LOVES PARK, IL. - A five minute call in the summer of 1991 to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline helped an author get his life back on track during a time of divorce and unemployment. That story of hope is one of many told at the new Lifeline Gallery presented by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The number for the hotline is 1-800-273-TALK.
D.L. Shiloh, whose novel “POOKOO” deals with grief over a suicidal friend, had just lost his job as a proofreader due to a plant closing. He was also going through a divorce. One late afternoon he called the National Suicide Prevention Hotline for what ended up being only a five minute call. But looking back, it might have been the most important call of his life.
“I wasn't at a boiling point, but I was getting there,” Shiloh revealed. “I was feeling tired and just wanted to let someone know that, so I picked up the phone. I'd been keeping it all inside. The act of sharing was all it took.”
Shiloh's story is featured at http://www.lifeline-
That timeline of personal disaster helped spur the writing of his novel “POOKOO”, a satire of empty celebrity and loneliness. It's tinged with grief and sadness as the narrator watches the downward spiral of Katlin Hillmacher, a friend who is a former Olympic silver medalist.
“The only thing he [the narrator, Pete Warner] seems able to do is to witness and keep watch,” Shiloh said. “When someone gets in that state of mind, they get very locked in. Katlin (the main character) gets in these destructive cycles.”
The cycles effect everyone around Katlin, including his long-suffering girlfriend, Julie Martin. Shiloh describes her as “a real Midwestern woman who wants love and happiness, but is drawn to this charismatic athlete. The pull of a whirlpool of despair is strong. National statistics show that suicide effects six people per occurrence, but it feels like more.”
POOKOO is a print-on-demand title available at Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com, while the full e-book is available for free on the Internet from Shiloh's web sites. Visit www.dlshiloh.com or www.pookoo.net.
Pookoo: a satire of celebrity
$10 USD
190 pages
ISBN: 1438248164
EAN 13: 9781438248165
www.dlshiloh.com
www.pookoo.net
Homefield Multimedia
P.O. Box 16314
Loves Park, IL 61132-6314
Tel. 815-639-0769
