The Story of How I Managed to Get My Book Dead Drunk Published

A visitor to the website today expressed interest in how I managed to get my book Dead Drunk published; other people have asked me a similar question in the past. I do think that it is an interesting story; not so much because of my actions but more because of the events and people that made the whole thing possible. The story of how Dead Drunk came about is quite amazing really when I look back on things; it leaves me full of gratitude to a lot of people – it is just as much their book as it is mine.

If you listen to stories of how other people got published you are likely to hear about the many rejection letters but the writer’s determination never to give up. I never received one rejection letter and all along my path there were people to almost hold my hand and walk me through the process. Don’t get me wrong; it has taken a lot of effort and there have been many sleepless nights but I have to admit that my path into print was relatively painless.

My Attempts to Launch a Writing Career from a Bar Stool

I have always loved books. In Ireland books are important and writers receive a lot of admiration – we are very proud of our literary history and we believe that we have a special ‘gift for the gab’. Growing up I was in awe of people like Brendan Behan; I may not have agreed with his politics but his way with words blew my mind. Behan was a drunkard and a rogue but when you read his books you couldn’t help but like him. I wanted to be able to write like that because I wanted people to understand and like me too – despite my faults.

I began writing stories before hitting my teens and continued doing this during my drinking years. I never kept any of these efforts though for two simple reasons; I loathed my handwriting and would feel embarrassed by the content. My life was a dark place a lot of the time and this showed in my writing. I had nothing to say and was saying it badly. I must have started and abandoned hundreds of writing projects over the years.

The Temple Where You Go To Vomit

When I eventually managed to get sober just over four years ago the urge to write hit me quite strongly; it was like I’d developed a kind of writing diarrhoea. By this stage I’d started using the computer and this made things a lot easier. I would still delete all my work before completing anything, but I was enjoying the writing.

I decided to start a blog for two reasons. The first was that I was so grateful to the Thai temple that helped me get sober that I wanted to tell other people. The other less important reason was that I just wanted to start a writing project and actually finish it. This is why the blog format made sense to me; it was a commitment to regular writing and it was there for people to read. At this stage I had no ideas about a book; I just needed to write.

I started posting my blog on two web forums; Thai Visa forum and eSangha (a Buddhist Forum). This was just over three years ago and right before my son was born. I would write a chapter a day and publish it straight to the blog with minimum editing. I had the whole story on these blogs in just over a month; some of the chapters were written from the hospital room where my son first appeared in my world.

These blog posts received some really encouraging feedback and comments. Two people in particular really inspired me. A New York publisher contacted me after reading my blog post on the Buddhist forum and said that I had a good story and to keep at it. The other encouragement came from Andrew Hicks who has published a couple of popular books including Thai Girl. I was encouraged enough to send my blog posts off to a local book publisher. This publisher got back in touch within a few weeks and said that we could release it as a book in Thailand. I had wanted to call the story ‘The Temple Where You Go to Vomit’ but they talked me out of this and my blog became the book ‘Last Escape’.

I am very proud of Last Escape and seeing it for the first time in bookstores was such a thrill. The book had its flaws but it was honest and I told my story the best way that I could at the time. It failed to knock J.K. Rowling off the charts, but I was happy just to see it in print. I began getting feedback from people who had read the book, and the most cherished comments were from those individuals who claimed that it helped them.

Dead Drunk

I continued to write about my experiences in sobriety and got a great deal of pleasure from this. An American book reviewer called Critical Mick ,who is based in Ireland, suggested that I try and send my writing to an Irish publisher. I thought that this sounded like a bit of a long-shot; after all, these people probably received thousands of manuscripts a day. I sent one email to Maverick House and by some amazing luck the person who read it knew about the temple and was interested in my story. Six months later we signed a publishing contract and a year after this the book was released.

Dead Drunk was so much harder to write than my first manuscript. I had learnt a lot more about writing and so expected a lot more of myself. I also knew that a lot of people had taken a chance on me and I wanted to justify this. When I was finished though I knew that there was nothing more that I could do; it was my very best effort.

It is difficult for me to express just how satisfying it was for me to have Dead Drunk appear in the bookshops of my home town. I returned to Ireland for a book tour and for three weeks all I talked about was my story. Maverick House managed to get me on a lot of radio shows, onto TV, and in-between there were many magazine and newspaper interviews. At the start I was very nervous, but it is amazing what we can get used to. On one day I managed four different radio interviews. Irish celebrities were asking questions about my life – who could credit that.

The highlight of the whole thing came while doing book signings around Dublin. An elderly man had heard me on the radio and waited an hour in one of the main bookstores in the city; he heard I was making an appearance and wanted me to sign his book. It is hard to explain how good that made me feel. If you asked me years ago what a successful writer was I would probably have imagined somebody signing books in Easons Dublin; that was what I was doing.

A lot of people made Dead Drunk possible. It was like there was a force driving the whole thing and this force made sure that I met the right people at the right time. People have been so positive about this story, and I will always be indebted to them for making my dreams come true.