An Armagh author, inspired to write about his mental health struggles, is to launch his second book which focuses on his Christian faith.
Mark Brownlee released his debut fiction novel ‘Manic’ last year, which was influenced by his many years of mental health struggles, including a bipolar disorder diagnosis and a brief stint in the Bluestone Unit at Craigavon Area Hospital.
Now, the peer support worker is gearing up to release his second book, called ‘God and Man’ which features a range of short stories focusing on how God interacted with His people throughout the Bible.
The book launch will take place in the Armagh City Hotel on Friday, November 22, at 7.30pm.
‘God and Man’ features seventeen short stories that follow God’s redemptive plan throughout the narrative of the Bible. Starting in the Garden of Eden, the story moves on to the Flood, then Babel before looking at the people of Israel.
Finally, it focuses on the life of Jesus Christ from the perspective of different New Testament characters.
Speaking to Armagh I about his writing inspiration, Mark, who works for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, explained how his mental health struggles led to him writing his first book, ‘Manic’.
“I was admitted into Bluestone on Christmas Day in 2014,” he recalled. “I was in and out but was eventually discharged for good in May 2015. It was a very traumatic experience for me and with my diagnosis of bipolar disorder, I was in a very manic state when I was in hospital.
“I think it was probably a few years after I realised that there was a story from that. Some people think of writing a memoir – I didn’t really want to go down the memoir [path] I wanted to sort of embellish it and change it around a little, so I suppose that’s why I went for a novel instead.
“My elevator pitch for that book would’ve been it’s a teen romance set in a psychiatric hospital, so it’s kind of using my own experience why psychosis to inform a story that is kind of believable for somebody that would have went through something similar to myself.”
Mark is also an active member in his local congregation, Loughgall Presbyterian Church, to whom he has dedicated his new book, for their part in shaping his Christian faith.
Much of Mark’s writing focuses on different people facing everyday trials living in this world but shows how the hope of the Gospel can bring light to very dark places.
It was this experience with his own Christian faith that helped Mark decide where to go after ‘Manic’.
He explained: “Faith has always been a big thing for me. I was raised in a religious background and always went to church, youth activities and Sunday School as well. I had a good knowledge of the Bible and you write what you know essentially.
“Faith is very important for me and I suppose that’s why I decided to write this book.
“The amazing thing about writing is that feeling of inspiration so that’s something really weird that just comes upon you and you want to write about it. I think it is something that I’ve come to strengthen even more, to kind of know more about the Bible and look more at the characters of the Bible and you certainly see the courage of all these characters and how they’ve stood up for things.”
‘God and Man’ aims to take a slightly different approach, by highlighting the perspectives of characters who may be lesser-known.
Mark explained: “My biggest inspiration probably would be this guy called Walter Wangerin. He’s a Lutheran pastor in America, but he wrote the entire Bible as a novel. It’s interesting because a lot of people find the Bible boring because there are a lot of chronologies and different stuff and things.
“It just doesn’t seem to be attractive, so he tried to create a kind of narrative from Abraham to Jesus. I read that, thought this is great, and wanted to try and do something similar.
“The first one is from the Garden of Eden, and again, I wanted to have a different point-of-view. It is from Eve’s point-of-view, rather than Adam’s or God’s, so it’s trying to show you what it must have been like for someone who has just happened to exist, with no real recollection before existing.
“The idea is that God is in each story, where he’s the main character of the whole book in many ways, even though he may not always be mentioned. We talk about how the Book of Esther never mentions God in it, but people would say that God was still working through the circumstances of that book, so it’s kind of similar.”
While this book takes a different format from his debut effort, Mark hopes readers will take away something to think about.
“The idea of the book is to go across the Biblical narrative of redemptive history and see how God interacts with man and how God fulfils his purposes in spite of many people’s plans to thwart them.
“For example, I did one story on Haman, entirely from his point-of-view, and he’s one of the biggest villains of the Bible. In his case he wanted to wipe out all of the Jews when they were in exile, so that reminds us today that there may be difficult situations Christians might face, but actually, God is covering and God is always going to be there.
“God’s going to help us through, so there’s comfort, there’s encouragement and I really want to get that across when people read this book.”
Now that the book is finished, Mark says he is “really pleased” with what he was able to achieve.
“It was a bit of an accident cause when I wrote these stories I didn’t necessarily think when I published ‘Manic’ and I did the launch that this was the next book I was going to do. I was just writing these stories and just thought I could do a collection.
“I’m very impressed and happy with how it’s turned out and I’ve worked with editors to improve and develop each story and that’s been over a number of years.”
While Mark hasn’t yet decided the topic of his next book, he hopes to go down the route of his other great passion – history.
He said: “I’ve always been interested in history, it’s always been my passion and I’ve always been very interested in local history as well. I have written two books that just have to be proofread, but will maybe be published in the future.
“They’re both on the Armagh Disturbances in the 1780s and 1790s, around the time of the United Irishmen rebellion and also on the Battle of the Diamond and the formation of the Orange Order.
“The first book is from the Defender point-of-view, that’s the Catholic fraternity that was set up at the time, and then the second book will be on the formation of the Orange Order.
“It’s very interesting and it’s something I’ve wanted to do, simply because I don’t think it has really been done in fiction yet. I’ve had thoughts on doing a whole series on it but I won’t get ahead of myself!”
Read more: How Armagh man Mark wrote a future for himself after mental health struggles
