Read about the life outside and inside the psychiatric hospital.

Dancing with Rachel by Ken Montrose

Two very different narrators voice the novella Dancing with Rachel. Voices torment the first narrator, David an ex-football player just trying to make a life for himself. He calls his auditory hallucinations “The Chorus.” They have names and even personalities. While naïve staff members claim the voices aren’t real, David knows otherwise. He can hear The Chorus clearly. He can point to where they are coming from. How could they not be real?

Taylor, the other narrator and David’s therapist, struggles to stay sober and fight off depression while his wife lies in a coma. He bounces between his job at St. Joe’s, a psychiatric hospital, and the adjoining Lazard Memorial Hospital’s Extended Care Unit. Taylor spends much of his time traveling the cold, antiseptic tunnel between the two hospitals, always seeing the light at the end, but knowing he’s far underground.

Their lives intersect on an inpatient psychiatric unit run by Dr. Rainey, the medical equivalent of an absentee landlord. While at the State Hospital, David meets a patient who knew Doc Rainey when he was an intern struggling with his own boundary issues

‘Regulars’ on this psychiatric unit include Tom, a rapist and master manipulator, whose benign appearance hides true evil. (David describes him a cross between Fred Rogers and a serial killer.)

A patient named Simon wants nothing more than to find peace with God. His size and religious fervor make him the perfect cat’s paw for Tom. This scares David’s ex-girlfriend and fellow patient Monica, as well as their friend Kai. The one patient not afraid of Tom or Simon is Marc, an entrepreneurial genius suffering from bipolar disorder.

As Taylor worries about David, Taylor’s friends worry about him. They watch his spirits and his weight drop as he wrestles with his own demons. An insurance company balking at the cost of a new respirator for his wife doesn’t help.

Life outside the psychiatric hospital can be chaotic,

especially within Kai’s family. His father, a born middle manager nicknamed BiMM, declares bankruptcy, accuses his mother of killing his father, and refuses to believe his wife had an affair. Kai has no doubt his grandmother tampered with the garage door lock, trapping Kai’s grandfather inside. He’s not at all upset when they find the old racist asphyxiated, but he wonders if he’s the only sane person in his family.

Read about the life of Rachel in a psychiatric hospital while it’s free today.

An excerpt best describes the action:
My belly rumbled. Terror. Choked on his own vomit — didn’t somebody famous die that way? Lost. A man was dead. They made his suicide look like an accident. An insane man was judged sane enough to be put to death. He was happy about it. When I shut my eyes, the devils reappeared.
“But Kai got out,” a rare friendly voice said. It made me smile. I even giggled a little. The nurse muttered “inappropriate affect” and wrote something on a clipboard.
“Dr. Stephenson home with his young wife?” I asked. She dropped the clipboard. I’m going to be here awhile.
“He’s never leaving,” a voice said.
Still, Kai got out.

Read about the life of Rachel inside the psychiatric hospital.

Ann traded her body for cocaine. The message for the day we meet her reads: “Today I will remember some things can’t be sold without taxing your soul.”

AArdvarks: A Daily Recovery Message Novella by Ken Montrose

AArdvarks tells the story of young people struggling to stay clean and sober. Originally published as a daily blog, each chapter ends with a thought for the day. For example, nineteen year old Ann traded her body for cocaine. The message for the day we meet her reads: “Today I will remember some things can’t be sold without taxing your soul.” Other members include a young man known affectionately as “The Emu from CMU” (Carnegie-Mellon University). He wants to save the world, but has spent the previous year drinking away his frustration.

AArdvarks: A Daily Recovery Message Novella is free today.

James the son of a Kenyan father and a British mother, has seen much of what the world has to offer, including crack, which he quickly became addicted to. Heavy drinking Michaela is angry she got pregnant in high school. She has raised her son alone. Her son’s father and his teenage girlfriend want to re-enter his life. Michaela is trying not to drink or kill them.

“AArdvarks: A Daily Recovery Message Novella” is free today

Despite all his money, Liam struggles. His parents are filthy rich kids in adult bodies, drinking and smoking their way across Europe. They want him to join the party. Julie, never met a drug she didn’t like. Despite being a heavy smoker, she is most terrified she might die from swine flu or a rare cancer not yet diagnosed.

They share their “experience, strength, and hope,” and try to keep each other clean and sober.

Be sure to download “AArdvarks: A Daily Recovery Message Novella” while it’s free today.

Meditations for the First 30 Days: How not to become roadkill on the highway to recovery by Ken Montrose

Many meditation books lift us above the din of our daily existence. This isn’t one of them. Topics covered include learning from people you don’t like, squeezing the joy out of life, not judging people by their appearances, finding peace in noisy places, and never picking up the first drink or drug, no matter what. All thirty lessons have a page for writing a daily inventory and a gratitude list.

Foreword
From the first day of my recovery I felt caught in the middle. On one side sat the twelve-step traditionalists. Whenever I spoke they told me to “sit down, shut up, take the cotton out of ‘yer ears and put it in your mouth!” Should I need an opinion, they promised to supply one.
On the other side floated people who saw angels everywhere. They explained all experiences in metaphysical terms. They hated the notion that anything might be coincidental and not preordained by the Almighty. Having a summer cold was part of God’s grand plan to help me survive the garbage collectors’ strike.

Between these two extremes, I trudged my own road from alcoholism to sobriety. Along the way I met many people walking a similar path. We held and expressed opinions. Our relationships with God tended to be deep but informal. We were the kind of heretics who believed in coincidences. I have added my own thoughts to their wisdom. With luck the combination will help you find comfort as you take the middle road.

“Meditations for the First 30 Days” has thirty lessons and messages written with the first thirty days of recovery in mind.

Introduction
This is the first part of Meditations from the Medial Strip. The lessons were written with the first 30 days of recovery in mind. Scattered throughout the daily readings are six crucial messages:
?Don’t pick up the first drink or other drug, no matter what.
?Listen with an open mind.
?Practice rigorous honesty with yourself and others
?Go to any length to stay clean and sober.
?Take stock of your recovery, and stay focused.
?Keep coming back.

Each lesson has a section for your thoughts. There is also a section for taking stock each day. This section asks you to check a box indicating you awoke clean and sober, and another box indicating you went to bed clean and sober. These boxes are the most important part of your recovery. All recovery begins with complete abstinence from alcohol and other drugs.

Each lesson has a space for a gratitude list. Writing a gratitude list helps us see what is good about our situation, and what we can do to improve the future. Sometimes we need to list what could have been worse had we kept drinking and drugging.

Our daily inventories help us remember to squeeze the most out of each day. When you complete this section ask yourself several questions:
1.What did I do today to clear the wreckage of the past?
2.What did I do today to stay clean and sober?
3.What did I do today to strengthen my recovery for the future?

Thirty Lessons and Messages Written with the First 30 Days of Recovery in Mind.

The more effort and thought you put into each lesson, the more you will get from this.