Books!!!

My novels are finished!  All three of them are available in both Kindle and paperback formats.  

Next week, I will launch a free Kindle promotion from September 27th through October 1st for the two new ones: Double Billing and Mitch & Wendy: Lost in Adventure Land.  Home Inspection will be available as a free download on September 27th only.

More information is coming soon, and if you'd like to check out my Amazon page, you can go Here.

Double Billing is Now Available as a Paperback

Here is the link. 

Double Billing is Available as a Kindle e-Book

My novel, Double Billing, is now available as a Kindle e-book for $2.99.  The paperback version will be out in a couple of weeks.
A little less psychiatry than Home Inspection, which is also available as both an e-book and a paperback on Amazon.
Cover art by Natalie Adachi.

As always, if you read my books, I encourage you to put a review on Amazon.

Coming Soon --  Mitch & Wendy: Lost in Adventure Land.

Double Billing, Revisited

Remember a few years back when I was posting parts of a novel I was working on?  If you don't, that's fine, it was a long time ago. And then I got side tracked writing Shrink Rap and blogging and pod casting and blogging some more. 


Recently, I've started working on Double Billing again, and I got some feedback from a professional on what would make it more marketable.  I've tried to incorporate those suggestions, and part of this involved re-working the story in third person, rather than as a first person narrative.  


If you enjoy fiction, I'd love to get your thoughts on the first couple of chapters, before I once again think about searching for an agent, or maybe kindle e-publishing this.  Oh, please beware, there's no erotica or sadomasochism, if you're a 50 Shades fan, it may be a bit dry.   If you're up for reading, click HERE.  And Thank You!

I Want To Talk

Thank you all for the kind birthday wishes, poem, limerick-- I had a day of smiles IRL & in Blog-0-Land.

Click here for I Want To Talk.

What Kind of Psychiatrist Are You?

First: More of chapter 7 is up on Double Billing. If you haven't visited lately, please do. Chapter One has been voted out and replaced, the story is moving along...






So I'm finishing up a session with a patient today and he suddenly asks, "What kind of psychiatrist are you?"

The question caught me off-guard as all sorts of things rushed through my head. Oh the usual kind of psychiatrist. The kind who writes a blog.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I wasn't sure what he was looking for.

"Like, oh you know, Freudian, Jungian...like that."

I rambled a bit inarticulately, still not sure what the question was. I told him where I did my residency-- if you're a local psychiatrist that means a lot and I could get plugged into a neat little stereotype. The patient is in car sales and doesn't know about ideological difference between the different programs in our fine city.

"I'm a general adult psychiatrist," I said. "I don't see kids." So there, something I'm not. I'm still left with wondering what I am. "I'm not a psychoanalyst, and I don't even know any Jungians."

Okay, I was babbling. It wasn't the first time. If you listen to our podcasts, you know that. Really, I was trying to guess at the question, what did the patient really want to know, what was the wish, the fear, the concern here? He'd only seen one other psychiatrist, and only for a few visits. I knew he didn't like her-- did he want reassurance that I was different? He knew that already, after the first appointment he'd commented about how different I was than Dr. EvilShrink. Figuring Dr. EvilShrink was his only frame of reference (and Woody Allan, of course), I babbled some more:

"Dr. EvilShrink sees patients for medications and sends them to see other professionals for therapy. I do both therapy and medication management."

Then I recalled how Patient was really not very interested in psychotherapy, or so he said. Talking was a chore and he just wanted to feel better. Not everyone has to talk, I take 'em as they come.

Patient made an appointment and left. I never did figure out what he was asking or what he wanted to know. Maybe he just wanted to hear me babble, so hopefully I obliged.

And Roy, you've inspired me to hit spellcheck. I just don't have proofreading in me. It's good I have you.

The Rest Of Chapter 5 is Up on Double Billing

Click Here

And Roy, I gave you a photo of Hillary.

The beginning of Chapter 5 is up

on Double Billing: The Interactive Novel. And yes, I welcome your comments.

Chapter 4 is up on The Interactive Novel Project.

Click Here for Double Billing

Chapter Two

The beginning of Chapter Two is posted: Click Here.
Tomorrow, I promise, SSRI withdrawal syndrome. Really!

[From Clink: This is your fourth blog post about Double Billing this week, but who's counting? I've decided I really must write a serialized short story about a writer who ends up in prison.]

Feelings and Stuff

First, I want to share my feelings of the moment with you:

Sad: That Fat Doctor has closed her blog. I actually discuss her life with my husband as though she's a friend or family member.

Annoyed: That an insurance company can't process the claims for one of my patients until I fax them a copy of my medical license. No insurance company has ever wanted this before, Why exactly are they the only one that can't process claims without it. Not quite true: a few weeks ago, an insurance company mailed me a Letter to my office: they couldn't process claims without my address (!--where did they think they were mailing the letter?), a copy of my Tax ID number-- I don't believe I've ever had such a document-- and my license, however I believe this is the same insurance company that called today. How many hoops can they insist I jump through. Okay, okay, I faxed it, time to move on.

Tired: Long day of being mom and doc and still more to do. Currently, I'm procrastinating.

Stuff
Thank you all for your votes and comments on the first chapter of Double Billing. It's still not too late to vote, I was hoping for 50 million responses and so far have gotten....ummm a little over 50.

Did you want the story of that chapter? When I wrote the book, I liked the first chapter a lot. I showed the book to an agent who said "No thanks," and I got a bit paralyzed. I decided to take a grad school course in the hopes of learning something about fiction writing and getting some constructive feedback. I had to apply to grad school, got accepted, took the course, got a huge amount out of it, reworked the beginning of the novel, and incorporated a bunch of the instructor's ideas, one of which was to have the intro chapter look like it was in third person but then have the narrator introduce herself into the story in this way that some of you described as "jarring." I liked it, he liked it. What's wrong with Jarring, anyway? If someone walks into a restaurant to unexpectedly find an identical twin, it might be, well, jarring. But okay, like it, don't like it, let me think about the commas, I am so fond of them.

So now I put up the original version of Chapter One on a new blog, Double Billing: The Interactive Novel. I'd love your vote. So far it's 6 unopposed votes for the original chapter.

As soon as I can get some traffic there, I'm going to stop hogging Shrink Rap for this (though I will post when the other blog is updated), and I'm going to put up the novel chapter by chapter for as long as anyone can stand it.

And ClinkShrink, thanks for your repeated concern, but I'm happy to have the feedback and my feelings just don't get hurt over this stuff. Carrie, that's for you, too!

The Interactive Novel Project Is Up And Running

My novel stuff isn't really shrinky, so I'm moving it to a side blog:

Double Billing: The Interactive Novel Project

Come visit. Read another version of Chapter One. Comment! Vote!

Thank You all for your input, I love reading everyone's opinions.

And please, scroll down to read about all the things ClinkShrink has to look forward to in her old age and wish her a Happy Birthday!

What Do You Think: The Interactive Novel

I'm hijacking the blog for my literary endeavors. Without permission.

Sunday's New York Times had an article on the unpredictability of the publishing industry: The Greatest Mystery: Making A Bestseller. The jist of the article is that publishers aren't good at guessing in advance what will sell, and the industry has surprisingly little feedback and interactive responses from its market.

So I thought, what if I try to see if I can get some feedback on Double Billing, my novel-of-the-moment, either use the feedback, or let prospective agents know that 50 million people read the first few pages and now want more? So here goes, the first chapter, the set up for the rest of the novel. If you want to make suggestions on how it would be better, please feel free to comment. If you're not a regular commenter, just click on "post a comment" at the end of the piece. If you're not a blogger, sign in under "other" so you can give yourself a name, real or fictional. If you must be anonymous, please end your post with a distinguishing signature (i.e. "Anon-1") I will also stick a Poll below. Please, please, vote on the poll. If it helps the cause, the protagonist is a psychiatrist.

After this, I'll be back with a case of SSRI withdrawl, after I find out the answer, and get permission.


Double Billing: Chapter 1 (it's only 2 pages):

She emerged from the subway to an assault on all her senses. Cars, buses and taxicabs honked their horns, black exhaust puffed in her face, pedestrians rushed by with to-go coffee cups still steaming, the wind blew cold, and she had no idea which way to go. She studied the streets signs, glanced at a map and unable to get her bearings, finally just picked a direction and started walking.
Emily Mason came to New York City that day, in part, to see The Gates in Central Park—the display by Christo and Jeanne-Claude of monuments lining the footpaths of the park. Each one was a huge metal portal topped with an orange curtain flap that billowed in the wind, looking a bit like a giant puppet theatre. There were thousands of them, literally 7,503 Gates, each standing 16 feet tall, lining 23 miles of walkways.
Emily made her way to Central Park and once there, she walked for hours, stopping only once to buy sugar-coated nuts from a vendor. The Gates were the oddest of sights, magical and magnificent, and Emily felt compelled to follow their trail. Was it art, she asked? What did it mean? Here and there, in the northern, quieter parts of the park, Emily would leave the paths, climb a boulder to look out over the landscape, and find herself giggling out loud at the bewildering sight of the orange fluttering canvases.
Eventually, the sun set and the temperature dropped; after all, it was February. It was suddenly quite dark and a stranger to New York City, Emily found herself a bit disoriented and unsure of how to get where she wanted to be. Chilled, tired, and no longer able to appreciate anything but her own discomfort, she left Central Park on the East Side by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and walked over to Third Avenue. She wanted hot soup or coffee, or both, and ducked into a diner.
“Emily,” A man said. She glanced at the stranger reflexively; she didn’t know him and Emily is such a common name-- obviously he was talking to some other Emily. He was sitting alone, though his table remained set for two and he’d been careful not to let his belongings— his black leather gloves, house keys, an unopened envelope-- spill onto the other half.
There was no hostess and Emily searched for a clean table—the ones closest to the door had dirty dishes on them.
“Emily!” The man’s voice was more insistent. She spotted a table for four; the restaurant was nearly empty and she was certain it would be okay to sit there alone. She’d have room to give her bag its own seat and spread out with a street map. Emily settled her coat onto the chair beside her though, still chilled, she left her scarf draped around her shoulders.
The man was suddenly there, having gotten up from his own seat to approach her. She could have been frightened but he had a gentle face, a cultured presence, and nothing about him was threatening.
“What are you doing?” he asked. “I got us a table over there. I ordered a drink for you.” She was confused. I’m sorry, sir, she wanted to say, but you have the wrong Emily. Before she could speak, his expression changed. His eyes grew wide, maybe his skin blanched a shade.
“Emily, what did you do to your hair? And where did you get those clothes?”
And so my identical twin met Jules, my husband-- her brother-in-law-- just moments before I, also an Emily, arrived.

End of Chapter One.
Please Vote Below-- you may need to scroll down a bit to the poll.

If you'd like to keep reading, I'll be posting in segments at:
Double Billing: The Interactive Novel Project
Come visit. Read another version of Chapter One. Comment! Vote!
Thank You all for your input, I love reading everyone's opinions.



Thanks everyone!