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“It’s not the feeling of doing the drug that stays new. The drug high starts to suck pretty quickly. Pretty soon it sucks so bad you quit. Never again. Then you see a white top. Or even imagine you’re seeing one. And it’s the first time you’ve ever seen it.”

It is a desperate chase that lasts the rest of your addiction or your life, whichever ends first. After Michael Clune was introduced to drugs for the first time, his life became a series of ill-fated attempts to capture the ultimate high. The irony of heroin addiction is that it does not get better with time or experience—the best fix is always the first. With black humor and quick, rhythmic prose, Clune’s gripping literary memoir, WHITE OUT: The Secret Life of Heroin (Hazelden Publishing; April 1, 2013; $14.95), reads like no other as we go inside the heroin underground, enter the mind of the addict, and navigate the world therein.

Clune says that his heroin abuse created a hole in his memory, a “white out,” so that every time he used it, it seemed to be for the first time. His descriptions of what it was like and the things he and his friends did while high, are vivid, even poetic. But in reality his life was a mess as his relationships failed and he found himself in increasingly dangerous situations—all in the name of getting another white top.

In WHITE OUT, Clune discusses the culture of heroin. Whether he was buying it at the side of the road through his car window or on a street corner in a strange city, Clune knew what to look for in order to score. During his many attempts to quit the cravings were so intense, he confesses, that he abused drugs the entire time he was taking medication to counter the effects. Amidst the police busts and time spent in a jail cell packed with addicts, he faced the ultimatum that saved his life: get clean or go to prison for felony possession.

Today, clean and sober, Michael W. Clune is an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University. He has successfully published a scholarly work on American literature with Cambridge University Press. He has a life full of color and contrast, no longer just a “white out.”

With heroin abuse dramatically increasing across America, and heroin named one of last year’s most harmful drugs, WHITE OUT is timely, eye-opening look at the life of a heroin addict and the larger population of users all around us. One white top is the entrance fee, and Clune hopes that more and more people will be able to pass it by without a second look back.

Publisher: Hazelden Publishing
October 2012

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To what lengths should a woman go to keep her family together?  Sharlene Prinsen stood by her man even when he sat in the yard in the middle of the night armed with a rifle, daring the S.W.A.T. team to shoot at him.  Even when she started to lose the support of family and friends who believed she was out of her mind for staying, she remained firm.  Sharlene Prinsen, a teacher from Wisconsin had no idea of how her life would turn out, but her story is one of hope and an undying faith that saw her family through inexplicable situations.  In BLIND DEVOTION (Hazelden Publishing; October 1, 2012; $14.95; Original Trade Paperback) she courageously shares what her husband and her family endured, and how they had to find their own answers in the face of a medical system that is still, in the 21^stcentury, ill-equipped to handle mental illness.

Sharlene was introduced to Sean by a neighbor in her apartment building.  He was handsome and charming, and had served in the military in Bosnia.  They fell in love, got engaged, and planned their wedding.  There were red flags for Sharlene that something wasn’t completely right for Sean—his panic and anger when faced with ghost decorations hanging from trees on Halloween; his violent reaction to Sharlene’s picking something up from the ground on the roadside; the fight they had before the wedding where Sean irrationally offered to call it off.  It was difficult for Sharlene to reconcile the angry, unpredictable Sean with the warm, engaging, and interesting man she thought she knew.  Eventually, her happy memories won out, they were married, and two children were born.

But the story in BLIND DEVOTION is not so simple.  For seven years Sean and Sharlene fought a battle with depression, pain killers, and alcohol.  Then finally after many trips to doctors and facilities—including jails and hospitals, they came face-to-face with the root cause of their problems—Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  This insidious condition and the perfect storm of war injuries and narcotic pain remedies made their lives a living hell and it was not until they found a savvy Veteran’s Administration counselor that their world started to turn around for the better.

PTSD, a condition that has been covered somewhat in the media, is still a disorder that lacks support and apparently many doctors do not even recognize it or consider it when diagnosing their patients.  One surprise from BLIND DEVOTION is that Sean’s problems did not originate with any of the more popularly broadcast wars like Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan—there is no variety of war that breeds more stress than others.   Also, PTSD does not go away, if accepted and recognized as a disorder, the symptoms have to be managed like epilepsy or diabetes.  Once a soldier, always a soldier, and for Sean this means he is always battle ready whether the behaviors that go along with that are appropriate for civilian society or not.  It is perhaps this conflict that rages inside some ex-military personnel, that leads them down a path of depression and addiction to kill the pain.

BLIND DEVOTION is full of warm moments juxtaposed against horrifying situations that are extremely moving.  Sharlene’s story, her belief in God and her ability to look at her own behavior and mishandling of situations in order to change herself for the better, makes her telling exceptional.  For any marriage in crisis or a family going through a tough time, BLIND DEVOTION has a strong message that may heal as much as it inspires.

Sharlene Prinsen and her husband Sean have been married for nine years and have two children.  She is a teacher in Northern Wisconsin.  This is her first book.

Publisher: Hazelden Publishing
October 2012