Balbriggan Author gives insight into new book that he's writing...
FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT.
THE BATTLE IN ITS EXTREME.
Patrick Bentley has now made it known that his new book GREENRIDGE deals with the issue of depression and mental illness.
Patrick writes:
The time came for me to change direction as a writer. And suicide and the whole illness of depression seemed to be coming up every time I turned on the TV. It’s such a huge part of life in Ireland. In fact, in the world. Everywhere you look these days there’s a story unfolding about the issue. So many people are being affected.
I think the campaign Darkness into Light is amazing. Just look at the amount of support there is. It has to be making a huge difference.
I’m not a doctor, but I’ve experienced enough depression in the past to know what I’m talking about. I’m very conscious of how this darkness can creep in and block out every sense of hope for the individual’s future wellbeing.
In my travels from door to door I’ve come across many a broken-hearted family who have lost a family member to this illness. I kind of touched on the subject with Emma Ryan in my last book A Nation Out of Time. After that I thought maybe I could write something that would help. In saying that, I feel if you’re writing any story on a big issue like this, you must try your utmost to make it uplifting, even humorous. It has to be huge in its impact on the issue in hand, but it can’t be all that. It must have hope, even a touch of romance, so that you break up the darker side to what you’re portraying.
The book is based in the Fingal area of County Dublin, mainly in the towns of Balbriggan and Skerries. It focuses on 28-year-old childcare worker Amy Watts who awakens from crashing her car, an accident which results in the death of her mother. The book opens three years after the crash when Amy has survived depression and is due to marry the drop-dead gorgeous Robert Cooper.
The story itself is very extreme and I’ve done it that way to add a reality and depth to the situation as it unfolds. I’m trying so hard to take the reader into this girl’s frightening descent. I want to be there with her in her darkest moments, so in turn the reader can feel her sense of frustration and entrapment as her depression deepens. But I’m being very careful as I said to add as much lightness and laughs to lighten the read.
Robert Cooper is the man responsible for her remarkable recovery.
Everything seems to be on the up.
But there’s an unexpected twist awaiting . . .
Both Darkline and A Nation Out of Time are available on Patrick’s website www.Patrickbentley.ie and for download on Kindle Store.