Shopping for Crazy People

When I decided to write a comedic mystery series about a female psychologist and her crazy family, friends, and patients, I knew I was going to have to research various mental disorders. Little did I know what I would discover about myself!

In shopping for crazy people to inhabit my story, one place I turned to was the “DSM” or “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” While reading through the diagnoses, it didn’t take long for me to realize I had a crap load of issues. For example, I’m fairly convinced that I have ADHD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, combined with maybe a sprinkling of passive aggressiveness and something akin to bipolar illness. Bipolar people spend too much money. That would explain why my large storage closet resembles a strip mall. In my defense, I try to buy things on sale all year because I have so many gifts to give at Christmas. Still, my unprofessional diagnosis of myself was scary. Also, menopause brings a lot of mood swings. What if I have multiple personality disorder as well, I thought! Knowing what I know, I’m almost afraid to be alone with myself.

The truth is everybody has peculiarities and eccentricities. We’re all a little bit crazy; it’s just to what extent. Take heart, though. People who are really crazy don’t know it.

In What Looks Like Crazy, I knew I would have to invent a cast of characters that were over-the-top odd. Everybody needed a diagnosis no matter how small or large. And those diagnoses had to play a part in creating my mystery/suspense angle.

My main character, psychologist Kate Holly, freely admits she has “issues,” that her gene pool is unfit for swimming and her family tree has a lot of shaky limbs.

When Kate gets stressed, she counts things. She likes even numbers. Odd numbers are complicated. Like her life. If there are an odd number of pens in her “I Love Atlanta” mug, she gets rid of the extra one. To her credit, Kate has reasons for being a little neurotic. She has been separated from firefighter husband, Jay Rush, the love of her life, because he has a habit of running into burning buildings. It doesn’t help that Kate’s father was a firefighter who lost his life in the line of duty when she was ten years old. But Jay isn’t about to quit a job that he finds so genuinely rewarding.

Enter the two women who raised Kate, her mother and aunt, identical twins who still dress alike despite being in their mid-fifties. Dixie and Trixie are junk dealers who brought Kate up in a home that resembled “Sanford & Son.”

They became known as the Junk Sisters, and, in school, Kate became known as the daughter of a Junk Sister. She still believes that’s why she was unable to find a date for her senior prom.

Kate’s best friend and receptionist, Mona Epps, is a rich widow who works for free and spends her time shopping online. Mona has also appointed herself as Kate’s PR person and will stop at nothing to make her famous. Mona wants Kate to have her own TV show like Dr. Phil.

Kate’s ex-boyfriend, psychiatrist Thad Glazer is somewhat narcissistic and would love nothing more than to have her back in his life, his hot tub, and his bed. The two share a couple of patients. Thad dispenses meds; Kate sees them for talk therapy because Thad doesn’t like hearing about other people’s problems. When Kate needs his help on professional matters, Thad first insists on knowing what kind of panties she’s wearing.

The book begins with Kate’s new patient who is about to take a nose dive from the rooftop of the building that houses her office, his reason being he can’t get an erection. It’s up to Kate to convince him not to jump.

Even as Kate tries to juggle her wild and crazy life, she finds herself in danger. Somebody is out to get her, and it could easily be a patient because she has treated half the lunatics in town!

Although the books in the series stand alone, the characters are ongoing and the stakes get higher with each title.

The second book of the series, Nutcase, due on bookshelves Feb. 24th, follows Kate’s wacko world and finds her face-to-face with someone even more dangerous than in the previous book.

This is an exciting time for my series. It recently caught the attention of the VP of a major motion picture company who thinks it will make for a fun TV series. Although it’s a long shot and I’m not getting my hopes up, I would love to see my kooky characters come to life on film.

For those who enjoy a funny mystery, I hope you’ll keep an eye out for Nutcase. It’s great therapy! In the meantime, check out my website and my group therapy sessions (my blog). Thanks for coming by to chat with me today!