Writing

Lightning Man is an electrifying manifesto that challenges hustle culture’s toxic insistence that we must perpetually stretch ourselves beyond the breaking point in order to build a meaningful life.  

After years of striving to rise above his humble rural roots, an award-winning behavioral health director has finally achieved some long-held goals in the big city—a great job, a strong marriage, beautiful children, a comfortable home, and a fulfilling vocation.  

Despite quietly battling depression, his career reaches new heights, as he leads large-scale counseling programs for healthcare workers and patients during COVID and beyond. He is finally firing on all cylinders when tragedy strikes.  A motorcycle accident leaves him with a traumatic brain injury that triggers a lengthy manic depressive episode, turning his life upside down for years and landing him on long-term disability with no end in sight.  

A heavy regimen of electroshock therapy and lithium finally stabilizes him, but his life is forever altered.  A modern day Rip Van Winkle, he has little recall of recent years.  He embarks on a healing journey that includes stitching together lost memories, recovering his identity, and ultimately finding purpose again.  

Along the way, he delivers hard-won reflections as a licensed therapist grappling with lived experience of bipolar disorder.  This insider’s tour of the system holds a mirror to the broader challenges of the current state of mental healthcare, while inviting readers on an intimate ride into the sparks and shadows of one man’s mind.

(Chin Music Press, 2027)

In this memoir of carefully selected, yet slightly scattered, deeply personal reflections, a psychotherapist and behavioral healthcare leader explores his relationship with mental illness. At times hilarious and at others heartbreaking, these essays recount the author’s struggle to be a “normal person” despite a far from typical background. From his grandmother’s birth on a kitchen table in Oklahoma to reconciling having two fathers, one bipolar and one transgender, to his own breakdowns and ongoing recovery, the author grapples with childhood, family, fatherhood, marriage, work, international adventures, and suicide, ultimately finding acceptance and commitment to be the path to healing.

(Self Published, 2020)

In the spirit of classic bestselling memoirs like Manic, Prozac Nation, An Unquiet Mind, Madness, Running with Scissors and the Buddha and the Borderline, #1 Amazon Bestseller, The Day Hospital, weaves personal stories of tragedy with insight, wit, and hope.

This is the story of one man's journey to reclaim his mind and life from personal tragedy and genetic predisposition to mental illness. The first edition of The Day Hospital was self-published anonymously in early 2020. The events of 2020 and beyond show that the need for stories of recovery from mental illness are more necessary than ever. The second edition includes reflections on being a healthcare provider caring for healthcare providers through the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

(Self Published, 2021)

This book was originally self-published anonymously in 2020 under the title The Day Hospital: A Memoir. Shared quietly with friends and family and free libraries, during the height of the Covid pandemic that felt like a particularly bold act of self revelation. Mental health was not talked about as openly then, online or in person, certainly not serious mental illnesses like bipolar disorder.

A lot of life has happened since I first wrote these words. When the opportunity came to publish traditionally with an indie press here in Seattle, I decided to make some changes to the manuscript. I cut quite a few expository pieces, including some full chapters, that were interesting but distracting from the core stories. When I wrote it I was just a few years out of graduate school, with a lot of academic concepts on my mind, and now I look forward to finding a new home for those worthy discussions. I have added text and polished here and there. What remains stays true to the original text, but has emerged as a wholly new book. In that spirit I decided to give it a new name, a nod to the core story of coming of age bipolar. My hope is that with these updates, and a publisher with broad distribution, more people will be helped by my sharing of these experiences.

(Chin Music Press, 2027)