Guest Post: Eileen Schuh, author and former psychiatric nurse, talks about meeting a psychopath face to face

My special guest today is Eileen Schuh, a writer in St. Paul, Alberta, and a former psychiatric nurse. Today, Eileen shares her first bone-chilling experience coming face to face with a psychopath. Enjoy. ~Cheryl Kaye Tardif

I met a man with empty eyes. . .

It wasn’t that his eyes were dull. Oh, no! They sparkled. That shine, however, was not emanating from his soul, but was merely reflecting the world he was seeing.

I was a young girl, eighteen, straight off the farm. He was tall. Good looking with his dark wavy hair and tanned smooth face. Broad shoulders strained at his T-shirt. His IQ was slightly above 140. He was a genius. He was a psychopath. A sociopath.

He was a dangerous man.

I knew all this because I’d read his case file. I was meeting with him so I could get the little box beside “forensic patient” on “First Year Psychiatric Nursing Required Learning Experiences” record checked off. It was only my second month of hands-on training, so there were pages of little boxes left to go. Other than the ones beside ‘attending an autopsy’ and ‘making a bed’, ‘forensic patient’ is the only one I remember.

The ‘forensic patient’ was obviously enthralled by my presence. Life on the locked ward of a Psychiatric Hospital offers few thrills to those incarcerated there. I could tell by the way his empty eyes rested on the space between my white nyloned knees and the hem of my uniform, that I’d made his day. He didn’t rest his eyes there long, however. Just a quick glance, and then he was cocking his head, raising an eyebrow, and staring deeply into my eyes. A gentle smile lifted his lips and a dimple appeared on his chin.

I knew instantly, that like Dr. Hannibal Lecter when he met Jodi Foster in the movie “Silence of the Lambs”, this man was reading my soul. . . .

To read the rest of this intriguing and candid true story, please visit:
I met a man with empty eyes. . .

To learn more about author Eileen Schuh, check out her website:
http://www.eileenschuh.com/

Writing Quote - Lady in the Lake

"Besides, you see, people who write usually don't know the facts and people who know the facts, usually can't write. authenticity has very little to do with it. If people who read our magazine knew the facts of life, Mr. Marlowe, they wouldn't be reading our magazine." - Raymond Chandler / Steve Fisher

My worst enemy...

Okay, so it's true. All of it. I have an enemy that confounds me at every step, forces me to do things I'd rather not and sometimes sends me into fits of morose despondence or bestial anger and frustration. Why do I let this be? How did I lead myself to this moment? Only to escape but then return to it again and again as if it were some pernicious drug that I am addicted to? Because that's precisely what it is. A drug. A balm. An enemy to be vanquished when I finally get over my moments of weakness and indecision and decide to deal with this enemy head-on. Perhaps I'll take the easy and most sensible way out and make friends? Maybe I'll smile and make googly eyes at this creature in the hope that I can sneak up on it and take it by surprise? Either way I'm afraid I must face it... time after time, over and over again... because I must. And face it I will, until once again I conquer it and send it scurrying back into the shadows from whence it came, knowing that I am again its victor. This craven enemy... this haughty tormentor... this blank page.

10 Quotes On The Writing Life

from Karen Harrington
author, Janeology

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At different times in my writing life, each of these quotes was on a Sticky-Note somewhere on my desk, reminding me of a fundamental truth about writing.

1. "One of the first things you learn as a writer is that you write what you can, not what you want." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2. "To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man." Aristotle

3. "The function of a writer is to raise questions not to find answers." Doris Lessing

4. "A good novelist does not have to describe everything about the sea as long as he knows it." - Ernest Hemingway

5. "If I had listened to what people said I would never have been a writer." - John Wain6. "Last week I spent five days writing one page..." - Gustave Flaubert

7. "Writers need solitude as others need sleep." - Source Unknown

8. "It's only after you've written a book that you find out what it's about because everyone tells you." Helen Fielding

9. "The best research is talking to people." Jeffrey Archer

10. "You can. You know you can conquer your fears. That's what a writer is -- a conqueror of fears." - Erica Jong

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Pop over to my blog by Saturday, July 11th and leave your comment for a chance to win one of 2 copies of my novel, Janeology.

Hazardous to Your Health

A short time ago I had the great luck to obtain a rare book published in 1899 – The Domestic Cyclopedia: An Instructor on Nursing, Housekeeping and Home Adornments.

That’s quite the combination of topics and it is a fascinating research tool, filled with information otherwise lost to posterity. At that time it was found that cigarettes often contained opium “physicians and chemists were surprised to find how much” or “Havana flavoring … made from the tonka bean, which contains a deadly poison” and that the appropriate wrapping of rice paper was commonly found to be “filthy scrapings of ragpickers bleached white with arsenic”.

Whhhooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaa. Things have ‘come a long way, baby.’

Bits and Pieces of the human Diaspora...

Sometimes I forget not to stare. In the subway, on the street, at work... I try to look at my fellow humans surreptitiously... did I say "look"? I meant observe. As writers we become observers, or perhaps more correctly, collectors. We collect people and behavior the way some people collect figurines or bits of colorful string. We see a particularly interesting specimen and we observe it, and then lock away the information for future inclusion in a story, poem or novel.
Sometimes while I'm collecting, I forget not to stare. Staring is a high-risk act in New York City, where unfortunate persons have been known to have been beaten, stabbed or shot just for locking eyes with a stranger. But I can't help myself. I'm a writer. A collector of the bits and pieces that make up the greater human Diaspora. A person's dress, a hair-do, a swagger, a mannerism, an inflection of voice, a particular phrase... there are so many things that can and do add color to our writing! Can I be forgiven if I give someone the once-over because I find something about that person so interesting that I must have it? I hope so. On the bus, about 6-months ago, I noticed a young lady's unusual mode of dress... flips and flounces, trips and trounces... all interspersed with the leather and spikes of a goth. One eye heavily done in black make-up while the other sported a soft pastel color and an outlandishly long fake eyelash. The overall effect was of an innocent waif possessed by some sort of evil, vampiric tart... well, I was brought back to earth by a young man that I supposed was accompanying the young lady asking me if I knew her... ulp, I did not. Thankfully the incident did not escalate, but I must remind myself in the future, or maybe I'll just wear a sign, "Staring not deliberate, writer at work."