mental health - Stories

Shay is a normal kid, just trying to figure things out. Year after year, his mom makes it hard.

What happens when a secret threatens to destroy everything you hold dear? How do you hang onto your sanity when your world collapses? These are questions Maverick finds himself searching answers for. Will he find any?

I've always run. I tried my best to stay in one place, but they find me. What kind of life should I live if I'm constantly threatened? It's not like I can do anything about it. Fate finds a way to force me onward. Well, my time in Chicago is over. I feel them coming. Now, where's my next stop?

Jensen Stibbings longs for a place to call home. But at Sixteen, and the oldest resident at Greenstone Children’s Home, his hopes are fading fast. With a complex medical condition, anger issues and little to no real-world experience, he continues to get looked over for other younger and more adaptable kids.

Will Jensen see out his childhood days at the home until he is left to fend for himself at eighteen, or will he be saved from the scrap heap that is the care system? Time will tell, in Puppy for Sale.

Joel's day has been completely normal until he comes home to find his younger brother sitting out on the front steps. After a word of warning, his life abruptly changes when a careless mistake reveals his one secret to the rest of his family.

Thirty-year-old Greg Beaumont is still fleeing the ruin of his life fifteen years ago. Now he's sharing a new home with his best friend Nate Sawyer, pouring himself into his work, and avoiding romantic entanglements while claiming he's just taking his time. But when he meets Kyle Wakeham, a fifteen-year-old neighborhood boy, he'll not only face the wreckage of his past but he'll also discover he's not defined by the torments and tragedies of history.

This journal is supposed to help me get through life. Write what happened for the day, then reflect upon the words. Since I started my sophomore year in high school, it's become a daily activity. These entries certainly helped me through some bad times.

Let's hope college won't be as brutal. I guess I should put this away. Got a long drive ahead of me. It's move-in day! I'm praying my roommate won't be an asshole and make fun of my art.

Sequel to the 2015 novel Puppy for Sale.

Here we pick up Jensen (Puppy) Stibbings, his family and friends, four months after the events told in the first story. With Greenstone now a distant memory and Puppy's mind maturing fast, he needs to make careful decisions as he navigates his way through a new life.

As we saw previously, drama is never far away from the budding teenager and you can bet it's always 'complicated.' But with loving parents and a protective brother, Puppy might just have the support to rise above the turbulence that often makes up his life.

Follow him once more.

A chance collision at a Bakery. A scent that returns the powerful memory of a past encounter. A yearning for a face remembered. An obsession born. A Gipsy. A Handsome Gipsy.

In this elder teen drama, Luke Hanson provides a touching yet sometimes lighthearted account of his mental health issues and experiences as a college dropout. Luke also shows us the often funny side of being on the cusp of manhood and all its emotions while on a Journey that suddenly diverges onto a single path. Overall this is a story about lost love, an unlikely reunion and the pounding beat of a yearning heart.

The Sessions is a collection of transcripts containing the conversations and subsequent appointment notes between a Consulting psychiatrist and her new patient. As a transcript, the story is told entirely in dialogue and is set in a small, plainly decorated room. A teak coffee table separates Patient and Doctor. Although not seen, the Doctor will be taking notes throughout, and these can be read at the end of each visit.
While some of the details within the transcripts may not be entirely medically accurate, I have drawn on my extensive experience of being the “patient” in therapy.