Chipmunky's delighted to bring you this exculsive interview with Chipmunka author Peter Mackie. Peter's book 'The Madhouse Of Love' is available now: The Madhouse Of Love
Chipmunky:
Why did you want to write a book?
Peter: I was 17 years old in a bedsit in London and suddenly all the memories of everything that had happened in the hospital a few years before came back to me and I felt that I had to write it all down. It just occurred naturally in a bout of inspiration which lasted between one and two months. I also felt determined to publish it so as to give other people the chance to read it because I thought that the book was probably unique.
Why Chipmunka and how did you find out about the publisher?
I found out about Chipmunkapublishing through an article in Writers' News magazine. I chose Chipmunka because they specialise in real-life stories written by people who have been through the mental health system.
What do you feel is the biggest hurdle for people with mental health problems to overcome today?
Depression seems to be on the increase and is the most common mental health problem and I would say that the biggest hurdle for people with mental health problems is to try to make society aware of this before it is too late. No-one seems to be altogether sure what is the cause but, from my own experience, I think that at least some of it is socially caused.
How did you feel about being published?
I feel glad that my book has been published and hope that as many people as possible will read it so that it will get through to people.
Overall how has the reaction to your book been?
Generally, it has been positive. I think that many people are interested because it is unusual and because mental health is something topical at the moment.
Are you glad you wrote your book?
Yes, I am very glad that I wrote my book, which I felt inside that I just had to do.
What do you do to relax/ what’s good for your mental health?
I have had anxiety attacks during the last two years and find that lying down and listening to music or reading a really interesting book helps me relax.
How do you feel about the ‘cannabis causes mental health’ debate?
It's hard to say because it seems to affect people differently. I think that there should be more unbiased research about this. I only know that, in my case, it helped me to stay away from alcohol, which is notoriously bad for depression, and helped me to relax and to sleep at night. However, it may be good for some people and bad for other people - but I think that there should be a choice as alcohol will always be there and can cause many more problems.
How do you feel about some peoples view, that people who have mental health problems and are claiming welfare are ‘scroungers‘?
At one time, I used to feel very angry about this but now I think that it is only that people don't understand something and they need to be educated. There is a lot of difference between depression and ordinary laziness as it is outwith the person's control. Also, for instance, the young people nowadays don't seem to have much going for them. That's why I think that depression is at least partly socially caused.
What are you currently working on?
As well as trying to publicise my book, I'm also trying to publicise and sell copies of the CD of music that I made All Over the Shop - and I'm doing an IT course at Redhall Walled Garden, and organisation in Edinburgh that works with people who have or have had mental health problems.
Any advice for aspiring authors?
If anyone has written anything about their own experiences with mental health problems and/or the mental health system, I would advise them to choose Chipmunkapublishing.
If you could change one thing about the mental health service, what would it be?
I think that the patients should be listened to more and given more of a say. It might be a good idea for patients to hold meetings and to discuss ideas - and maybe even sign petitions - which could be put forward to the people who are in charge.
Many thanks for your time Peter !
Peter's book 'The Madhouse Of Love' is available now: The Madhouse Of Love
Saturday 16 January 2010
Chipmunka The Childrens Publisher
One of Chipmunka's newest releases is a book for children!
The book called All Across China by author Ellen Weisberg
"This exciting new childrens geography book provides a tour of China's 34 provinces, municipalities, and other regions.
Ellen Weisberg, Ph.D. and Ken Yoffe, M.D. provides an entertaining and educational way for the whole family to learn about one of the world's most important and interesting countries. Using the mnemonic devices of clever rhymes and naming characters after the provincial capitals, "All Across China" also includes endless fun facts and charming artwork to answer such questions as: --Where are the Terracotta Warriors? --What do they mean by Sichuan, Hunan, and Cantonese food? --Where can one see the Great Wall of China? --What do Xi, Dong, Bei, and Nan mean? China is the world's fourth largest country and, with over a billion people, has the largest population. It is full of breathtaking mountains and rivers, fascinating animals and crops, and many different cultures and languages. Join Cai, Na, Ning, Song, and dozens of their friends on a trip All Across China!"
The book called All Across China by author Ellen Weisberg
"This exciting new childrens geography book provides a tour of China's 34 provinces, municipalities, and other regions.
Ellen Weisberg, Ph.D. and Ken Yoffe, M.D. provides an entertaining and educational way for the whole family to learn about one of the world's most important and interesting countries. Using the mnemonic devices of clever rhymes and naming characters after the provincial capitals, "All Across China" also includes endless fun facts and charming artwork to answer such questions as: --Where are the Terracotta Warriors? --What do they mean by Sichuan, Hunan, and Cantonese food? --Where can one see the Great Wall of China? --What do Xi, Dong, Bei, and Nan mean? China is the world's fourth largest country and, with over a billion people, has the largest population. It is full of breathtaking mountains and rivers, fascinating animals and crops, and many different cultures and languages. Join Cai, Na, Ning, Song, and dozens of their friends on a trip All Across China!"
Chipmunka gets translated
Chipmunka's founder Jason Pegler has released his bestselling memoir 'A Can Of Madness' as a Swedish translation ( now called ; Enportion Vansinne )
This is possably the first in a new line of translations depending on how well this pilot project sells!
This is possably the first in a new line of translations depending on how well this pilot project sells!
New Year - New Books!
The leading mental health publisher plows into 2010 at full steam with a fantastic selection of e-books having been released these past 2 weeks. Here's a look at Chipmunka's latest author releases:
I Am Not Intelligent - Oscarbound
This book ‘I am not intelligent’ gives importance to the mad, mentally ill, schizophrenia people to show them humanity and love than trying to make them brave and explaining the right thing to make them intelligent persons. When good time came they will become cured but until that we have to show them love and care as the mental illness disease not visible or understand by others like physical illness. Also the hearing voice disease was not accepted as disability in countries like India. There the doctors says it was a disease which will cured one day but not sure when it will cure.
This book is having a mixture of subjects that a general novel have. This is not only a psychological novel it was a secret scientific novel. Three generation story, poems, short story, SMS, affection, affair, the main characters regional famous people’s history, thrilling movements, not much lengthy and speedily moving novel. To create awareness of about mind control which is not accepted by the present world may be proved in future. I wish for all readers this book will be interesting and useful to their life’s. The main chapter is TALKING WITH VIP’S of the whole world as Balu, the main character was the idea and opinion giver to them. Everyone in the world must read it. The author wish to hear reader’s opinion about this book through the e-mail Id oscarbond @ rediffmail dot com
Stitched On Label - Steven Cowley
This book of poetry looks at the issues I have experienced with mental health and other issues I have been through. A gritty book, with honest poetry. The adversity is now over and the book ends with positive poems to show the turnaround I have achieved and the current stability. Even the longest journey starts with a single step.
Mariposa - Sarah Coggrave
Mariposa is a vivid, colourful and comprehensive account of Sarah Coggrave’s recovery from an eating disorder. Her art and writing paint an eclectic picture of a complex individual trying desperately to wrestle free from the evil voices inside her head. The book follows Sarah’s journey through hospital and then a specialist clinic as she totally transforms and rebuilds her life. Throughout she reflects with startling insight on the root of her problems and confesses her innermost thoughts and feelings. We hear the eating disorder speak...it is deafening in the beginning. However eventually it fades to little more than an inaudible whisper as Sarah finds her own voice
Broken Whole - Keith Adams
This violently colorful, devastatingly forthright recounting of the author’s search for self amidst the shards of mania, takes place almost exclusively over the course of the summer of the author’s forty-first year – set against the glittering background of the Corridor of Dreams, the swanky swathe of the West side of LA stretching from the Hollywood Hills to the boulevards of Beverly hill – with its tale of luxury goods, spiritual discovery, thrust for glory, brilliant ideas, not so brilliant ideas, fist-fights, arrest by the LAPD, and, ultimately, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. It asks if the gleaming personality chained up by mood stabilizers is the real self, and, if it is not, is there any such thing as a real self?
Bedlam and Other Stories - Mark Fleming
Mark Fleming’s debut novel ‘BrainBomb’ was published as a Chipmunka paperback in the summer of 2009, to rave reviews. Semi-autobiographical, it weaved a lurid diary of bipolar illness against a backdrop of historic fantasy and Edinburgh’s punk scene.
The short stories collected in Bedlam paint a broader picture. There are bipolar characters. There are others living with post-traumatic stress disorder. Or post-natal depression. Most cope with the stresses and shocks life throws at them. Some don’t, resorting to drugs, even contemplating suicide. There is violence in these tales but it is not connected to any medical condition. It is there, in society, and the perpetrators are far more likely not to have a mental condition.
What all the characters have in common is that they are ordinary people in sometimes extraordinary circumstances. If they have mental issues, there is nothing abnormal about them. It is simply because they are human.
A Glimpse of The Holy Through Bloodshot Eyes - Thomas McNeight
Tom McNeight has recently written a short, poignant book, which he has titled A Glimpse of the Holy Through Bloodshot Eyes. It is a book written primarily to expose to the general reading public a close up view of what life is like when one is living under the supervision of the mental health authorities and has to cope with being in a perpetually heavily medicated state of mind, essentially, one supposes, to prevent the sufferer of the mental illness from hurting himself and others. Tom tries to depict this syndrome in as clear and logical a way as he can. He tries, in his book, to show how he has survived the last thirty-five years hide bound by a crippling mental malaise and a health monitoring system imposed upon him by the authorities. He has attempted, through this book, to try to show to the reader what life is like on the outside of society.
A Mental Journey - Paul M F Smith
This is a story of four individuals battling anxiety, depression, agoraphobia and obssessive-compulsions. It covers their beginnings, how they came to where they are at the start of the story, and how they end up where they are at the end of the story, and the rocky road they travel inbetween, supporting and being there for each other as they come together to inform the wider public how it feels to suffer a mental illness and the stigmas that they carry. All the while they are fighting against their inner demons. This is a mixture of fact and fiction, though unsure of where one ends and another begins. It tries to cover the different elements of the characters troubles, and finishes on a positive note, still afflicted by mental illness, but all the better for the support of one another and teaching the general public on what it is like to live with a mental illness.
If We Win The Pools We Can Go To The Coronation - Pamela Pickton
Christmas was upon them in the village, and Gladys had not won the pools. It would seem that the yearly event had taken her, yet again, by surprise to see her at such a loss. Then, she had so much on her plate. And her children had to understand that she would do more for them, if only she could.
In the year of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11, two young girls are striving to pass the exam and win a place in the grammar school. Brenda battles alone in spite of Gladys, her scatty mother. Pat has a different home with more money, more encouragement. Her problem is something else; not something she can tell to anyone. "
I Am Not Intelligent - Oscarbound
This book ‘I am not intelligent’ gives importance to the mad, mentally ill, schizophrenia people to show them humanity and love than trying to make them brave and explaining the right thing to make them intelligent persons. When good time came they will become cured but until that we have to show them love and care as the mental illness disease not visible or understand by others like physical illness. Also the hearing voice disease was not accepted as disability in countries like India. There the doctors says it was a disease which will cured one day but not sure when it will cure.
This book is having a mixture of subjects that a general novel have. This is not only a psychological novel it was a secret scientific novel. Three generation story, poems, short story, SMS, affection, affair, the main characters regional famous people’s history, thrilling movements, not much lengthy and speedily moving novel. To create awareness of about mind control which is not accepted by the present world may be proved in future. I wish for all readers this book will be interesting and useful to their life’s. The main chapter is TALKING WITH VIP’S of the whole world as Balu, the main character was the idea and opinion giver to them. Everyone in the world must read it. The author wish to hear reader’s opinion about this book through the e-mail Id oscarbond @ rediffmail dot com
Stitched On Label - Steven Cowley
This book of poetry looks at the issues I have experienced with mental health and other issues I have been through. A gritty book, with honest poetry. The adversity is now over and the book ends with positive poems to show the turnaround I have achieved and the current stability. Even the longest journey starts with a single step.
Mariposa - Sarah Coggrave
Mariposa is a vivid, colourful and comprehensive account of Sarah Coggrave’s recovery from an eating disorder. Her art and writing paint an eclectic picture of a complex individual trying desperately to wrestle free from the evil voices inside her head. The book follows Sarah’s journey through hospital and then a specialist clinic as she totally transforms and rebuilds her life. Throughout she reflects with startling insight on the root of her problems and confesses her innermost thoughts and feelings. We hear the eating disorder speak...it is deafening in the beginning. However eventually it fades to little more than an inaudible whisper as Sarah finds her own voice
Broken Whole - Keith Adams
This violently colorful, devastatingly forthright recounting of the author’s search for self amidst the shards of mania, takes place almost exclusively over the course of the summer of the author’s forty-first year – set against the glittering background of the Corridor of Dreams, the swanky swathe of the West side of LA stretching from the Hollywood Hills to the boulevards of Beverly hill – with its tale of luxury goods, spiritual discovery, thrust for glory, brilliant ideas, not so brilliant ideas, fist-fights, arrest by the LAPD, and, ultimately, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. It asks if the gleaming personality chained up by mood stabilizers is the real self, and, if it is not, is there any such thing as a real self?
Bedlam and Other Stories - Mark Fleming
Mark Fleming’s debut novel ‘BrainBomb’ was published as a Chipmunka paperback in the summer of 2009, to rave reviews. Semi-autobiographical, it weaved a lurid diary of bipolar illness against a backdrop of historic fantasy and Edinburgh’s punk scene.
The short stories collected in Bedlam paint a broader picture. There are bipolar characters. There are others living with post-traumatic stress disorder. Or post-natal depression. Most cope with the stresses and shocks life throws at them. Some don’t, resorting to drugs, even contemplating suicide. There is violence in these tales but it is not connected to any medical condition. It is there, in society, and the perpetrators are far more likely not to have a mental condition.
What all the characters have in common is that they are ordinary people in sometimes extraordinary circumstances. If they have mental issues, there is nothing abnormal about them. It is simply because they are human.
A Glimpse of The Holy Through Bloodshot Eyes - Thomas McNeight
Tom McNeight has recently written a short, poignant book, which he has titled A Glimpse of the Holy Through Bloodshot Eyes. It is a book written primarily to expose to the general reading public a close up view of what life is like when one is living under the supervision of the mental health authorities and has to cope with being in a perpetually heavily medicated state of mind, essentially, one supposes, to prevent the sufferer of the mental illness from hurting himself and others. Tom tries to depict this syndrome in as clear and logical a way as he can. He tries, in his book, to show how he has survived the last thirty-five years hide bound by a crippling mental malaise and a health monitoring system imposed upon him by the authorities. He has attempted, through this book, to try to show to the reader what life is like on the outside of society.
A Mental Journey - Paul M F Smith
This is a story of four individuals battling anxiety, depression, agoraphobia and obssessive-compulsions. It covers their beginnings, how they came to where they are at the start of the story, and how they end up where they are at the end of the story, and the rocky road they travel inbetween, supporting and being there for each other as they come together to inform the wider public how it feels to suffer a mental illness and the stigmas that they carry. All the while they are fighting against their inner demons. This is a mixture of fact and fiction, though unsure of where one ends and another begins. It tries to cover the different elements of the characters troubles, and finishes on a positive note, still afflicted by mental illness, but all the better for the support of one another and teaching the general public on what it is like to live with a mental illness.
If We Win The Pools We Can Go To The Coronation - Pamela Pickton
Christmas was upon them in the village, and Gladys had not won the pools. It would seem that the yearly event had taken her, yet again, by surprise to see her at such a loss. Then, she had so much on her plate. And her children had to understand that she would do more for them, if only she could.
In the year of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11, two young girls are striving to pass the exam and win a place in the grammar school. Brenda battles alone in spite of Gladys, her scatty mother. Pat has a different home with more money, more encouragement. Her problem is something else; not something she can tell to anyone. "
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