Book Trailers In the last fifty years, I’ve written a lot of creative works including stories, poems and plays. In addition, I’ve also written a book of humorous stories, a number of self-help books and two sci fi-fantasy novels. Unfortunately, I’ve never really made any money. This would have been completely disappointing to for me if it had not been for the fact that my work has been widely read over the years. For example, my Booksie.com account has had over thirty-four thousand hits from...
12 days ago • 2 min read
“Momentum” The term “momentum” is often used in sports. For example, in football, if the team is doing poorly in the first half, but then they score a touchdown and perhaps make a great defensive play, they start to do better. They gain momentum. Momentum is also associated with recovering from a physical illness like the flu. Gradually symptoms subside and there is an opportunity to feel better rather quickly. When this momentum takes hold, life can get much better. The term momentum is...
18 days ago • 2 min read
My Deepest Insecurity I hated English in high school, and I read as little as possible. Although I was good speller back then, I could barely construct a simple sentence. This all changed in college. After taking my first literature class freshman year, I knew that literature was meant for me to study. I started taking literature seriously as well as creative writing. I won first prize for a short story contest I entered one year, and the next year won second place for a poem I wrote. But...
26 days ago • 3 min read
Creativity For me, creativity, in the form of creative writing, has been essential for my journey through adulthood. Whenever I was ill, I’d write in an attempt to express delusional thoughts safely, find closure for difficult situations and to gain a deeper understanding of myself and the world. In my book, The End Justifies the Pain, the chapter on creativity focuses on the relationship between bipolar mental illness and creativity. Although the information in this chapter may prove useful...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Favorite Songs As I’ve mentioned in earlier newsletters, my wife Donna and I write original songs, and then practice them - together with old songs - for about an hour and a half roughly every other day. Recently, we have written two new song that are very difficult in themes. The first called, “Before You Go”,” is a love song that describes how despair can be transformative when it leads to courage and faith. The melodies in this song have proven difficult for me to sing, so we turned it...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Coping Strategies In this newsletter, I’d like to focus on coping strategies, that are found in my book The End Justifies the Pain. Since everyone has some degree of stress in their lives, coping strategies can be useful to most people. Whether it’s problems at work, financial burdens or health issues, stress is experienced sooner or later. So, this chapter, “Coping Strategies: Developing Lines of Defense,” can be useful to most anyone, but especially for those of us with mental health...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Managing Emotions Having had to identify and manage serious mood swings since I was a child, I’ve learned a great deal about feelings. Although it has been very difficult at times, knowledge and self-awareness of emotions have been a key source of help. I was very emotional as a child. Things would be upsetting to me that didn’t typically bother others too much. I also had emotions last too long. I’d cry at the “drop off a hat” so to speak, and I also would be told to just get over things....
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Medication Issues A couple of years ago, I wrote a book called, The End Justifies the Pain, which is about mental health, coping skills, spirituality and creativity. Based on my experience as a person with mental health challenges, as well as my experience as a public speaker, the book is comprehensive, covering my own experiences, my self-knowledge and some of my creative writing. Although my diagnosis is bipolar disorder, the observations in this book, I believe, could apply to mental...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Teaching Jobs I always wanted to be an English teacher. From my very first semester of college, my career goal was to teach literature. However, because of many obstacles - too many to recount here - that dream never came to fruition. Nevertheless, I was given many opportunities to teach in a number of situations. My very first job out of college was teaching machine tool vocabulary to refugees out of the Catholic Social Services office in Peoria. I have taught everything from preschool to...
5 months ago • 3 min read