As anyone who's read my bio knows, I collect guitars and guns. As fewer of you know, I'm bi-polar. How do these things go together? One of the side effects of manic phases is that you tend to make less than rational decisions. Like, say, spending a thousand dollars on sword blades (not swords, just the blades), or spending another thousand dollars on guns you don't need and can barely justify. Or, in my last case, nine hundred on a new Fender.
The blades I can mostly justify. They're thirty-year-old new old stock and they're some of the best schlager blades ever made. One of the pistols, yeah, I can kind of justify: it was what I was issued when I was in the army and I got a screaming deal on it. The other pistol and the guitar? Not so much. They were cool, and I wanted them. That's it.
That's not all manic phases do, though. They inspire you. Oh my God, do they inspire you. It was a manic phase that started me on the road towards being a novelist; I woke up one morning with a story idea and began writing.
And writing.
And writing.
Three weeks later, I had a novel, but I couldn't stop. So I wrote another.
And another.
And another.
About half-way through my fourth novel, I talked to my doctor about getting my meds adjusted and everything went back to normal. Or, at least as normal as they ever are. I still have highs and lows, but their manageable.
People with bi-polar disorder talk about how great the highs are and, yes, that's true, but when you spend 8-10 hours a day writing on top of your regular 8 hour work day, you have to give up something. You know, like family, friends, and sleep. And I don't want to talk about the lows. Even managed, they're not good, but unmanaged? They're scary.
Ask me to take a look at my wrist sometime.
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