Category: Kindle Book

“Whimsy and Bliss” by Angela Grey

 

Shady Oak Press (2025)
ISBN: 978-1961841468
Reviewed by Stephanie Elizabeth Long for Reader Views (09/2025)

Abigail Whimsy and Lainey Bliss have been best friends since the second grade. Like yin and yang, their opposites somehow fit together like errant puzzle pieces. Whimsy exists in a world of vibrant dreams and imagination, while Lainey is pragmatic and even-keeled, which anchors Abigail. Because nothing good can last forever, the girls have one final summer together before Lainey goes off to a fancy college, leaving Abigail behind.

Before Lainey leaves, Abigail has devised a plan. They will create a map (complete with a detailed legend) and explore all the mysteries of their town—dismantle the “thin” places, using her late grandmother’s journal (chaotic musings) as a guide.

As they delve deeper into the journey, Abigail’s reality becomes skewed, and Lainey’s attempts to keep her friend’s sanity in check become more difficult. The places they visit awaken a humming within Abigail, and the more they add to the map, the louder the hum becomes.

Whimsy and Bliss is a coming-of-age literary masterpiece. Angela Gray’s writing is known for its vivid imagery and deep metaphors, and this novel is no exception. Readers will quickly be immersed in Abigail’s world of wanderlust, where magic and realism become blurred. Beyond that, the character-driven story explores themes of friendship, self-discovery, and bridging the transition from childhood to young adulthood.

Sometimes it can be hard to decipher the difference between imagination and illness. The author has done an excellent job of illustrating Abigail’s unraveling—the whispering of nature, the ebb and flow of the hum, and the excitement turned obsession. With every place Abigail and Lainey traversed, I fell more in tune with Abigail’s frequency, at times questioning what was real and what was fictitious—this is the type of story that makes you see the world differently.

Whimsy and Bliss certainly highlights the plight of mental illness, particularly hypomania. Still, at its core, the novel’s overarching message is one of connection and trust—it’s the impenetrable sisterhood between two young women on the cusp of adulthood. In a world that is often stuck in the me-versus-you mentality, the solidarity between friends is refreshing, teaching us that we don’t have to suffer alone; we can lean on others for support.

For readers who love young adult books about friendship and adventure with a focus on mental health, this literary gem will appeal to you. Angela Gray’s exquisite prose is unmatched, and the multilayered characters are memorable. Abigail and Lainey’s map of thin places will forever hold a special place in my heart.

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Of Laughter & Heartbreak book trailer

This is the summer of locked doors, fragile rituals, and the ghosts that keep count.

I’m Stevie Matthews—almost sixteen, the kind of girl people whisper about. “Bat-shit crazy,” they say. Maybe they’re right. This summer, the order cracks. Obsessive thoughts tighten like barbed wire, rituals multiply, and the only way forward is a hospital stay I never asked for.

Behind those doors, I meet strangers who feel both broken and familiar, each carrying their own secret galaxies of fear and hope. Together, we make a kind of map—messy, jagged, stitched with laughter, unraveling with heartbreak.

This is the story of how I learn that friendship can be born from accident, that healing isn’t neat or pretty, and that sometimes the bravest thing is to stay.

This book is a tender, unflinching portrait of adolescence, OCD, and the fragile alchemy of survival—equal parts bruised and luminous, like a diary written in ink and ghost light.

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Secret Whispers book trailer

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Déjà vu book trailer

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Memoir Writing for Mental Health (Details—Part One)

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According to memoirist, Jack Gantos, “Don’t be that writer who waits all day for the perfect first sentence,” he advises, “or you will grow old while learning to hate yourself and writing.”

Writing a memoir helps us understand who we are, where we come from and where we are going. It creates a legacy. It strengthens the bond with your family down through the generations. It’s a way to leave a memory of us for our loved ones. Anyone can capture their family’s pivotal moments, favorite vacations, family get-togethers, family history delineating individual members and experiences, and conduct solid research to produce a compelling book re-creating your past and that of your loved ones.

Rich, funny, and moving personal narratives depend on a few key moments in time, experiences, lessons learned, failures, triumphs, poignant memories, little snippets of action or humor to anchor the story and give it impact. Is it coming of age, maybe confessional, or even spiritual? Writing a memoir can also suit to reconcile your past’s painful moments and allow your personal growth to create new goals.

As I wrote in the previous post, you first need to determine what aspect of your life you want to write about such as childhood, teen years, young adult and so on. But chronological writing may come across as boring or read like a record of your family’s genealogy. Instead, you want to capture the spirit of moments that surprise or make you cry. Let’s get down to the basics:

Who is this book for? Is it a gift of your milestones for your descendants to treasure? Is it simply for your eyes only to put pains on paper to release them from the mental hold they have on you? Is it to understand life in hindsight? Sorting out timelines and events may unwrap the jumble of memories that our lives entail and allow us clarity and purpose. We need to find your “them” who you’ll be writing to in order to amplify the basics. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell: recall experiences through all your senses. Delve into the confidants, support structure, or acquaintances of the past. Why did they come into your life? And what did they teach you?

Stay true and reminisce. Listen to music from that era in order to get the writerly juices flowing. Write what happened and how you perceived it. Heal yourself. But also question yourself: how much truth should you and do you want to tell? Every painful moment in life is a story waiting to be told but do you want to do that? It goes back to who this book is for and what is the intent.

How many secrets can be exposed? Again, who will see it? There are also legal ramifications here like libel or defamation, should you decide to send it out into the public. What if the truth is not as you remember it? Whose account do you reveal? Look for conflict to find your story. Write freely, with humor, and often. What reactions do you want to stoke in your readers? Focus on humility, tolerance, and wisdom. Believe in what you are doing. Sometimes no one else will but you need to persevere. Spilling secrets may have repercussions. For example, will you be revealing past abuse, an affair, a teen pregnancy and subsequent adoption that your kids know nothing about, or alcoholism in the family. Be mindful of the words you choose to use. Avoid sarcasm and hyperbole; instead use irony and humor. Keep your attitude and tone in check. As you end your memoir, maybe look at your spiritual side, or look towards the next chapter in your life.

If you’re looking for solid memoir writing manuals, I strongly suggest you first read Stephen King’s book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. It is insightful and humorous. Then, perhaps Mary Karr’s, The Art of Memoir is a good second suggestion. If your goal is travel writing in your memoir, Lavinia Spalding’s Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-writing Traveler, is a good choice and offers tips for writing in general. Lastly, I’d suggest reading Why We Write About Ourselves: Twenty Memoirists on Why They Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature.

Enjoyed this post? Why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

Memoir Writing for Mental Health Overview

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I’ve written about journaling for mental health before; but this time let’s go over memoir writing in long format, possibly book style. I received an email and a Twitter DM about how to start a memoir. Here are some tips, prior to starting, during the writing phase, and after you finish.

  • Identify a strong opening point
  • Figure out you central hook relatable to readers
  • Structure your memoir to maximize readability
  • Incorporate dialogue and pacing to enhance intimacy
  • Approach your writing with honesty and truthfulness
  • Identify a strong closing point
  • Build a successful author platform
  • Get an agent’s attention vs. Get published 

So, you’ve decided you’re going to write a memoir for one of a host of reasons: satisfaction, the joy of giving, healing, self-discovery, etc… First, you need to determine what theme or time frame the memoir will span such as your whole life, childhood and teen years, fears and courage, friendships, sibling rivalry, dance or theater, embarrassment, poverty, sexual trauma, music or literary influences, major historical event, military, cultural heritage, married life, artist vs. connoisseur, health scare in family, life miracles, career, affluence, pets life and death, natural disasters, life values, passions, sporting life, grudges and forgiveness, travel writing, grandkids, spirituality, bucket list, or retirement years. You’ll determine this in order to find a strong opening point.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

George Bernard Shaw, Immaturity

When figuring out your central hook that is relatable to your future readers you’ll want to take into consideration that your memoir shouldn’t be one long diary or journal entry, instead it’s a well-crafted story about a crucial, often exceptionally difficult, time in your life. For example, I wrote one book about my childhood, another about my teen years, and a different one about my mental health disability.

Photo by Bich Tran on Pexels.com

Then you’ll want to structure your writing to maximize readability. During NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month that happens every November, the writers identify themselves as pantsers (flying by the seat of one’s pants), planners (outlining extensively prior to beginning), or a hybrid plantser. In writing mine, I chose to be a pantser and let it flow a little more naturally. However, first time writers may want to have a roadmap of sorts, so the outline is a good security tool. I suggest Writer’s Block software which allows you to block out different timeframes or maybe working chapters then it formats it into an outline for you, the writer. There are other writing software out there such as Scrivener, Dabble, Novlr, Novelpad, Kahana, InkStacks, Campfire, and Save the Cat which is for iPad. Some are compatible with certain editing software such as Grammarly or ProWritingAid.

Incorporate dialogue and pacing to enhance intimacy with your reader. I’ve found it best to write the dialogue then use the text to speech function in word to hear the pacing and find out if the dialogue or writing comes across as choppy or not. And with a memoir you want to approach your writing with honesty and truthfulness for integrity of the memoir itself. You want to give your niche audience what they came for which is your accurate story. Then identify a strong closing point, possibly even a hook to the next chapter in another memoir with an altogether different timeframe. For example, if you’re writing about your childhood, give a teaser to your next book which may be about your teen years.

If you’re just giving this memoir to family members as your legacy, you may decide to add an appendix for such things as a map to burial plots, family recipes, copies of marriage certificates, death certificates, property deeds, a list of who has family heirlooms, naturalization or citizenship papers, even answers to family questions like where you want to be buried or which banks have the will.

And personally, I use a book template in Microsoft Word which allows you to add scanned copies of the above. I use it alongside Writer’s Block and incorporating both Grammarly and ProWritingAid. Since, I know beforehand that I’ll be self-publishing, as well as the company which I’ll be working with to get my writing into book format, I use one of KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) templates that come in a number of sizes. You can always reformat the layout in Word to make a pdf or submission manuscript, if you choose to go the traditional publishing route, or if you’re submitting to a literary agent.

Read your work thoroughly, listen to it with text to speech function, reflect on what you wrote, and then revise it by cutting unnecessary explanations for vibrant passages, and getting to the heart of the matter: the reason you wrote it. Clarify the point of the story which is your conclusion. Go back to your synopsis or pull a quote from your writing and come up with a title.

When you’re done writing, and thoroughly self-editing then sending it out to an editor, and you’re self-publishing, there’s a cover creator tool on the KDP website. I prefer to work with SelfPubBookCovers which has premade covers that you edit yourself for anywhere between $69-$269.00. They also do custom covers as well for somewhere around $50-$100 more. I’ve chosen both cover only and created my back copy myself with the cover creator tool as well as front and back cover which is done nicely. Now that you’ve assembled your compelling narrative into book format, you can treasure your heirloom that upcoming generations can devour to learn about your legacy.

After or even during your writing, you’ll want to develop an author platform with reading groups, organizations like the National Association of Memoir Writers, and the socials (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube) if you’re going to make videos of interview points or for marketing. It’s through Twitter and Goodreads that I find my beta readers. Search #WritingCommunity in Twitter for likeminded souls penning their thoughts in equally agonizing baby steps. Like I mentioned above, if you’re submitting to a publisher or literary agent, you’ll want to do that before you think about self-publishing, which can be an agonizing wait in itself.

Lastly, I titled this post an overview because I’ll post another one that is geared more for the pulp of the matter, the writing alone. I just wanted to respond to the question about how to write and publish a memoir in paperback, hardcover, or ebook form. Note: ACX-Audible has cost-effective ways to get your memoir on audiobook, too. Mine were around $800. Good luck in your writing!

I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.

Steve Martin

Enjoyed this post? Why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls

BookBrushImage-Coming Soon MMIWG

“Just because a woman dresses provocatively doesn’t mean she should be assaulted, raped, or murdered. Talk about judging a book by its frickin’ cover.” Native American Tribal Detective Seargent Jessica Stone counters FBI Special Agent Casey Borgreve while they sit in his FBI SUV on a stakeout of The Copper Mule bar and grill.
“I’m just saying the missing person photos we show would be more effective if she’s dressed a bit more modestly.” Casey chokes on his words, realizing how old-fashioned he sounds as he hears himself speak. “You know what, you’re right. I’m sorry. It must just be my small town, WASP upbringing.”
“And while we’re at it, just because a woman accepts a few drinks doesn’t make her available to assault, rape, or murder, either.” Stone admonishes Borgreve. “And white anglo-Saxon protestant isn’t an excuse either. I know WASP’s without such restrictive beliefs, you ass.”