Gregg Allman – Hepatitis C – Latest CNN Interview

I’m too lazy to go look but I wonder if his albums sell under the huge multimedia Time Warner banner?

He STILL denies having gotten the drug through any kind of drug use, and even adds, “It doesn’t much matter how you got it, you got it.” And this is true, but MUCH more people get Hepatitis C now a days via needles and or sharing straws, which never occured to me while I was out there drinking and drugging, than do by using dirty tattoo needles. Ironically, I just returned from Macon GA and for some reason I believe the bucket story now. That probably is exactly how he got it, and ohhh how disgusting.

It is still humble and cool of him to come out and speak about Hep C, and that he’d gotten a liver transplant of a 29 year old liver, and even more shocking I thought, was that the CNN announcer mentions that he still has Hep C, and that he is living with it. So he was not cured of the virus at all? I wonder if they will try and run him through the new Telaprevir with the higher success rates. I hope so, I hope they can clear him of the virus as they did me, but as Dr. Hutchinson from Duke told me “the young do better than the old.” I wonder what his prognosis is for Interferon with the new drugs, and if the liver transplant makes it impossible to go under Interferon or somehow prevents the full blown chemo like side affects? Still, I may have been a little harsh when I blogged about Gregg before, denying any drug use and stating that he’d gotten it from dirty tattoo needles. In the big scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter how you get it, none of us invented the disease, it matters what you do with it, and if you man up and fight it, quit drinking, and persevere through all the long odds to beat the nasty little beat me down.

Still, I’d be happier if he’d use his name to go out and promote free Interferon use with Telaprevir to all, I mean, they shortened the length of time, doubling the odds, but also doubling the cost. Most of us don’t have Rock Star retirement plans. And it’s the kind of thing that with a concentrated government effort, they could eradicate just like polio, instead of just bilking people left and right.

Let me tell you too, if I find out he’s working for Roche or Merck and this was a publicity stunt for some new medication they are charging triple for, and he still couldn’t admit he’d gotten it using needles, then I’ll be just as irritated. Or to find out his rock star royalty got him the transplant liver faster, that would be just as aggravating. On this one it is probably better I don’t do any research. For now, Gregg has my compassion and sympathy and even my thanks for doing this interview, regardless of if it’s connected to his record sales, and/or paid pharma giants, more than likely even if all that was true, his agent just tugged his heart strings and Gregg was just doing what he thought was right.

He’s still one of the baddest musicians ever to walk the planet. I pray his recovery from Hep C and his transplant stays strong and that he’s able to go through the new Interferon treatments with telaprevir and beats it.

-Jared Bryan Smith

Book Review – The Mindful Addict: A Memoir of the Awakening of a Spirit by Tom Catton

In 2004, after my mom had passed away and I was detoxing from all opiates, I read the book “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey. What a colossal piece of shit. What a shame for the publishing industry, that they not only published such garbage, but then, after being called out and discovered to be untruthful, simply slap a few sentences in the beginning of the book, stating something to the effect “A million little pieces is a collection of James Frey’s personal and fictional experiences, blah blah,” instead of having the decency and integrity to take the lying trash they’d already made millions on down, apologize profusely, and walk away with at least an ounce of respect. But they didn’t do that. They continue, to this day to publish this collection of exaggerated, self glorifying, egotistical, atheist view of recovery, in which honesty is not mentioned one time in the entire book, let alone the word humility. I was coming down off a year of opiates, hellish withdrawals, and trying to read that book for hope, and only finding that I couldn’t relate to it at all. Because it was lies. Tom Catton’s book rings true from the very beginning, through out the entire book. Maybe James Frey’s book wouldn’t have bothered me so much, if HONESTY weren’t the VERY FIRST principle of the VERY FIRST step, but it is. Also, I was so blessed to have people in my life who had multiple years of recovery, and the thing that rang true for all those people, as does while reading Tom Catton’s book, is they were ALL very very humble, grateful to be alive, and thus their stories sounded honest to me. Shame on the publishing industry for falling for such easily spotted vanity writing. So it is with a skeptical eye and wary mind that I read any book or memoir on recovery, and this one, I could tell from beginning to end was one of the most humble honest stories of sobriety, life and spirituality in general that I’ve ever read.

For me too, personally, the book held a lot of meaning in synchronicity. His sobriety date was a day or two off my birthday, I haven’t traveled to a ton of places, but the north shore of Oahu is one place I spent about two weeks when I was married, so I recognized a lot of the setting, or I thought I did at least. I was enthralled the entire ride through. Walking in faith, truly LIVING IN THE MOMENT, this book encapsulates the way, my Higher Power, Jesus Christ, asked us to really live, and there in lies another sweet irony, Tom writes as a Buddhist, haha, and yet, written eloquently, spiritual truths, NEVER contradict other spiritual truths, and though when I began reading I had a preconceived notion I might not jive with everything he’d written, I never once found myself offended, or even skeptical or in disbelief. If anything, I only coveted some of those spiritual experiences he writes about that bring tears of joys to his eyes, hoping that I may one day be as blessed as to reach those states in simple meditation. I do believe it’s possible, I just have never been there before. But there again, he’s 30+ years sober and I’m only 4 years or so. He is truly a sage spiritual guide and anybody, Christian, Buddhist or whatever flavor ice cream you prefer can benefit from the mindful pages in this book.

It really was just a very well written, humble, honest story of recovery, and I recommend everyone pick up a copy. We are blessed to have Tom as an outlet for the Universe’s energy, and I’m truly a better man for having read the book, keeping an open mind, and reading through his wisdom when it comes to our 12 steps, and especially his emphasis on the 11th step. This is something I need to put more work into and it’s funny, because almost every meeting I went to this week talked about the 11th step and then the book I’m reading takes me to his summary of the 12 steps and his writing on it, being mindful, and being in the NOW, was really like God smacking me across the face with the Captain Obvious backhand. As always I hear what I need to hear when I really listen.

If you haven’t already, look up Tom Catton on facebook and go get and read his book, for any level of recovery, it is worth the read.

-Jared Bryan Smith

TheAddictedProject.com Publishes My 1st Interview!!! Thanks Ashley, Josh and friends!!

http://www.theaddictedproject.com/#!articles

Very cool stuff in deed, though I of course am now over-analyzing everything I said, and didn’t say, haha. It is great to have any kind of recognition at all though and I’m very humbled that anyone would take the time at all to interview me for my thoughts on writing, the book and life in general. I’m grateful, humbled and happy all in the same breath.

It’s hard to believe that 5 years ago TO THIS DAY, I was in the process of going from the top floor of the Ritz Carlton, opening the curtains to see the whites in the eye balls of the pilots of the black helicopters literally just outside my window, descending into madness to ultimately land in the looney bin for my VERY first time. I mean, that is fucking incredible. 5 y ears later I’m an author, VP of Sales for a mobile marketing company with 5 direct reports and an incredible family life. 5 years ago my family were trying to get me in one place so they could all three sign me into an insane asylum, today, I’m invited to have BBQ at my uncles and play with the toddlers.

Miracles abound in this program of recovery, in this incredible life in general.

Sunday’s ministry by Andy Stanley was amazing as well, loving kindness, making a difference not making a point, treating all those outside the faith with much faith and grace and a little salt, relates so closely to my view of christianity that it is remarkable. I really want to get my book in his hands at some point as we have seen eye to eye, in actually reading the words of Christ and trying to do what they say, not what organized religion says we should do, but actually acting like good Christians, being kind, turning the cheek, practicing forgiveness. If you didn’t catch this Sunday’s sermon or have never heard an Andy Stanly sermon, do yourself a favor and go check it out, this Sunday’s was one of the best ones I’ve ever seen him tell, and it was filled with loving tolerance of others, as well as being a religion of attraction rather than promotion, which is how we got out from under the thumb of the Romans almost 2000 years ago. He talks about the pharisees being the only ones Jesus was most consistently against, because of all of their rules and their hypocrisy. Even as an just an intellectual non-christian this Sundays was a good lesson for anyone to hear. You can always catch up on his messages via the links below, usually they are a week behind though, so make sure you note the dates. July 3rd is the one that really moved me the most in the last year of going or so and is a valuable lesson for christians and non christians alike!

Sundays was titled : Separation of Church & Hate.

Most rational, prudent expression of living by example I’ve heard in a long time, and definitely worth hearing.

http://www.buckheadchurch.org/messages/download

http://www.buckheadchurch.org/messages

http://www.youtube.com/northpointministries

I’m so grateful for my recovery today. Grateful for Josh and Ashley and everyone at TheAddictedProject.com and I wish them all the best in their Publishing adventures, and am indebted to them if they ever have any writing needs at all.

Happy 4th of July everyone.

Respectfully,

Jared Bryan Smith

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Mahatma Gandhi

Woke up feeling refreshed and recharged, better than I have in several days. Probably because I worked out a small feud with someone whom I really never had anything against to begin with, but whom I did repeat a nasty rumor I’d heard, thus inciting a grudge that lasted way longer than it should have, and had farther reaching ramifications than I could have ever imagined. We made amends to each other and damn if I don’t feel 10 times better for it for my part.

Reminded me of a christian value that I wish I had followed earlier, because it really did bring an instant peace and calm into my life as soon as we were done talking.

Matthew 18:15 “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.”

Pretty moving stuff… and just a few sentences later:

Matthew 18:19 “I tell you that if two of you on Earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven. for where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.”

Well that parable to me, sums up the magic of an AA meeting perfectly. For years I would try to get sober all by myself and never get more than 2 weeks, tops, and then my very first half ass try into AA, where two or more people are trying to accomplish the same goal, and lo and behold I was able to stay sober for a month… and that was without getting a sponsor or working any steps… The forgiveness thing, for me anyway, is more in the Masters / Phd realm of AA, as my anger, once up is really hard to get back down… but I don’t have to think my way into right action, I have to act my way into right thinking, and the act of forgiveness, humility and an open conversation with my brother in sobriety, brought about the forgiveness I wouldn’t have thought possible.

And even if you must discount the religious mumbo jumbo, I found science to back the claims as well, the positive affects of forgiveness transcend even religion, and stab deep into the heart of science as well.

“Dr. Robert Enright from the University of Wisconsin–Madison founded the International Forgiveness Institute and is considered the initiator of forgiveness studies. He developed a 20-Step Process Model of Forgiveness.^[4] Recent work has focused on what kind of person is more likely to be forgiving. A longitudinal study showed that people who were generally more neurotic, angry and hostile in life were less likely to forgive another person even after a long time had passed. Specifically, these people were more likely to still avoid their transgressor and want to enact revenge upon them two and a half years after the transgression.^[5]

Studies show that people who forgive are happier and healthier than those who hold resentments.^[6] The first study to look at how forgiveness improves physical health discovered that when people think about forgiving an offender it leads to improved functioning in their cardiovascular and nervous systems.^[7] Another study at the University of Wisconsin found the more forgiving people were, the less they suffered from a wide range of illnesses. The less forgiving people reported a greater number of health problems^.” 

I am glad it is behind me, once and for all, I truly wish my brother in arms, traveler on Earth with the same disease of addiction as me, the best sobriety has to offer.

Jared Bryan Smith

“Flight of the seabirds, scattered like lost words Wheel to the storm and fly Fare thee well now Let your life proceed by its own design.”

“Nothing to tell now
Let the words be yours, I’m done with mine”

By John Perry Barlow with Bob Weir
Recorded on Ace (Warner Brothers, 1972)
Cora, Wyoming February, 1972

I go months and months without thinking about certain things, including the grateful dead, and then in a wave and a rush, I’ll remember how much I love the music and how much the words can mean to me.

When I wrote the Robert Hunter quote from the song yesterday, it brought back all the thoughts of my divorce, losing my son as a full time father, and the loss of so many loves throughout the last 15 years. Today I woke up with Cassidy running through my mind. God those words are beautiful, so fucking poetic, just humming them brings back such memories. For me, this song brings back my mama’s passing, and the eternity of all life. The hawk I saw circling our limo as we drove to her funeral. Good music can be so personal, it can mean so many things.

Being a christian I believe death is only another passing moment. We will all get there, how we lived, who we helped, who we treated well, who we forgave, is all there is. If christianity didn’t exist we should invent it as the best way of living. I have reawakened to my faith in the last year or so and it’s amazing what I find reading through the pages of the new testament.

How much of the book is there, that we simply do not do? Fasting for instance. In all my life I’ve never known a christian that fasted. It’s prominent, it’s there, it’s in the words and yet I’ve never ever heard the first sermon on it. Also forgiveness. Real forgiveness. Turning the other cheek when someone maliciously, childishly attacks you. I know so many christian values that are spoken about, but barely ever practiced. I guess because it is hard to do.

But for me, in sobriety ever year I learn a little more spiritually and learn that the things I learn are generally good for me. Obedience to God and to spiritual principles that he continually shows me almost always has it’s own inherent rewards. Usually first though, it’s hard as hell to begin a new behavior.

Taking a year off of dating, which was suggested by minister Andy Stanley for a year, long after my sponsor had suggested it for several years, is finally starting to sound like it might have some actual validity. I’ve made nothing but messes of every single relationship I’ve ever been in in my entire life. As the 12 and 12 states and I was moved by the very first time I ever read:

“The primary fact that we fail to recognize  is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being. Our egomania digs two disastrous pitfalls. (THIS IS THE BEST PART) Either we insist upon dominating the people we know, or we depend upon them far too much. If we lean too heavily on people, they will sooner or later fail us, for they are human, too, and cannot possibly meet our incessant demands. In this way our insecurity grows and festers. When we habitually try to manipulate others to your own willful desires, they revolt, and resist us heavily. Then we develop hurt feelings, a sense of persecution, and a desire to retaliate. As we redouble our efforts at control, and continue to fail, our suffering becomes acute and constant. We have not once sought to be one in a family, to be friend among friends, to be a worker among workers, to be a useful member of society. Always we tried to struggle to the top of the heap or to hide underneath it. The is self centered behavior blocked a partnership relation with any of those about us. Of true brotherhood we had small comprehension.”

page 53 – The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions

Wow, what precision. How can they have mapped us out so effectively?

I guess the only fix is the 12 steps, time and layers of the onion.

-Jared Bryan Smith

 

 

“You told me goodbye, How was I to know, You didn’t mean goodbye, You meant please don’t let me go.” – Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead)

Woke up thinking about work again, it’s been an amazing few months with our software going into almost every major nightclub and dozens of great restaurants throughout Atlanta, and I’ve hired three sales folks, and I’m just amped still. We release on iphone very soon, and the anticipation to see how everything all works is palpable.

Staying busy has kept me emotionally stronger than I think I would have otherwise been with all the damn goodbyes this year. Starting with the one at the beginning of the  year that still stings most prominently no matter how much i wish it didn’t, it’s like my professional life had to make a trade with my personal life or something.

I still feel good sobriety wise though. Had an ear infection in the beginning of the week and my hearing is only about 50% of what it usually is, but it finally seems like its getting better. That’s always scary in sobriety, in our heads its never just an ear infection, I was positive I was going deaf. But 100 bucks for a drs appt and some antibiotics and it seems to be going back to normal.

Visited my sister for her birthday and got to hold the new baby, and she is gorgeous. They are so happy with their perfect little family. I remember those days, when my now 15 year old son was first born, every breath is magic, and they smell so good. My son still smells sweet to me. My cousin has two kids as well and me and the older one, who is 3, played angry birds and ant smashers on my phone until he killed the battery. There was a hyper dog running around as well. How is it the people who already have 2 kids, working on three, also have a hyper dog running around, and just don’t even seem annoyed by any of it? I guess when you’re happy those things don’t irritate you, and they are all very happy in their new families.

I guess I’m just lonely, but hey thats the brakes, nobody ever promised me anything in sobriety except for work, and a daily reprieve. I didn’t wake up with an obsession to drink and drug and somedays that is all the victory you’re going to get.

Still no word on the addicted project interview but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing that in print.

Tomorrow evening, 8 pm, telling my story at the 8111 clubhouse for those in the know! Hope to see you there!

– Jared Bryan Smith

Heart Warming Review of Hippopotamus Sea: My Viral Sobriety

As most alcoholics, I am often childish, oversensitive, and grandiose.

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering if writing this book was even a good idea, and I constantly worry about the harm I’ve done in being so brutally honest about my life, and especially in my sobriety, but ultimately I always come back to if I’m honest,  I have nothing to fear. Even with that knowledge, I am often saddened by the misunderstandings I may have inadvertently caused, or complications my gut level honesty may have arisen. A friend of mine has a bumper sticker that reads “First do no harm.” Which is the beginning of the Hippocratic Oath, which Doctors take, but I take it personally almost every time I read it. I really never intended on ever hurting anyone, especially anyone I loved. But a lot of unexpected, uncharted things happen when you write a book, or when you write in general. It is not for the faint of heart. You open up a vein and bleed into a keyboard, then wait as everyone dissects and examines the blood telling you just what’s wrong with it all, just what blood borne diseases your carrying around and how it affects them somehow, who choose to read it. It is often times more pain that I would have imagined it would be. I’m not good at criticism, constructive or otherwise.

Occasionally I get a note that makes it all worth while though. A week or so  ago I heard from a friend that had cleared Hepatitis C as an early responder, and that was definitely one of those days. He had read my book, and so that was definitely uplifting, but this review that a perfect stranger left on the blog wall yesterday, is absolutely the best one I’ve received in a long time.

“I have read three books on recovery in the last 2 months. The other 2 by well known authors.

YOUR BOOK spoke to me.. The other 2 seemed like a lot of dribble.

After all their words maybe, just maybe… in the very end did they say anything  to me.

YOUR book touched my mind and my soul   from the very first sentence..

Thank you and please keep writing !! Your amazing.

cc golem ”

Thanks so much CC! I really do appreciate it. For all I’ve lost in writing this book, knowing that a few people have been moved by the story is enough to solidify leaving the book up.

In the process of self publishing I’ve learned a lot about the mechanics of the publishing industry. I am tormented by the thought of taking it all down and just walking away from it all. I think I am probably not the first writer to have these thoughts. I wonder if it’s a good idea for me to control the entire process. I know there are parts of the process that could be handled better by others. For instance, I feel bad pimping my own pain. Having a literary agent would help with that. I feel terrible publicizing the book title on my own in different forums, and after just a few negative comments from overposting, I stopped all together. Then I get bitter at the lack of commercial success, and wonder how many women I’ve known just in the last year who’ve been pushed away by the content or their misunderstanding of what it means to be cured of Hep C, and I wonder, should I just take it all down?

And then I get a decent review, and I remember, that I didn’t write it for glory, or vanity, but to help other struggling alcoholics, or better yet, specifically people facing the daunting challenged of Hepatitis C. There are more options than 4 years ago when I went through it, the pain and duration of Interferon has been cut in half using Telaprevir or Boceprevir Telaprevir, but of course as the pharmaceutical industry is apt to do, since it’s half the time, it’s twice the cost, and most of us suffering from Hepatitis C, weren’t exactly on the tail end of financial windfalls, so the odds can still seem insurmountable, I’m sure. But at every corner in my journey of sobriety, God was there, every step of the way, I knew what the right thing to do was, and I was rewarded every time I took the next right step. Today, at 4.5 years sober the next right thing is just leaving the book and the blog up, regardless of personal pain or loneliness it may cause.

The occasional reader finds inspiration and that must be why God so compelled me to write it.

Thanks again CC, I appreciate the kind words more than you know. Please do me a huge favor and leave the reviews on Smashwords as well, which the link can be found under the picture of the book. I have a ton of good ones on Amazon but Smashwords is a bit bare for reviews. Thanks again so much!

– Jared Bryan Smith

theaddictedproject.com – Just finished my interview!!

Fun stuff.

Very proud to be on theaddictedproject.com and to be their featured author.

It was a long week, and I was a bit tired and discombobulated, but I think it went over pretty well, we shall see I suppose.

Great questions though.

Writing about personal relationships has definitely been the most taxing and challenging aspect of both the book and the blog and something I never thought of before launching with either. A certain sadness and melancholy arises just thinking over miscommunications, and misunderstandings, but that is what happens when you put your stream of consciousness on display for the world to see. It becomes a target of attack and it’s challenging to learn how to deal with criticism and or people with hurt feelings, especially when you never intended to hurt anyone… ever.

I hope I was able to convey that in the interview. I’m still just learning how to be me, just like all of us sick alcoholics trying to get better. All I have is today, and every day is a journey, and a challenge….

Wow…. and just like that it’s all worth while…. phone call from a friend who just cleared the virus using Interferon… just like that it’s all worth while. He’s read the book, and he’s now well on his way to being Hep C free. It’s all good.

Life is good, and miracles are abound in the program of AA. Where else could a drunk like me find friends, lol.

So sweet, I don’t know how long before the interview will be up on theaddictedproject.com but surely not too long so keep coming back and if you see it before me poke me on facebook or something… you can poke the publisher  too and he’ll notify me… 😉 thanks yall, have a great weekend.

-Jared Bryan Smith

Success is the steady realization of a worthy goal. – Earl Nightingale

Funny both my father who died when I was 11 to suicide, but really to alcoholism and addiction, and my step father who stepped into my life right after his death, both listened to Earl Nightingale tapes almost religiously. I listen to them over and over, as well as other philosophers and sales training gurus, and they almost always make me feel amazing. I hear different things at different times in my life. When I was 18 and trying just to survive I heard, just try, and God will get your back, as I remember it seemed so daunting, such a huge prospect to provide for a family at 18, but sure enough, after only six months of really struggling we were making really good money and I bought my wife and I a house. Now, emerging from the wreckage of the tail end of 20 years of destructive drinking and drugging I’ve really been hearing a different message as I listened to this former Marine, WW2 vet with his amazingly soothing voice.

I’ve been hearing, “Not only is it good to be working towards a goal, but you, as a human being, as a man, are most happy, when working HARD And Diligently to a worthy goal.” I think back over my life, and so it is the clear uncut truth. When I was trying to buy Anne Marie that house and provide food for my son, or when I was first trying to get sober, or then once I’d started the book, and the project of Books4freee.com, immersed in those goals, that is when I am the most happy, useful and whole.

Applying Think and Grow Rich’s principles from Napoleon Hill, a man who studied all the giants for industry, from Henry Ford to Thomas Edison, and believed that having a stated goal you said aloud in the morning right when you wake ups well as at nite right before you go to bed allows the principle of autosuggestion to tap into Infinite Intelligence, or God and keeps you focused on that goal all day long. I’ve never actually employed the principle without it working… it’s almost magic… and more it makes my days go by so much faster, and ever better happier. When I was sitting around waiting for the software to be developed for my new project, I had too much time on my hands and I was not anywhere near as happy as now, that I’m out in the field selling it! I don’t think I would be very happy retiring, I am much happier working towards a goal.

I’ve often marveled at how similar Napoleon Hill’s program, with it’s principles of autosuggestion and the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous really are. He is a big believer in the Mastermind Principle, as were quite a few philosophers in recorded history, most notable, Jesus Christ who said “Wherever two or more are there in my name” there I am , and whatever is asked for shall be received, so how fitting is it that almost all sponsors tell you to pray thanks at the end of every day and please give me strength at the beginning. Not too far off from stating a Definite Mission Statement summarizing a steady realization of a goal, worthy to be had, both morning and night. What is a meeting if not a Mastermind Principle, stating that all of us are there to stay sober, just for today.

Every time I tried staying sober on my own, I lasted a week or two, tops and then I would “Change my mind about sobriety.” Not only would I not change my mind once joining AA, but the staying sober part became much much easier. As if the bond that connects us has it’s own weight, it’s own mass, it’s own properties that make 1+1 = 4 instead of 2. It does ya know. It’s magic. I love it and I love the rooms.

If you find yourself unhappy in AA, get a goal. Hell, get a job, and then a goal. Something to works towards. Your OWN dreams, not somebody else s. And DREAM BIG, that’s what makes it exciting!!!!

Check out my featured profile on :

Theaddictedproject.com

How awesome to be listed among the ranks of VIII Days Clean!!! Slowly but surely!!!

They’ve got a picture of my real face up there, but fuck it, anonymity is overrated, and how anonymous can you really be in the age of facebook with over 3k AA friends connected to your profile, lol.

-Jared Bryan Smith

Featured Author : The Addicted Project – Jared Bryan Smith

Wow, what an honor, to be asked to do anything at all special regarding the book, but to be asked to be a featured author for a recovery based website, I mean, that’s damn near moving.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in recovery, I’ve not always been the kindest, most humble human being on Earth, but one thing I think I have done is stayed honest, and stayed true to the retelling of my unique story and the tragedy as well as triumph I’ve been through, from losing both parents, to stealing from my dying mother, to losing my mind and ultimately almost my life to Hep C. I was honest in the story, in the book Hippopotamus Sea, and though it doesn’t always paint a proud picture it paints an honest one of what that experience was like. To be asked by Joshua Robbins to be a featured author is more than an honor, it makes it all worth while.

Every review, every pat on the back, every small purchase of 99 cents from smashwords all make me feel like it was worth something. That spending three years writing it and shoveling through all that emotion, and the even more painful sharing of that emotion and allowing others to see all that vulnerability, is something that not a day goes by and I don’t at least ponder the good sense of, but ultimately, as time ticks on and I get letters and emails from other Hep C and Interferon sufferers, I am glad I was guided by my higher power to write, finish and bare my soul to the world. It was worth every drop of tears, sweat and blood, when a fellow artist reaches out to you and says “hey man, I like your work and I’d like to make you our featured author.” It means the world to me and I’m really humbled.

I’m humbled but also thrilled and excited to be a part of the project, and glad, able and willing to contribute on the project moving forward.

Show some love when you get a chance and check it out on:

http://www.theaddictedproject.com

and when you get a chance please read the book Hippopotamus Sea: My Viral Sobriety from smashwords for 99 cents and please please please, leave a review as Indie publishing lives and dies by grassroots support. Thanks so much!

-Jared Bryan Smith