Follow Pete Online and Website Changes

by

Thank you to all who responded to the blog post awhile back about improving the blog. We have implemented many new updates. For one, the site has been completely revamped so that now individual pages are linkable and more easily accessed. For instance, you can link directly to the Crazy book page.

Pete is also now on Twitter (@peteearley), he has a Facebook fan page and I set up a Feedburner RSS feed for some of you to more easily track the blog updates. Please invite your friends, organizations, companies, etc. and let them know!

Once again, Pete has been thrilled with the response from the blog, so thanks to you the readers!

Making a Difference: CRISISLINK benefit

by

It’s not uncommon for parents to approach me after I give a speech and tell me that their son or daughter has attempted suicide or successfully ended their own life. These are always heartbreaking moments and I am always at a loss for the right words.

What do you tell a parent when their child has committed suicide?

One of the most poignant encounters I have had was with two emotionally distraught parents who approached me after a speech in Philadelphia. The couple explained that their son had ended his life and then they told me that they were both psychiatrists. “Even we didn’t know how to save him,” the father said.  

Suicide is something that terrifies all of us who have a loved one with a severe mental illness.

Which is why I was both thrilled and honored when I was invited to participate in CrisisLink’s annual fund-raising banquet March 24, 2010 between 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at The Clarendon Ballroom, 3185 Wilson Blvd., in Arlington, VA.

Click to continue…

Books, Technology and the Future

by

Three comments:

(1.)  In the early 1990s, Tom Clancy and I shared the same New York literary agent. Clancy was on a roll, having published a string of international best-sellers. He was being called the father of the “techno-thriller,” a new genre that combined accurate information – about military tactics and weapons – with a fictional adventure stories.

So I was surprised when my agent told me that Clancy was putting writing aside for a few months to concentrate of developing a video game.

Huh?

Why I wondered, would someone who was at the top of the writing game and was earning millions of dollars worldwide bother to waste time creating a computer game?

Click to continue…

‘Speeches’ Dates, Times and Info Updated

by

The “Speeches” section of PeteEarley.com has been updated now to include specific addresses (as they are available) as well as links to maps and ticket/registration information. There is also an interactive map that plots all of Pete’s speeches throughout the United States. If you are in charge of an event Pete is speaking at and the information listed is wrong, please contact me at evan@peteearley.com. If you are interested in having Pete speak at an event of yours, email peteearley.speeches@gmail.com

Linda’s Story: Part Two

by

Joan Bishop tried to help her sister, Linda, after she developed a severe mental illness while she was in her 40s. But Linda didn’t want her help. She refused treatment and medication and Joan’s attempt to obtain a guardianship over her sister was rejected by a judge.

After a drunk driving incident, Linda got further into trouble by throwing a cup of urine at a correctional officer while  in jail. She was charged with a felony. Eventually, she was involuntarily committed to the New Hampshire State Hospital, but she refused treatment and would not take medication. After a year, she was released without any follow-up.

Because Linda had refused to sign a HIPPA wavier, Joan had no idea that her sister had been discharged until several months later.

What follows now comes from a journal that Linda began writing four days after her discharge.

Click to continue…

Linda’s Story: Part One

by

If you had known me as a child, you would not have suspected that I would become an author. I was horrible at spelling and poor at grammar. As a teenager, I wasn’t much of a reader, either. But I always have been fascinated by people and their experiences and some of my favorite memories are of the times when my father, a minister, would take me with him at night to go “call” on members of his church. I don’t think many preachers actually visit people at their homes anymore, but in the 1960s in rural Colorado, they did and I discovered early on that nearly everyone has a story to tell.