Duncan MacLeod

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About Duncan MacLeod
"I write dark humor and transgressive fiction to create laughter in the face of adversity."
Duncan MacLeod is a celebrated author, film director and musician. This native Californian was transplanted to the East Coast to attend boarding school. Like Jack Kerouac, he dropped out of Columbia University; he did not enjoy nor fare so well in such an environment. He returned to California to finish his education at San Francisco State University, where he majored in Film and Italian.
His creative experiences are diverse and include directing a feature documentary called "La Lucha/The Struggle", performing lead Autoharp in the band "The Acres", and writing the semi-autobiographical series of novels called, "The Psychotic Break Series" These fictionalized memoirs depict the raw and unforgettable tale of young Ethan Lloyd, set in the backdrop of 1980s San Francisco. The books depict a lost generation living in a city that has since disappeared.
Duncan is now working on the sequel to "Agnes in the Fifth Bardo," a young adult adventure through the afterlife. He is enjoying his life as an author and living in greater Los Angeles with his partner, Rafael.
Duncan is the author of 'The Psychotic Break' Series and the "Agnes" series. Rave reviews for all his books have encouraged Duncan to keep writing.
You can contact Duncan and see what he's writing about at:
duncanwrites@gmail.com
http://www.duncanwritesbooks.com
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Blog postYou deserve a good mansplanation The mansplainer, proud to share A series of articles about stuff you might already know.
I won’t apologize for assuming you don’t know something I write about. When humanity was at its peak, people yearned for knowledge. Now that we are on the decline, people with knowledge are ostracized or labeled “elitists”. Today, the hoi polloi asserts its right to ignorance. And thus the term “mansplaining” is born.
What’s “hoi polloi”? You can Goo1 month ago Read more -
Blog postIn celebration of the end of four years of hell. Donald and Melania Trump by Daisy Rockwell (shreedaisy) Today I read that Trump told his supporters to pipe down when they booed him on national television. He advocated that everyone should get the booster shot. Huh.
No one is all bad. As much as I couldn’t bear to listen to Trump, he did a few things during his presidency that were positive from my perspective. It was often due to his incompetence that he did the right thing, d5 months ago Read more -
Blog postA loose scrap collected by a dear friend What I Did For My Summer Vacation Most young adults in my circle spent the summer after freshman year doing interesting things. Some went to live on a winery in Italy; some worked on a kibbutz. I had a full-blown psychotic break and spent the whole summer in the mental hospital.
It was only slightly worse than working in a communal agricultural setting, but almost nobody from my original circle of friends can say they did the same. That’s why5 months ago Read more -
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Blog postReadership vs. Mission I wrote 5150 and the other books in the Psychotic Break Series to make known what was unknowable. I wanted to take the reader through the mind of a new adult whose fragile mind shattered and rebuilt itself several times. My mission was a success. What I hadn’t considered was the readership […]
The post What I Have Learned About My Books appeared first on Duncan MacLeod.
5 months ago Read more -
Blog postIf you’re a fan of my novels and novellas, you may get a kick out of the short stories I published on Instagram as @5150DuncanMac.
In addition to “What Lurks in the Library”, I also published “The Baptism” and “The Phone Calls”. They are a blend of humor and horror lite. The trick to reading them is to follow the trail back to the one that says “1 of 7” or “1 of 9” or whatever, then read in chronological order. Occasionally, there was something so damn exciting I had to post, ruining<8 months ago Read more -
Blog postA short horror story about bullying and its underlying causes
What Lurks in the Library: A queer horror story by Duncan MacLeod
Julius Highbaugh loved books more than anything. He read a book every couple of days and listened to audiobooks when he walked to and from Midvale Junior High. School was a mixed bag. He liked math, science, English – all the classes except Gym. He was good friends with two of his teachers, but his fellow students were nasty and picked on him.
9 months ago Read more -
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Blog postTap on the book cover to go to the Amazon page What was your favorite part of 5150? Your least favorite?The author intended to reduce stigma around mental illness by putting a reader inside the mind of a psychotic. Do you think they reduced stigma? Why or why not?Although 5150 is set in the past, in a pre-internet world, do you still feel it resonates with its readers? What about it is timeless?If you could speak to one of the characters directly, whom would you choose and what would you disc9 months ago Read more
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Blog postLooking for a quick trick for clearing the mind? In olden times, when we had to navigate our computer using text commands, there was one DOS command that always scared me: ‘del *.*’, a command that wipes out all the files in a given directory and all its subdirectories. If you did it at the C:\ prompt, you would effectively erase your entire computer, losing all your software, files, photos, etc. Today it popped into my head while I was thinking about my novel in progress, Jagniel, sequel to9 months ago Read more
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Blog postSome cleaning is best done by hand
When I’m not writing and editing my bestselling novels and short stories, I actually work a day job with numbers and spreadsheets and databases. I found my niche in that market. Think of someone who has to write, edit copy and make improvements to a manuscript. What skills do they possess that could possibly be needed in database administration? It seems like a completely unrelated field.
It’s not unrelated. Think about these skills:
10 months ago Read more -
Blog postI met Bill Rasmussen in Fourth Grade at Mills Elementary School in Benicia, California. Bill came from a large, poor family who lived in a big house on East J street. His mother, June, was very good at stretching dollars. She baked her own bread, served Carnation powdered milk, and forced the family to go vegetarian so they wouldn’t starve. Bill’s father, Larry, was a carpenter. He chose the job in honor of his childhood hero, Jesus.
The Rasmussens were good Christians – t1 year ago Read more -
Blog postThe blog is going to remain up, but new content will be found on http://www.duncanwritesbooks.com
If you sign up for my newsletter, you get a free copy of 5150. Scroll down the home page and sign up! I write very infrequently so you don’t have to worry about your inbox overflowing with snake oil. Just a few thoughtful essays, perhaps a short story, or more grammatical fun.
2 years ago Read more -
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Blog postSometimes I get so excited to finish a cycle of edits on a novel, I decide it’s ready to go without giving a holistic read. The solution for this is to order review copies and pass over with a red pen. In the process of fleshing out 7th Avenue South (prequel to 5150) I inadvertently ruptured the timeline and told a half dozen stories twice. I was so anxious to get the paperback book out there. I published it before my review copies arrived.
I wasted a few hours being embarrassed befor2 years ago Read more -
Blog postMy aunt Clara, a second cousin really, was a writer of children’s books. She loved being around children, so her book tours were a source of great joy for her. She also liked to mentor young adults. When I was newly sober, after a harrowing run in with the mental health system and drug culture, Clara came to see me in San Francisco. She bought me a computer through a catalog, and I was hooked.
A couple of years went by, and I took a train out to Minnesota to visit her. I was in my mid3 years ago Read more -
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Blog postThe first novel in my series, 5150, is a gritty self-exposure of the inner workings of a teenage mind in the throes of psychosis. It’s a roman ‘a clef revealing some of my deepest secrets. Most people who know me long enough to remember that period in my life are aware I was diagnosed at the time with schizophreniform disorder. The rest of my friends were astonished to learn that I had been hospitalized and still suffer today from a fairly mild case of bipolar depression.
Good friend3 years ago Read more -
Blog post5150 and Half have always been on Kindle Unlimited, but now M3X1(0 and A Quarter are too. If you subscribe to Prime, you can read one book per month for free. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read all four whenever you want!
Read 5150 on Amazon for Free if you have Prime or Kindle Unlimited3 years ago Read more -
Blog postIt sounds much harsher than it is. Pathetic fallacy is a story-telling technique in which the environment surrounding a character is an extension of what is happening inside their head. My first introduction to pathetic fallacy was in Wuthering Heights when Heathcliff is raging somewhere on the moors while thunder and lightning crash and flash. At least that’s how it’s stuck in my head all these years later. It is also when human emotions are attributed to an inanimate object, like a “sad” cl3 years ago Read more
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Blog postFrom bane to boon
Readers ask me how I manage to construct complex sentences without grammatical errors. My answer is always the same: ‘Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition’.
In Junior High, I had two great English teachers. They were night and day when it came to their teaching style and curriculum. The only constant was the cursed Warriner’s grammar book.
“Today we’re diagramming sentences.” The class would give a collective groan. What was the point of breakin3 years ago Read more -
Blog postWhich one are you? Writing can be drawing if you need it to be Are you the writer who makes an appointment each day or week to sit down and write for a set period of time? Or are you the writer who can only write when inspiration strikes?
If you know me, you know I’m a bit of a slob. I blame it on left-handedness and the need to keep tasks visible on my desk. Similarly, I find schedules really kill my hard on for writing. Right brain thinkers, in general, don’t do well with disciplin3 years ago Read more -
Blog postI discovered that all four of my book blurbs were lacking “the hook”, that killer first line that makes a casual book shopper want to read the rest of the book description. I added hook lines to all my blurbs a few days ago. It should not be “keyword optimized”, but rather a well-crafted plain English one-line pitch for the book.
5150 – Psychosis is not for the faint of heart. Half – A halfway house is a terrible place to fall in love. M3X1(0 – During the 1988 financial crisis in Mexico,3 years ago Read more -
Blog postI got laid off because I was underage It wasn’t until I wrote the fourth book (A Quarter) that I at last had one of those “know thyself” moments. I have been laid off or fired from nearly two dozen jobs. I’m smart, very good at solving problems…but I don’t fit in with corporate culture. I don’t even fit in with anti-establishment culture. Here is an incomplete inventory of the jobs where I had to quit or was let go for incompetence, under-agedness, or spite:
Vallejo Times Herald – Pape3 years ago Read more
Titles By Duncan MacLeod
I've been kidnapped by aliens dressed as cops.
They moved me from their prison to a simulated hospital.
I can leave any time, but they won't let me. If I don't escape, they'll keep me here forever.
If I use the telephone, the phone company will sell my innermost secrets to the government.
If I take the medicine they give me, my brain will be replaced with cotton.
So yeah. I'm a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
5150: A Transfer Is Duncan MacLeod's debut novel. Fast-paced, frenetic, and unapologetically blunt, the novel takes the hero through a bout with psychosis that lasts for several months, during which he is jailed and transfered (5150'ed) to the mental hospital, where he remains until his psychotic episode dies down. Likened to William Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar, the novel is a profound portrait of the ravages of mental illness told from the point of view of the person suffering.
7th Avenue South is a highly-demanded prequel to the 4-book Psychotic Break Series which documents Ethan’s struggles with drugs, psychosis and hospitalization. 7th Ave South lays the foundation and gives context to the circumstances that lead six months later to Ethan’s 5150 transfer to the mental hospital from jail.
Immediately after being struck by a car, she finds herself on a conveyor belt in the afterlife.
There she joins forces with Jerry, her high school crush, and Patsy, an adorable dog who lived on her street.
The three dead souls travel together towards reincarnation, battling demons, warding off ill-intentioned angels, and defending their three-souled union to everyone they meet.
When Agnes finds a knife that can cut through illusions, the trio hack their way through the wilderness of the afterlife, tumbling from one adventure to another.
This fourth and final installment in the Psychotic Break Series sees Ethan struggling to rejoin society as drugs take center stage in his life. Home from Mexico with a shampoo bottle full of paregoric, Ethan drifts from job to job and house to house, unable to get his footing. The only thing that remains constant in his life is the relief heroin provides. The drug takes hold in tiny steps. He doesn't become a junkie overnight; he knows he is playing with fire.
The novel showcases San Francisco at the end of the 1980's. It was a period of upheavals everywhere - the Berlin Wall fell; San Francisco shook, and Microsoft took over the world. It was the last days of analog, when phone booths were more common than cell phones, snail mail and typewriters were still favored over word processors. A Quarter describes a San Francisco that vanished.
During the 1988 financial crisis in Mexico, even a mentally ill, homeless American could live like a king. In this third installment, Ethan escapes the confines of the Mental Health system on his journey to Mexico. Along the way, he encounters shamans, witches, martial artists and one dashingly handsome psychic rich kid with a penchant for causing trouble. Each encounter changes the picaresque Ethan as he winds his way deep into the heart of this magical nation.
Continuing right where "5150: A Transfer" left off, "Half" recounts the ongoing saga of Ethan Lloyd and his bid to break free of the mental health system while continuing the slow healing process.
Ethan befriends Michael G. Page, a complex character suffering from a much milder case of mental illness. Michael helps Ethan regain his sense of self and personal freedom that he lost in the hospital.
Half takes place in a very real location - Conard House, a Victorian Mansion in Pacific Heights converted into a halfway house for mental patients. The house, perched high atop the hill above Cow Hollow, provides an ironic contrast to the fate of the clients who live there. For many, this will be the only mansion they will ever call home.
There are setbacks. Ethan suffers from occasional relapses of paranoia, hallucinations and medical mismanagement. Despite these obstacles, he plans to escape to Mexico with his new crush, Chance.