Writing. A cathartic experience for me.

by Mike Monahan
(Westchester, NY)

Genre: Fiction, suspense/thriller, action/adventure

In 2003 my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and my dear dad had trouble dealing with it so I took mom to all her radiation/chemo treatments. I was retired at the time so I was available while my siblings were not.

My mom slowly succumbed to her illness and my younger, single, brother died suddenly of a heart attack a month before mom passed. This pushed my dad over the edge into dementia. To put it mildly, I had my hands full juggling three lives plus my own. I took refuge in writing a work of fiction to save my sanity.

I was born and raised in the Bronx, NY and joined the NYPD after High School. As a hobby I took up scuba diving and continued my scuba education until I was a certified Dive Master. My entire adult life revolved around the insanity of police related murder and mayhem and the serene beauty of the underwater world. Naturally I wrote a book of fiction combining my two loves, police work and scuba diving. Cutting to the chase I wrote the next Jaws using a mutated barracuda as my villan and a vacationing NYPD detective as my hero with a plethora of bad guys for added suspense.

After my completed manuscript was rejected by more agents/publishers than stars in the Milky Way I decided to go Indie. I love my book and 30 reviewers on Amazon also love it so I'm glad I went POD. I look for guidance from sites such as this and the Amazon forum, Shameless authors who self promote their work. I have learned the ropes of the publishing business from people who were burned by it. Indie authors who have broken into the mainstream publishing world come back to the forum and enlighten us. In fact one of the forum members told me of this site and I'm proud to tell my story. Good luck to all of us.

Mike Monahan

Visit Mike's site.