Book Review: Completely In Blue: Dispatches for the edge of insanity by Chris Curry

Composed by Cat
As soon as the bullet-proof door closed in the Bubble Room, the orderlies held me down, the needle went in and the straight jacket was affixed, I knew that I was in the midst of a story that needed to be told.  ~ Chris Curry, Completely in Blue: Dispatches from the edge of insanity. 
I recently completed Completely In Blue: Dispatches from the edge of insanity by Chris Curry. Most of you know that I am quite outspoken about my life as a bipolar. Chris Curry tells his story in a brutally honest way in this book. His is a story of drugs and alcohol and the mental psychosis that both the chemicals he purposely put in his body and the so called treatments of the time threw him in. He goes in to great detail about the things he put himself, his friends, and his family through. He holds no punches as he tells of his fast decline from sanity by somehow becoming a drug dealer just like that, his lack of sleep thanks to the drugs, his run in with law enforcement, his lock downs in mental hospitals, a couple of very unhealthy relationships and several violent episodes both by him and to him. As the book goes on, Chris Curry tells how his personal quest to sanity and desire for answers to his questions ignited a passion about mental health that lead him to a calling and career in the very field he tried for years to get away from: mental health. 

This book is very well written. Chris Curry has a wonderful way with words and with the ability to be both witty and brutally honest. His descriptions of both his attitude and the attitudes of those around him along with the descriptions of the atmosphere around him has you feeling the tension in the room at times. I was sucked into the book from the very first page. While many autobiographies tend to give a story that tends to lean one way or the other Chris Curry tells things in a way that you know it isn't one sided. He's honesty about the darker parts of his life is what makes this book so creditable. It's a great read for anyone dealing with drugs, alcohol, or just mental illness in general. It's more than another boring "I did drugs. I went crazy. I'm better now. Read my book." kind of book. You'll feel his pain at times. You'll hate him at times. You'll fear for him at times. Most of all, you'll learn from him. I'm happy to say he's winning his battle and helping others. He's also quite a musician. You can check out some of his work with his Bohemian Cove project. 

Completely in Blue: Dispatches from the edge of insanity is published by Post Mortem Press, 
is 169 pages in length and available in paper back and digital versions:

Happy Reading!
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Musing Mondays

Composed by Cat
Why not? I kind of told myself I wouldn't be doing any memes or try to write to please anyone but rather stay true to myself and my constant rambling about who knows what. However, I decided I WANT to do this meme because I love the question.


Musing Mondays is a bookish meme hosted by MizB on Should be Reading. This week’s musing asks…
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? 
 This depends on what I'm reading on. If I'm reading on my Kindle, I usually go ahead and click to look it up since it's as simple as scrolling and clicking (my favorite feature by the way). It also depends how much it effects the meaningful reading flow. If I can read through it and get the meaning, I'll just let it stew until I can go back and look it up without losing my place in time of the story. You know? When you just really get sucked into a story and don't even want to put it down to pull your pants up in the bathroom so you just keep reading and end up leaving the bathroom/reading room with a ring around the rump? Yep, we've all been there. If I can't make it through it without racking my brain for the meaning or if it takes away from the story by not knowing, then I'll stop to go find the meaning behind it all. 
So that's my musing. How about everyone else? Are you a word junky like me or do  ou just roll your eyes and press on? 

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your answer in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks! 
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Book Review: The Legend of Souls Chapel By: Steven Dowell

Composed by Cat

I was really excited when I first heard about this book. Souls Chapel is a local spot with generations of lore to be told around the campfire. An old church, a grave yard, stories of satanic rituals, orbs on cameras, a fire, and all kinds of bumps in the night have given this little spot in the woods in small town Kentucky it own unique local legend. So when a local writer, Steven Dowell published a paranormal fiction based the legend, I jumped at the chance to dive in and share a piece of Kentucky culture. 

To top off this book having been written by a local writer, the book was also published by a local publishing company. Just so happens that Maple House Publishing, the publishers of this book, is also locally owned and operated. As a matter of fact, Maple Hill Publishing is owned by Steven Dowell himself. 


Let me take a moment to say that I know the rap that Indie books and self-published books get. You hear that they aren't edited, they're poorly formatted,  and in some cases written by someone with little to no talent. This is the moment I'd like to say that's not the case here. Unfortunately, I can't say that. I have honestly struggled with what to do with the book since I started page two. I was so looking forward to a good old fashion bone chilling suspense story. What I got was scary alright. Only what was terrifying was that this book could make it out in the world without a good edit. Even more terrifying is the fact that the author of this book let his own work come out of the publishing process seemingly untouched by the the mighty sword of an editor. 

In the remote hills of Pulaski County, Kentucky is a place so evil, that many would be terrified to find themselves anywhere near its proximity. To this day there are strange occurences there. Reports of glowing eyes behind broken tombstones, voices warning of impending dangers, feelings of intense evil, visions of an innocent little girl dressed in white and even being attacked by dagger like fingers still occur there to this day. There are those who would deny the Legend that is said to have took place there well over 100 years ago is true. Still, there are those that claim they know the Legend is very real and they have risked their very souls to prove it. For those whose eyes have seen, whose ears have heard and whose hearts have felt the evil that lurks there have been thoroughly convinced of the Legend's authenticity, and they would tell you that belief may well be the reason they still exist today! By the time this book has finished with you, you will question everything you thought you knew about good and evil and you will be terrified to think about what terrible hidden secrets may lie within your own family history! Now, the time has come for you to learn of the Legend already known the world over..... IF YOU DARE!!!


Sound intriguing? Other than the standard legends of the old place, this has nothing to do with the actually story you'll get. The story centers around the main character, Mr. Powell and his daughter who he has recently regained custody of. Throughout the book he refers to his daughter as "Baby".  Yes, I understand it is meant as a term of endearment but it comes a cross as whiny and wishy washy. Yes, I said wishy washy. You never get the feeling of any strength from this character. It feels like one big "Woe is me" moment after the next. While the book is just roughly 250, I found it to be agonizing to shift through the pages. When he wasn't calling out to his "baby", he was saying a whole lot of nothing with a whole lot of words that are in desperate need of both cutting and condensing. While the ending wasn't necessarily predictable, by the time I got to it, I was rooting for the bad guys. The ending was meant to be some what of a cliff hanger but it appears both physically on the page and figuratively as if the story was left unfinished. It just hangs there. Taunting you. 


This wasn't my first bad read. I'm sure it won't be the last either. What really disturbs me about this book is that the editing process was obviously ignored. Commas ran a muck, words are out of sequence, and blabbering sentences run on.  Maple Hill Publishing, the other baby in Mr. Dowell's life, didn't even take the time or care to treat his own creation with respect or the attention a raw novel so desperately needs. I found myself asking would I have any confidence in dropping of a manuscript I spent many hours, days, nights, even months pouring myself into only to have Maple Hill ignore one of the most important processes in the book publishing process. It's unsettling to know that many indie book publishers and authors who choose self-publishing have to work doubly hard to live down reputations that books like this give to the market. 


I found both the book, whose story line lacked personality to carry it with or without the editing process, and the services (or non-services as it may be) of Maple Hill Publishing lacked professionalism or even spirit. I sincerely hope that Mr. Dowell and his partners at Maple Hill Publishing will take a step back, reassess it's policies and procedures, and find a more professional approach to the world of literature they have jumped into feet first with. 
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Fail but win!

Composed by Cat
So I bombed out at the last moment for the A to Z Blog Challenge. I started to beat myself up mentally for it. After all, it was the second challenge I've failed at this year. But I realized something during the challenge that helped me twenty fold. I had lost a bit of focus on why I write this blog. It started several years ago to help me balance my insane mind and life. It was never to get lots and lots of readers. Don't get me wrong. I love that someone likes to read my ramblings but I don't want to write just so someone will read it. I write because it keeps me sane and it give a place for the many voices that fly around my head to scream, cry, laugh, and confuse the world. I like the challenge because it does get you in the habit of writing something everyday. I already do that in a very old fashion way...I write in my beat up little old journal.  Well really there's several. One is at home...sometimes it's portable but usually not. I know carry one around with me in my purse...it's a tiny one...and I have a composition book that's never far away when the Muse hits and poetry decides to regurgitate itself out of my brain. Any way I look at it, I have no excuse for not having a moment to write. As a matter of fact, today I've started letting the crazy voices out onto the page. I like where it's going.

By failing the challenge, I regained my focus. I'm back to reading and writing and finding my way in the world. So really the challenged worked. So off I go to work on my poetry and this new piece that seems so much more than a short story. I'm also reading The Legend of Souls Chapel by Steven Dowell. It's a fictional story based on an actual local legend and written by a local writer. I'll have a review up later this week...hopefully. Also, I'm finishing reading Compass by Erik Hansen a collection of great poems (I'll review this soon too). It's a great collection of poetry that really pulls nature and the human experience into a song like flow.

I have my crazy focus back and I'm looking forward to getting back to what all this was originally started as...all the things that compose me. Hope you enjoy the ride because I never know what direction I'm going in. Happy reading everyone!
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