Category: Q&A

NH author edits posthumous memoir of addiction

Seacoast-based author, editor and writing coach Jeff Deck discussed his latest project, We Got This, Kids: A real-time and raw glimpse of alcoholism, depression, and loss during a search for more sunrises.

What is your literary background?

I collaborate with writers to help them get their books done. Though my new service is focused on fantasy novels, I’ve worked with authors of both fiction and nonfiction. My own works include several novels, a nonfiction book called The Great Typo Hunt that I co-wrote with Benjamin D. Herson and holiday romances under a pen name.

What is We Got This, Kids about?

We Got This, Kids is the story of one ordinary person, Andy Marsjanik, and his lifelong struggle with addiction, recovery and depression. It’s based on the half-finished memoir that Andy left behind when he died by suicide and filled in with the voices of those closest to him, his family and friends. Andy wanted to live —he makes that very clear in his writing — but he lived and worked alone and undertook his struggles alone, and, during a temporary low point, he made a decision he couldn’t take back.

How did you first hear of Andy’s story?

A friend connected me with Andy’s sister, Amy Marsjanik Law, just a couple of months after Andy died. Amy was living in Newmarket at the time, and we were able to meet in person; this was shortly before the pandemic. She was intensely grieving, but had a powerful determination to carry on her brother’s story, as well as his mission to help people going through similar struggles.

What compelled you to take on this project?

Normally, fiction projects call to me the strongest, both in terms of collaboration with clients and for my own work, but when I started reading the document that Andy had left behind, I could immediately see two things that drew me in: first, his sharp, acidly humorous voice reminded me of George Carlin or Dennis Miller in his prime and absolutely needed to be shared with the world, and, second, this was someone describing his mental health and addiction battles in real time, which I thought could be of immense help to others.

What was the process like?

Collaborating with Amy to honor Andy’s words was the heart of the process for this book. Amy saw her brother’s original vision and knew how to bring it to fruition, as well as whose other voices would be necessary to bring into the story. I did my best to preserve what Andy had written, tweaking only for clarity and organization, moving fragments around to best convey the picture that Andy had originally intended. To minimize my intrusion into this family and their story, I saw my primary role as an editor rather than a co-author or ghostwriter. That also literally became my ‘character’ in the book — ‘The Editor,’ who steps into the footnotes to explain and elucidate the many obscure references that Andy included. The Editor also comments on any significant additions, deletions or rearrangements of the text in the footnotes to make the process we went through as transparent as possible. I interviewed Amy and other family members and friends not just to fill in the pieces that Andy never got to write, but to show the resonance of his life on the people around him. Everyone speaks in the first person, as close to their original words when I talked with them as possible, and mirroring Andy’s intimate narrative.

How does Andy’s writing connect with you personally?

I could feel his heart directly communicating with mine through his words. He’s blunt and funny and painfully self-aware. That’s the power of his writing and why it’s an incredible loss that we won’t get to see any more books from him. Andy is speaking in minute detail about his own experience as one individual working as a real-estate appraiser in upstate New York, but his struggles are universal. I’ve felt the darkness of depression, too, though, thankfully, to a much lesser degree, and my own life has been affected by a close relative in the grip of alcoholism.

In what way do you believe this book could help people?

It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t had to deal with mental health issues or addiction, either themselves or in the case of a loved one. Unfortunately, these struggles are nearly universal now, but most of the memoirs about these issues that are published today are from a celebrity’s point of view. I think people need the opportunity to see themselves reflected in a story of addiction, recovery and profound mental trials. Andy wasn’t famous or wealthy; he was an extraordinary person, but he was living an ordinary life much like so many other Americans, so when an average person picks up We Got This, Kids and recognizes themselves in Andy, my hope and Amy’s hope is that they immediately seek out the help they need. Remember that Andy’s action during that terrible night came from temporary desperation, but its consequences were irreversible. We Got This, Kids urges its readers to hold on for the next sunrise, and the one after that too.

— Angie Sykeny

We Got This, Kids is currently available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Featured photo: We Got This, Kids. Courtesy photo.

New youth shelter to open in Manchester

Borja Alvarez de Toledo, president and CEO of Waypoint, talked about the social service agency’s latest expansion project, which includes the state’s first shelter specifically for youth experiencing homelessness.

What is Waypoint and who does it serve?

Waypoint is a social service agency … with more than 20 programs across the state. We basically serve [people through] the whole lifespan, from early childhood all the way to seniors. Waypoint has been the main provider of services for runaway and homeless youth for the last 25 years. We’ve had a program in Manchester on Lincoln Street, [which was] a youth drop-in center … where youth can actually come, take a shower, work on their resume on a computer, get food, get clothing, engage with case management. … We’ve also had a mobile team that works on the Seacoast, which is basically a van driving around to the different towns, and some housing and transitional living programs where youth can stay.

How many youth are experiencing homelessness in New Hampshire?

There was research done by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago that was the first real national study on the issue of youth homelessness. It became clear that, across the United States — and it’s the same in urban settings and in more rural settings in parts of New Hampshire — that one in 15 young adults ages 18 to 25, and one in 30 ages 14 to 17, experienced some level of homelessness every single year. … When you extrapolate that and look at how many youth of those ages are living in New Hampshire, we’re talking about 15,000 youths.

How has the pandemic affected youth homelessness?

‘Homelessness’ doesn’t always mean sleeping on the streets every day. It may mean housing instability. Sometimes, [the youth] are couchsurfing and are able to get a [place to stay] for a couple of weeks at a friend’s house or by staying with a family member. The pandemic made things much more complicated, because those houses that were hosting those youths closed [their doors] because of the fear and risk of Covid. We’ve found that, now, there are more youths who are sleeping in cars, in tents, in abandoned buildings.

What is involved in Waypoint’s expansion project?

Two years ago we had some internal focus meetings … and we realized that there was an increasing [number of] youth experiencing homelessness in Concord; that we really wanted to build a center in Rochester that was similar to the one we have in Manchester; and that we were the only state in New England without a shelter [exclusively] for youth. We decided to expand our services … and buy two buildings: one for a center in Rochester, and one on Hanover Street in Manchester, where we can actually have that first shelter for youth experiencing homelessness in New Hampshire. It’s a huge expansion. … Those three centers won’t cover the whole need — there are also homeless youth in the North Country and in more rural areas of the state — but we felt like we needed to continue to grow our services in these three areas for now.

What will the youth shelter be like?

The shelter is what’s really going to make a difference. The youth we have engaged in Manchester keep asking us every day, ‘When is that [shelter] going to be open?’ … It’s going to be housed in the same place where we’re going to have our youth resource drop-in center. It’s very possible that a youth is going to be receiving services during the day on one floor of the building, engaging with case management or groups or other activities, and then, [at the end of the day] when it’s time to transition, they’ll just go down to the floor where the shelter is and sleep there. There’s more continuity of services that way.

Why is it important for youth to have a youth-specific shelter?

Research has indicated that it’s not appropriate for youth to be actually housed in shelters for adults, especially shelters where there are some chronically homeless adults. The minute [the youth] walk into those spaces, there’s a sense of, ‘This is going to be the rest of my life. This is going to be me when I’m 50 or 60.’ They see that right in front of them, and it almost shatters any sense of hope or sense that [their circumstances] can change. There are also sometimes very rigid rules at those shelters that don’t always apply to the youth; it’s more complicated for youth.

What is the current status of the expansion project?

We’re in the process of renovating the buildings … and we are continuing to fundraise, because the cost to renovate these buildings is about three and a half million dollars. We’ve had a lot of support already for this specific project, from the city through HUD — Housing and Urban Development — funding and through congressionally directed funding by Sen. Shaheen. Many foundations and individual donors have contributed money. If people want to donate to help us get to the finish line on this project, that would be incredible. … My hope is that by the end of the summer [the facilities] will be ready to open and start [offering] services and serving youth.

Featured photo: Borja Alvarez de Toledo. Courtesy photo.