Control: We the Gamers…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4Q324J7
I, Dalton Lewis, wrote a book about desperate people facing mental health issues. I spent 75 days on it — this seems like the right amount of time to spend on a 60,000 word book. Four friends play games together and live wonderful lives.
Dalton Lewis — the character in the book — has paranoid schizophrenia. He wakes up one day and realizes that he hasn’t looked around at the real world in a long time. He has just been zoning out for years on end, living life in a schizophrenia-filled haze, daydreaming all day and all night. He takes stock of his life and begins to make changes, trying to fix things. He wants to lose weight and write a better quality of book and not talk to the voices all day long — not just talk to the voices all day long. He also wants to play at the legendary gaming convention known as Adepticon.
Finnegan Harper’s second wife has a family tragedy — leading them halfway around the world for a terrible funeral. His children are troubled — they are in high school and middle school, respectively, and they are bullied and alienated from the rest of the students. Finnegan needs to control the drinking, the ADHD, and the secret that he just can’t shake. He’s the perfect dad and husband. Can he keep it all together?
Terry O’Hare defended his country in the U.S. Navy for twenty years, and now that he’s home everything seems to collapse all around him. One of his sons seems perfect and the other can’t handle the stress of work and school. He can’t get through to them. He can’t handle his weight, and he feels threats from all around him. Can he keep his life together?
Phillip Stein wants to make movies — has been the super genius ever since he was a teenage prodigy. He quits his programming job in order to work as a filmmaker full time — taking a shot at a career as an artist. Catastrophe strikes, and his mental health issues compound the problem…he obsessively washes his hands every hour, and he can’t handle the reality of the situation around him…
I wanted four characters who felt like real people with real problems…characters that the reader could love and care for and root for. I wanted to show mental health issues that are real and facing Americans today. I feel that I did that in this story. It will be free tomorrow if you want to read it for free — or you can buy it today if you want to support my writing. Either way is fine by me.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
