Last Chapter

I've now started work on the last chapter of Psychiatric Tales. Which is good. I've also decided that I'll have to go back and rework one of the earlier chapters, due to some factual confusion. Which is bad. However I will only have to redraw four pages of that chapter to correct it. So it's not as bad as it could have been.

Here's a panel from the last chapter.



It's all going smoothly, both the writing and the drawing. I'm very happy with all the publicity I've had. It's turning all this attention and good feeling into money that's the difficulty. I'm currently having to make ends meet by doing agency work two days a week. This means going up to a local care home for dementia sufferers and wiping bottoms for a living (work that keeps me grounded in reality if nothing else). If it wasn't for the fact that I'm staying at my parent's house I wouldn't be able to manage at all. I'd have to work full time and there'd be little chance of doing much in the way of cartooning.

A few noters in the past have offered money to help me finish the book. So for those who might have any spare change lying around, I'll give you the chance to donate to me via PayPal. Even small amounts of money will at least help me buy new ink cartridges and that sort of thing. I thank you in advance.

Northern Town

Three photos of the northern town where I live.

Suicide

This chapter on suicide is different from previous chapters, as it's much more personal in tone. It's not meant to be a piece giving you facts and figures about the subject. Nor do I attempt to give any advice. Such a strip may in fact be written by me in the future, but this strip is about how the subject of suicide has touched my own life.

This is the penultimate chapter of the book. The last chapter will be a long piece detailing my own mental health struggles.

Psychiatric Tales Back Cover

Back cover image for my Psychiatric Tales book. Will fit in the lower third of the cover with text above.

Cover

I'm extremely grateful to all the people who have left me feedback recently. It's impossible for me to reply to everyone, because I'd never get any drawing done, and I've got many pages to do yet. I've had a few offers from people to help out with proofreading. To which thanks. However most of the mistakes have been corrected on the original files since these uploads, and my publisher will be doing a final pass anyway.

I'm aware that there are factual blunders (well, some confusion anyway) in the chapter on Personality Disorder, and I'l be rewriting/redrawing sections of that.

Here's what will probably be the cover of Psychiatric Tales.

Almost Famous

It seems I'm becoming something of a celebrity, at least in a small way. I made number one on Reddit the other day, I've been featured on Boing Boing. Nursing Times will be featuring me on their website. Many folk have been discussing Psychiatric Tales on Twitter, including Graham Linehan of Father Ted and The IT Crowd fame. I've also had about eighty emails. Far more than I can ever reply to and they're still coming in.

The vast majority of the emails have been positive, some a little critical (which is fair enough) and only one insulting (why am I defending violent crazy people, etc).

Boing Boing got their facts wrong when they reported that I'm a student nurse. I haven't been a student nurse for years and never finished my training anyway, (due to my own mental health problems). I'm currently working in a residential home for the elderly.

Here's a frame from the current chapter of Psychiatric Tales I'm working on, which is about the grim subject of suicide.

Four September 2009 Photos

Girls on the London tube.


Pavement in Yorkshire.


Girls on train platform.


London cranes.

Bipolar Disorder

A chapter of my Psychiatric Tales book. This one covering Bipolar-Disorder. As ever, if you spot any mistakes let me know. Feedback from those with this illness would be greatly appreciated. I've mostly covered the mania side of the illness here, because a previous chapter already talks about depression, and I didn't want to repeat myself. Thank you.