This groundbreaking book, to-be-released April 23rd, 2021, combines intimate personal stories of hope and renewal with the art of creative writing. Relapse. Acceptance. Forgiveness. Each exercise in this unique approach to recovery is designed to generate an honest dialogue on the real life issues confronting those searching for the strength and courage to turn their lives around.
Writing Your Way to Recovery: How Stories Can Change Our Lives provides a vital roadmap to our artistic, personal and spiritual growth.
“Whether you want to write to understand and make peace with yourself or start on the road to becoming a published writer, this book is for you. Written by two published writers who were massive junkies, this is the no-bullshit manual to finding insight and forgiveness in your writing and recovery. Highly recommended.”
– Amy Dresner, author of My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean
“James Brown and Patrick O’Neil are the epitome of ‘been there, done that.’ Thankfully they’ve not only survived their addiction but have also gone on to write extensively about their journey to recovery. If you want to take a good hard look at yourself and your addiction while learning the craft of writing from two highly accomplished authors and creative writing instructors, then O’Neil and Brown are here for you.”
– Anna David, New York Times bestselling author of Party Girl and Make Your Mess Your Memoir
“In Writing Your Way to Recovery: How Stories Can Save Our Lives, James Brown and Patrick O’Neil have really struck on something of great importance. The age old discipline of putting ‘pen to paper’ receives guidance and practical application from two veterans. Their understanding of the revelations discovered and ultimate catharsis that accompanies writing may help many suffering addicts as they walk through their own darkness and back into the light.”
– Chet Hower, Owner/President of Hower Lodge Detox and Residential Treatment Facility
In utilizing the art and craft of creative writing, we reach a deep understanding of what makes us tick and why. The assignments encourage us to examine our personal experiences and how our obsessive, often destructive behavior affects not only our own lives but also those who love us most.
Through writing memoir and fiction, we discover ourselves in ways we never before thought possible, and in that process the seemingly mortal wounds from the wreckage of our past can finally begin to heal.
The power of the imagination is immeasurable, and it’s used in this profound book to imagine a new and meaningful life for ourselves and make it a reality.
About the Authors:
The authors of this book, James Brown and Patrick O’Neil, should be dead. That they are not is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit and the power of hope. Between them they share over three decades of sobriety, but they spent even more years as active alcoholic-addicts. Now they’ve put together an extraordinary collection of creative writing exercises designed to help others in their journey toward lasting recovery.