Abandoned, pregnant, and bi-polar, Katie McGowan’s going crazy on that God-
forsaken rock, the Moon!
Katie McGowan is bi-polar, and she’s run the gamut of medications. Everyone is telling her she should go to the Moon and have microchip surgery, but she’s afraid she’ll become an automaton. In a last-ditch, tough love effort to force her to get the chip, her husband, Scott takes her to the Moon and divorces her when she decks him. Then she discovers she’s pregnant. She can’t have the surgery or take her meds until after the baby’s born.
Scott is elated when he hears he’s going to be a father and naturally assumes Katie will take him back. He always intended to take her back as soon she had the surgery. He has no clue how badly he hurt her, how thoroughly he’s broken her trust—or that he may not get her back at all.
Excerpt
Red Rage
Champaign, Illinois
September, 2065
They were on Earth, at a bar near Champaign, Illinois, part of the Chicago metropolis, which had sprawled across the Midwest and even down to Cairo, Illinois, where it merged with the equally sprawling Greater Memphis Area. They were there to sing karaoke, and Katie McGowan was ‘sober,’ as usual. She was on too many medications to mess with alcohol.
She didn’t remember, later, what the woman said that triggered her. She didn’t remember deciding to react. She just remembered the hot, red rage. And the split. She watched herself do it as The Voice kicked in.
“You can’t do this,” it said. “This is inappropriate behavior.”
Katie tried to stop herself, but she couldn’t. Her arm rose, as if of its own accord, and poured the pop on the woman’s bleach-blonde, over-processed head. The woman came off the stool and shoved Katie. She flew across the room, seemingly in slow motion. Of course she threw her right arm out to break the fall, and she still hit her head on the floor. But the pain in her wrist was worse than the headache.
“I told you not to do it,” The Voice said. “Now, at least stay down. Don’t try to fight her. You’ve already lost.”
Katie lay there gasping for breath, smelling the old, stale, spilled booze and beer that had seeped into the floor. Someone helped her up. It was Scott, her husband, and she was wrapped in his arms while holding her wrist. The woman wanted to come after her again, but people restrained her.
The screaming started. Katie cowered in Scott’s arms screaming and screaming and screaming, while The Voice told her to stop acting this way, and people tried to restrain the angry woman, pop dripping from her soggy bangs.
“Get her out of here!” the manager demanded.
“Looks like her temper matches her red hair.” She heard someone comment.
Scott half-carried her outside. She was hysterical and still screaming. The other woman followed them out to the car.
“What the fuck’s wrong with you, you crazy bitch?”
Katie couldn’t answer. All she could do was scream. Just scream. No words, just that high-pitched wail that was a good octave above any note she ever managed to reach when she sang.
“Now why can’t you reach this pitch when you sing?” The Voice asked. “Stop it or you won’t be able to sing at all. Ever again.”
She threw herself across the hood of the sky-car, feeling its warmth. She kept screaming, and the pain flared in her wrist again. Her throat was sore, and her voice was going…gone. The screaming subsided, and she began sobbing, hoarsely. Damn it. Her physical voice really was gone! The Voice was merging into the background, but now her mother was there. Linda Snodgrass had been dead for over five years, but she still appeared and yelled at Katie.
“You stupid bitch! I told you ladies don’t fight. What the hell did you think you were doing?”
“I don’t know why I did it, Mama. I think I broke my wrist,” she mumbled.
“Serves you right.”
“I’m sorry, Mama. I’m sorry.”
“Quit whining, or I’ll give you something to be sorry for.”
Her mother faded away, and she started hearing what was going on around her again.
Scott was there, and the manager, and the woman who had shoved her, and several bystanders, but all she could do was cry and say, “I’m sorry,” over and over.
“Who’s she talking to?” the woman asked. “She really is fucking crazy!”
“Katie’s bi-polar.” She heard Scott explain.
“Get her out of here!” the manager yelled.
“I’m so sorrrrrreeeeeee,” Katie wailed hoarsely. Someone stayed with her while Scott went back inside to get her sweater and his keys. She was powerless to stop this stage, as well. The sobbing and apologizing would go on for another hour or so. It was part of the pattern. She would apologize to everyone she met. And she would cry until she dehydrated herself and ran out of tears.
Scott came out of the bar and handed her sweater to her. She reached for it with her right hand and dropped it. He picked it up and put it across her shoulders. Then he unlocked the sky-car and helped her into it.
“Your wrist’s swelling up fast, baby. I brought you some ice from inside.” He handed her a bag of ice wrapped in a bar towel. “Your eyes look more red than green right now, and you’re so pale your freckles really stand out on your nose.”
“I’m sorry, Scott. I’m really sorry.”
He was oddly supportive this time. “I know you’re taking your meds. I’ve been giving them to you myself. And you still went off.”
“W-why?” Katie sobbed. “W-why? I’m s-sorry. I’m s-so s-sorrrrreeeee!”
“I don’t know. I don’t think the meds’re working,” he said. He reached over to pat her hand, but she was holding her right wrist, trying to cushion it and keep the bag of ice steady.
Professional Reviews
Enjoyable and enlightening
Rock Crazy is an enjoyable science fiction story that takes place on the newly colonized moon. In an attempt to force his wife, Katie, to agree to a needed brain surgery, Scott takes her to the moon and ceremoniously dumps her, nulling their marriage contract. When the couple finds out Katie is pregnant, Scott has a sudden change of heart and wants his wife back. But Katie is in no hurry to let Scott out of the doghouse.
Not only does the author paint new worlds for the reader, Ms. Weber does a wonderful job of explaining the torrent of emotions, and emotional responses, people with bi-polar disease deal with daily, without being critical or judgmental. She gives the reader a glimpse into the very complex mind of bi-polar Katie. Ms. Weber weaves a tapestry that reflects how this very complicated and oft misunderstood disorder affects both sides of a relationship, all the while entertaining the reader. A must read.
Not Just Sci Fi
Don't let the genre throw you. This book might be written as sci-fi, but like all good books, it's the story of a person. Katie McGowan might live in the future and she might be stranded on the moon. But she's a woman battling the personal demon of Bi-polar Disorder while pregnant and unable to rely on the meds that to some extent, allow her to function at least semi-normally. And it's that battle that sets this book apart, the description of the personal battle to birth a healthy baby, to do whatever it takes to see that baby born that will tear at your heart. Because you don't just read it. You feel it.
An Enlightening and Entertaining Read
Rochelle Weber succeeds in spinning an entertaining yarn, in an alien environment, while really giving an insight into a debilitating condition.
Knowing several people who suffer bi-polar disorder, I read Rock Crazy with great interest, hoping to understand what they go through. Not only did I find the way Rochelle Weber created her characters, and gave the reader both sides of the situation, intriguing and enlightening, I thoroughly enjoyed the story too.
The moon setting feels believable, although completely alien. To weave such a compelling tale in such an interesting environment is achieved with great writing and a well-paced and gripping story.
Jack Brennan is hired by a group of ultra rich English aristocrats to kidnap four top IRA terrorists. The contract is time limited but do the financial rewards justify the risk?
