Gum on My Shoe

Some of you may recall the publication in 2018 of our second book, No One is Too Far Away: Notes from a Transatlantic Friendship , in which Fran and I shared the very best of our blog posts and articles. The title has been out of print for a while, but we’re delighted to announce that a new edition will be published soon by Kingston Park Publishing . “Friendship is a beautiful part of life and an important component of long-term wellness. When Martin Baker met Fran Houston online he never imagined they would develop a friendship that transcends time zones and international boundaries. “In No One Is Too Far Away they share essays from their blog which show the deep-rooted value of shared experiences. Through their writings, they demonstrate that mental illness needn’t be a barrier to meaningful connection; indeed it can be the glue that holds people together.” The new edition presents sixty selected posts (originally published on our blog between March 2014 and October 2018) i...

Trigger warning: medication and suicidality stash (stæʃ) COUNTABLE NOUN: A stash of something valuable is a secret store of it. Synonyms: hoard, supply, store, stockpile A few weeks ago, Fran sent me a photograph. I immediately recognised the meds containers lined up on her bathroom cabinet for what they were, and what they represented. Martin: Your old stash? Fran: Yep. Martin: You’re ready to let go. Fran: Yep. Fran had a stockpile of medication when we met in 2011. I don’t remember when she told me but it was never a secret. It wasn’t easy to accept that my new and frequently suicidal friend kept a quantity of potentially fatal medication, but I came to understand it was important to Fran, and paradoxically protective. We discuss its significance in our book High Tide, Low Tide : Most of our conversations on the subject [of suicidality] focus on exploring and defusing her suicidal thoughts, but we occasionally touch on how she imagines she would kill herself. In her auto...

By Aimee Larson Several years ago, I came across a memoir called Let’s Pretend This Never Happened . I have to admit, as I stood at the bookstore, I did not know who Jenny Lawson was. According to her bio, she was a well-known blogger called “The Bloggess” and this was the first book she has ever written. I stared at the front cover, a taxidermied mouse that was holding up a skull in similarity to William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . My random soul appreciated this very book cover, and I knew I had to get this book. I did not know about her writing style, and to be quite honest, this was the first memoir that I even thought about reading. I checked out the book and remember running over to my then-boyfriend (spoiler alert: now husband) and showed him the book as though I found a unicorn. He smiled at me, not at all surprised that I picked a book based on the cover. I can always appreciate randomness, add in animals, and well, you have my heart and soul as a reader, and let’s be ...

Check out our top posts for the past month. Posts are listed by the number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first. How to Write the Best Acknowledgement Page for Your Book LOST: A Short Film on Drug Addiction How to Be Kind and Clever Our Top Posts of the Month (December 2020) Announcing Our New Creative Partnership with Kingston Park Publishing Help When You Can: Notes for a Happy Life Team Marty (Because No One Can Be Everything for Everyone) Ever Wonder Why Our Blog Is Called Gum on My Shoe? 2020: My Unpredicted Year Ten Anthems for Comfort, Celebration, Inspiration, and Healing Our most visited pages were: Contact Us Our books Resources About Us News and Appearances Testimonials  

A few weeks ago, Fran and I reported our new creative partnership with Kingston Park Publishing. Today we are delighted and proud to announce the publication by KPP of a new revised edition of our book High Tide, Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder . When we launched the first edition back in 2016, I commented that “writing a book — a book like ours at least — isn’t about the book itself. Not really. It’s about connections.” Throughout its four year journey from inception to realisation, our book has brought me and Fran into contact — into connection — with folk we simply would not otherwise have met. Some call it networking. Some call it platform building. It is both these things, and much more. It is what happens when you find your feet on the right road (what Spock described to Kirk as one’s “first, best destiny”) and open yourself to what the journey may bring. Those words are no less true today, a further four years down the road. Our book has m...