Local Writer Bases New Novel On Work in Mental Institution

Chelsea author Michelle Kennedy was working as an investigative reporter for the Green Bay News-Chronicle when her assignment in the local mental institution thrust her into a world she did not expect. Instead of spending just a few days working among the mentally ill, she ended up talking with residents and workers for weeks.

Her meeting with many of the mothers committed to the institution, combined with a criminal case she was following, provided the right inspiration she needed to create "Gandhi Was a Libra."

Finding that the subject matter of a young mother who succumbs to a mental illness and ends up committing an embarrassing crime, was too dark for her current publisher, who wanted her to write something "chick-litty," Kennedy founded Beacon Hill Press and has published her first novel.

Kennedy, who usually writes non-fiction, found the true-to-life elements of this story too difficult to resist.

"Talking with the women in the mental institution, I was struck by just how ‘normal,’ they seemed," she said. "I realized then that they were normal, at least for the most part, and that I had a built-in stereotype against the mentally ill. I talked with these women, laughed with them and cried with them. Their pain became so real to me that I had to tell their story."

Since many of the women were involved in criminal court cases or custody cases, Kennedy chose to fictionalize her experiences.

Kennedy is also the author of "Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (With Kids) in America." She lives in Chelsea with her husband and five (soon to be six) children. "Gandhi Was a Libra" will be available in May 2007, but can be pre-ordered now at her website www.mishakennedy.com.

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