kim Michele Richardson is The Unbreakable Child and in her memoir, she reveals the two-strand narrative twining the story of a ground-breaking lawsuit against the Catholic Church with the recollections of an orphan’s journey through a maze of abuse and abandonment in a place commissioned by vows to be a safe haven.

As I read and reflected on it, the book set a match to the fuse of so many questions. How can this happen? Why were these women (and men) so cruel? How can children, orphaned children, spark wrath and brutality over compassion and simple caring, all within a building full of nuns and priests?

And how do some of these children survive to grow so bold and strong?

Kim Michele Richardson took the time to speak with me about her book, The Unbreakable Child, and of the path that led her to writing it and becoming an advocate for the survivors of child abuse.

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Sometimes we get a second chance at things.  On a pleasant opportunity, I’ve been granted a second chance to help spread the word about the memoir, Life in Rewind, by getting to speak to its protagonist, Mr. Ed Zine, on his second chance at life.

In a follow up of my interview with author, Terry Weible Murphy, Ed Zine discusses the mindset and insights he’s developed in gaining distance from one of the most profound cases of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ever documented.

Fully functional and happy today, Ed Zine’s experience calls to others who suffer: the victims of OCD, and the people who love them.

Mr. Zine has laid his mind bare, both in the book and in this interview, in the hopes that his thought processes and mental disciplines might help others understand this affliction and launch their own escape from the prison of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Life in Rewind is in bookstores now, and of course available for order and online download at Amazon.com. For more information on OCD, please visit www.ocfoundation.org.

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In our culture, we often throw around superlatives in situations that hardly call for them.  We may have had a ‘horrible’ day, when in fact, what we had was an annoying phone call from a complaining friend while stuck in a traffic jam. Could be maybe even that there was ink tracked over the cuff of a favorite shirt.  The ‘biggest jerk’ is likely only sporadically obnoxious, and in most cases, the ‘worst’ headache, if we’re honest, is often just unpleasant.

And then sometimes, there are things that are truly ‘unimaginable’.

Life in Rewind recounts the struggle and eventual triumph of Ed Zine over one of the most profound cases of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ever documented.  Author, Terry Weible Murphy approached Ed’s story from a unique perspective and with great compassion.  Along with Dr. Michael Jenike and Mr. Zine himself, the complete account of Ed’s progress-to-date is a story that broadcasts hope and insight for people bound in OCD shackles, who’ve lost their ability to function, and for the friends and family who care for them.

Ms. Murphy was kind enough to sit down with me and elaborate on some of the behind-the-scenes efforts that went into the writing of Life in Rewind, and why she was particularly qualified to take on this project.

Life in Rewind is in bookstores now, and of course available for order and online download at Amazon.com. For more information on OCD, please visit www.ocfoundation.org.

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Novelists are usually other things as well. I mean, I know we’re all sons and daughters, observants and atheists, mild-mannered accountants and moody monkeys. That’s not what I’m talking about. There are just very few people who pay the bills with fiction. But today is the first time I’ve met a man who is as known for his political consulting and commentary as he is for his inspirational, deeply emotional novels. Jason F. Wright is a mental octopus and he spoke with me about that and how it all fits in with the launch of his most recent novel, Recovering Charles.

The book walks a successful man through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in search of his estranged father. Luke Millward comes home with maybe more baggage, but arguably, fewer burdens than he took with him into The Big Easy.

Jason Wright’s projects, blog, and commentary can be explored at www.jasonfwright.com and Recovering Charles has its very own site, www.recoveringcharles.com, where you can hear (and download) ‘Love Me If You Can’, the theme and keepsake from the book.

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Bestselling author, Alex Kava, spent some time with me for PsychJourney, previewing her upcoming psychological/medical thriller, Exposed, and dissecting why she does what she does.

In my quest for finding truth in fiction, Ms. Kava and I mined her eight-novel experience for insight into the research process and why you have to tell the truth, even if you’re only making stuff up. She also lent her views as to why readers (and writers) are magnetized to the very worst things we can dream up.

Alex Kava was truly delightful to speak with and her reputation for meticulous research throughout the Special Agent Maggie O’Dell books is well-showcased in Exposed, the fifth in the series. Look for it in bookstores October 1^st or pre-order your copy today on Amazon.com.

To get more info on Ms. Kava’s work and what she’ll be up to shortly, check out her website at www.alexkava.com.

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Dr. Christopher Johnson is back with a new book, How To Talk To Your Child’s Doctor, and was kind enough to speak with me again about how it came to be.

Dr. Johnson inaugurated this podcast series with, Your Critically Ill Child – Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face, a Library Journal pick for their list of Best Consumer Health Books of 2007, and I was very impressed, imagining how helpful it would be for parents in devastating crisis.

But How To Talk To Your Child’s Doctor is for everyone. I’ll have to concede that it’s geared towards parents, but anyone looking to know how doctors think will be able to use this vastly helpful book in advocating for the patient – whether that be their child or themselves. It’s fascinating, well organized, and should be handed out with that little freebie diaper bag they give you at the hospital with your new baby.

I really do consider this a must-read for parents of children of all ages and for anyone else who’d like to feel less of an outsider while sitting in that lovely paper gown.

Dr. Johnson is the former director of the Mayo Clinic’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and he currently attends patients and establishes protocol in several Pediatric Intensive Care Units around the United States. His books and projects can be found on his website, along with a terrific set of resources for pediatric issues.

www.chrisjohnsonmd.com

Dr. Johnson has also been snared to write a children’s health column for the national PTA website. You can find the first installment here.

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Book clubs can be wonderful. Wine in hand, you’ll get to say “I quite liked that” or “couldn’t get through it”. Sometimes, and sadly, that’s all you’ll have to say about the club’s latest selection. If we submit this as true, and as a shame, then may I suggest, Madapple, by Christina Meldrum. It is, very simply, a fantastic book.

So far, in exploring truth in fiction for PsychJourney, I’ve had an in-your-face contemporary piece exploring how we deal with infidelity in the here and now. And there was much truth to be found in it.

This time, although also set in present day, we get to look at something more fundamental. It’s less about how we react to certain stimuli and more about how we come to believe – in anything at all. Madapple is from the inside out. It explores identity, heritage, religion, isolation, herbology, mythology, justice, and miracles. If that sounds like a tall order, it won’t feel like it.

Christina Meldrum draws you through your paces and you’ll never resent the lessons examined, or the introspection it demands. The narrative makes it all go down smoothly, but I won’t call it a spoonful of sugar. It’s too complex for that. It’s the twining story of a girl on trial for multiple murder and her reminiscences of her cloistered upbringing.

I had the very distinct pleasure of speaking with Christina Meldrum about Madapple, her fantastic array of credentials, and how things are not always what they seem.

Madapple is definitely a recommended read and you can also learn more about Ms. Meldrum her work ar www.christinameldrum.com.  Click below to listen to our interview.

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Being me and loving novels the way I do, I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to explore truth in fiction for PsychJourney and The Northstar Guardians. I even wrote a piece on it for AuthorScoop.com while I was preparing my latest interview. Fiction can be an emotional and psychological workout and fiction writers, our very own personal trainers.

Last week I talked to Jessica Brody about her new novel, The Fidelity Files, which explores the all too real minefield of marital infidelity. Ms. Brody’s done her homework and exorcised her conscience while we exercise our reactions to, “what if it were me?”

Her protagonist, Jennifer Hunter is a ‘fidelity inspector’, a woman who goes undercover to the very brink of under-the-covers, to see if the man she’s been hired to evaluate will cheat.

Check out our interview below and Jessica Brody’s website at www.thefidelityfiles.com for a video preview of The Fidelity Files and lots of nifty extras.