True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one’s self, but the point is not only to get out – you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.

–Henry James

My novel Induced Amnesia offers a premise that’s fresh, and while it isn’t Fantasy genre, it is absolutely unique in plot and concept and pushes the boundary for Commercial Mainstream. Think: The Hours meets Sixth Sense.

Imagine – feeling so much pain that you would be willing to give up every memory and every person you know to start over, absolutely nothing left behind you and only a new slate to look forward to – providing you live through the process.

        Induced Amnesia is a very unique storyline with a metaphysical element, a twist that the reader doesn’t see coming and a character that falls into an emotional ditch that most of us have experienced at one time. Chloe is every girl – maybe even every person – at some lonely juncture of their life. She was badly hurt emotionally by someone she loved, and she’s having trouble getting over it and on with her life. But it’s not her fault. Chloe is clinically depressed.

Chloe Gunn has everything any young girl should want, yet she wants to die, and just can’t bring herself to do it. Even when she survives a horrific car crash practically unscathed, her low-spirited view is unrelenting, so when Chloe discovers an ad for an amnesia-inducing experiment in a medical journal, it shines like a beacon. She volunteers for the unprecedented medical trial to induce amnesia where the answer seems simple: erase her mind and erase the pain, but the process doesn’t go as smoothly as she hopes. It’s just the beginning of a ride through a paranormal nightmare to metaphysical awakening.

Throughout Chloe’s recovery, the media relentlessly focuses on high-profile actress Victoria Palmer. A twenty-four year old Academy Award winner who just dropped from the map at the height of her fame following wildly publicized substance abuse, a scandalized broken engagement and an affair with a married man. But sizzling hot commodities just don’t do that, and everyone wants to know why; and while this actress appears everywhere on television and in magazines, Chloe begins to fixate on her presence, even during the absence of lucidity, and none of her caregivers can figure out why. Then, as only an unexplainable twist of fate can do – once Chloe is released from the clinic – the two women meet. Victoria’s state of mind is rock bottom. She’s drowning silently, trying desperately to hide it from the world, and Chloe becomes a life-preserver that the actress clings to tenaciously for a reason she can’t understand herself.

        Induced Amnesia is in the spirit of Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. Other best-selling novel titles that would be similar may be Celestine Prophecy, The Bell Jar, and The Hours.

**According to NIMH, 18.8 million American adults alone suffer from depression and it’s growing each year – keeping in mind that many suffer alone and never report it or seek help. According to WHO, 15% of the population of the most developed countries suffer from depression. This is not just a North American issue. This is a very large demographic to appeal/sell to, and this makes Induced Amnesia very current fiction.

And I promise……it has an ending the reader doesn’t see coming. I hope you enjoy!

TCK