Monday, July 18, 2011

ROCHELLE WEBER AND KATIE MCGOWAN VISIT TODAY


Today we have another visitor. Katie McGowan is from Rochelle Weber's book ROCK CRAZY. She came to visit and tell us a bit about herself!

FROM ROCK CRAZY


Q: Who are you? What book are you in?

A: My name is Katie McGowan, and I’m in Rochelle Weber’s book, Rock Crazy. It’s the second book in her “Moon Rock” series.

Q: What's your story/back-story? Why would someone come up with a story about YOU?

A: I have severe bi-polar disorder. I rapid-cycle and it’s bad enough that I sometimes even hallucinate. In fact, it started when I was in high school and my dad and brothers thought I was schizophrenic. But none of the pyche meds for schizo worked on me and I finally got a doc who got it right. They put me on lithium and that worked until I had liver probs, so they put me on “safer” drugs, but they didn’t work and over the last twenty years I’ve gone through just about every combination of meds there is, but I still go off on people. My husband, Scott, wants me to go up to the Moon to have a chip implanted in my brain they say will actually cure the disease, but there was a woman there the last time I was on the locked ward and she was like a zombie. She got one of those chips and something went wrong and it fried her brain. I’m scared. Everyone thinks I’m being paranoid, but it IS brain surgery!

Q: What are some of your good traits?

A: I try to be honest and nice to people.

Q: What are some of your bad qualities?

A: Definitely my temper and my spending habits. They’re part of my bi-polar disorder, but even now people tell me I should “count to ten,” or “put myself on a budget.” They can’t hear The Voice telling me to quit screaming or swearing, or my dead mother yelling at me when I’m going off, or telling me I don’t deserve what I just bought. Sometimes I wish I could take a vacation from them, but even with the meds, I still go off and they always find me.

Q: One of the most important questions of the day: What's it like to kiss your hero?

A: I don’t really have a hero. I used to love kissing my husband, Scott. It was warm and tender and sweet and safe. But he brought me up here to this God-forsaken rock, the Moon because he’s doing nuclear safety at the reactor up here while it’s shut down for maintenance. He told me he didn’t trust me alone Earthside. I had to either come up here with him or go live with my oldest brother, James. Then, we got up here and I went off on Scott. I gave him a black eye, and he dumped me. He said he couldn’t take my mood swings anymore, so he terminated our marriage contract, and I got evicted from the executive suite in the barracks, and I had to find a job. If Jake Johnsrud hadn’t hired me to work in his restaurant and smoothed things over with the barracks manager to get me a room there, I’d be sleeping in a corridor somewhere her in Rockton.

To make matters worse, I was sick all the time. I thought I was space-sick, but I’m pregnant. Scott says he wants me back, but how can I trust him? And the doc says I have to go off my meds until the baby’s born. And my boss’ wife says I can’t keep my baby unless I have the surgery, but the doc says I can’t have that until after the baby’s born. So, I guess this pregnancy is gonna be a long, rocky road. Yeah, pun intended.

Q: That’s all the questions we have for you tonight, Katie. Thank you for speaking to us.

A: You’re welcome. You can read my whole story in October at MuseItUp Publishing, Inc.

Editor’s Note: You can buy Rock Crazy in October at Museitup Publishing

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