It’s National Suicide Prevention Week and almost exactly two years since my award-winning novel, Mr. Wicker, was published. As many of you know, Mr. Wicker opens with the main character, Alicia Baum, taking her own life. What many don’t know is the extraordinary backstory of how the book came to be in the midst of my own head-on collision with suicidal thoughts.

However, the backstory is more than that. So much more, in fact, that rather than telling the story in interviews, I chose instead to tell it in a series of videos that could be unlocked by solving a chain of puzzles. The prize had to be worth the effort, yes? And this is quite a tale. The puzzles were so challenging, though, that not many people solved them. Almost all who tried got stuck on the third puzzle, never finding the fourth and final video.

And that’s a shame because anyone who is struggling or who has struggled with suicidal thoughts would benefit from hearing this story. It’s about devastation, depression, and the surprising magic that saved my life. So, I’m including the videos here for the world to watch. If it helps even one person, it was worth the pain and hazards of soul baring.

In a time and out of time, in time the ink shall sing…

Video #1

Video #2

Video #3

Video #4

If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).