Friday, May 15, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sold out!
Just heard that Gill & Macmillan has sold the entire first print run of Dying to Survive! They're printing more books as I write!!
All in the family
I suppose a lot of drug addicts blame their families for their addiction. I've tried to get across in the book that this isn't the case with me.
As John Spain in the Irish Independent says:
"The description of her descent into this hell over several chapters is a unique insight into what life was like for many kids in Ballymun at the time. The towers were known as 'The Devil's Playground', with gangs of feral kids in abandoned flats shooting up.
But her book is also a revealing insight into the mind of the addict. You realise that her family was not as uncaring as she thinks.
They made endless attempts to help her, even as she turned their lives into a nightmare -- lying, robbing, bringing her grandparents to the edge of a complete breakdown.
The extraordinary efforts by the extended family to help her included bringing her abroad three times for treatment. But she frustrated all efforts, relapsing again and again in a messy cycle of detox and overdose that went on for years and must have been heartbreaking for those around her.
And all the time she blamed her internal hurt and despair on being abandoned by her mother. All the time She saw the world through the skewed, self- centred, self-pitying vision of the junkie.
The reality is that her mother was not perfect, but it was not all her fault and she was there for Rachael in the end. It is to Rachael's credit that she shows this clearly in the book."
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Little rich kid?
It's funny how people pick up things completely the wrong way. I've heard from a friend there is one of those online forums where they are discussing my book. Apparently after a few posts describing the life I led and my battle to stay off drugs, one poster wrote: "Well, she comes from a rich family..."
Unbelievable! Us and all the other families on the famous Ballymun millionaire's row!!
Monday, May 11, 2009
The beginning of the end
July 2006. That was the beginning of the end for me and drugs. I was arrested fir shoplifting and knew a weekend in the cells lay ahead. Worse, a weekend without drugs.
For the next few hours I couldn't feel anything as the last fix of heroin left my body.
Eventually a garda arrived to tell me eight bench warrants were outstanding against me. I would appear in court the following Tuesday. I couldn't get any methadone so braced myself for the longest few days of my life.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Redemption story
There was a great review of Dying to Survive in the Irish Independent last week. The paper's book editor, John Spain, said:
"This is the best book by far about the drugs explosion in Dublin, about the inadequacy of treatment facilities and about the mindset of a young junkie"
I'm over the moon with the review, there seems to be a real momentum building with the book, what with all the radio interviews, Sky News doing a report and now this glowing review.
Another part of the review says:
"It's only by managing to come out the other end, by becoming "the girl with the arms", that Rachael Keogh has managed to stay around to write it. Many of her peers were not so lucky.
After the media frenzy generated by her picture and TV appearance, Rachael was back in court on an outstanding warrant for shoplifting and back in prison. By then there was widespread awareness of her plight., no doubt helped by the media coverage of her case.
It took months, but eventually she got a place first in the Cuan Dara detox unit in Cherry Orchard Hospital and then in Keltoi, the recovery facility in the Phoenix Park. She was clean and on her way... and full of gratitude for those all the people who helped her, whom she names.
She is still clean. She is now in college studying psychotherapy. Her arms still bear the scars ... but they have healed. The arms that saved her."
You can read the full review here.
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