YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

I've published novels, poems, short stories, music and a sketch comedy podcast. Loads of it is available for free. It can all be found via my website http://www.marcusfreestone.com/

If you discover and like any of it please let me know as I am deeply insecure and need every ounce of attention/praise I can get.

I sampled some of the music. I enjoyed the vibe of it. I like things with darker, dramatic, and heavier qualities so it was cool IMO.

I don't have an e-reader so I couldn't sample the books. But overall I have to say you should be very proud that you even completed these things and released them for consumption. I fancy myself an author (wannabe) yet I've never even come close to finishing anything. So just seeing your self-published (I assume?) efforts is an inspiration.

Marcus, seems like you have many strings to your bow. As someone whose creativity branches off in so many different directions do you struggle with what to do with your time? I mean in terms off "I want to do something but don't know what to do, music, writing, comedy, aarrrgh!"

I always struggle with time. I think I'm pathalogicaly lazy and feel that I do nothing most of the time but I do seem to somehow get a lot done over time. Making music is very easy and quick (the way I do it) and I find it pretty easy to write things for my comedy show. Writing a novel is a fucking huge amount of work and that's what I really struggle to apply myself to. In addition, my mind is like that of goldfish with ADHD! I don't know, I guess I just do what I can when I can and it all adds up over the days, weeks and months. Last year I wrote a 100,000 word novel in five months but I'm nowhere near that level of productivity or concentration at the moment. I have done a lot this year but one of the many bastard things about depression is that I feel it's never enough and that I'm never good enough and that I'm generally useless and lazy. I definitely need to get back to my novel and put in some serious work because it's now getting me down that it isn't progressing as quickly as my last two did.

Goldfish with ADD... I can relate

I recently read a book called something like "Van Gough Blues: A Creative Person's Guide Through Depression" or something along those lines, which described my behavior at the time pretty much on the T... a manic state, jumping from one en-devour to another, never able to settle on anything, never feeling any of your creative work is good enough. It was all to do with a "meaning crises". But damn, that book helped.

Good luck on your novel too my friend!