Query Letter

Dear Literary Agent,

I had my first hallucinations at the tender age of eleven. An age when I was just starting middle school and still had my Barbies in a toy basket. I hid the growing paranoia and increasingly disturbing hallucinations from everyone for the next five years, when it all came out explosively.

For two decades I struggled with horrific psychosis brought on by my childhood onset schizophrenia. Hospital wards traumatized me as much as the insanity that ravaged my mind. We tried everything possible to treat it, there was no medication I had not taken, no therapy untested. As a last resort I was put through electro-convulsive therapy. Better known as shock treatment. This too failed. Then, a chance encounter with a broadcast on psychedelic mushrooms gave me hope. This was not without danger, as psychedelics are known to worsen psychosis. But I had nothing else left. I tripped, and for the first time in two decades I felt myself begin to heal. Over and over I expanded my thinking and rebuilt reality. Though I will always be schizophrenic, I was given the chance of a life lived, rather than an existence survived.

“Diagnonsense: a life of sex, drugs, and paranoid schizophrenia” is a 65,000 word memoir about the struggles I faced as a child and young woman with severe mental illness. It covers two decades of psychotic episodes, and the anguish of living through them. The way drugs, prescribed and psychedelic, both damaged and improved my life. It also details the sexual abuse that led to me breaking with reality, and how it affected sexuality throughout my life. The most important lesson from my life is to recognize the way that vulnerable populations become targets for abusers.

The book is highly marketable to those curious about severe mental illness, and those who have been degraded and abused by the medical system. Psychedelic drugs and their potential uses are a huge topic in the media, as the world experiences a second psychedelic renaissance. The third theme of the book, sexual abuse and it’s effects on a person’s psyche and later sexuality is an unfortunately relatable topic that benefits from the blunt truth that I bring to the subject.

The humor in the book appeals to readers of memoir such as Augusten Burroughs’ “Running With Scissors.” While the intense drama and explicit look into mental health issues today is akin to Susanna Kaysen’s “Girl, Interrupted."

I have been a writer all my life and have written two books prior to this endeavor. My children’s book “Doors,” and my book of poetry, “Fairytales and 40oz’s” gave me practice writing in novel form and in metaphor. I bring everything I have learned to “Diagnonsense,” and create a vivid world where people can step into the mind of a madman.

Thank you for your interest in my book, I look forward to your reply.

Leah Gai