Flying Leap was an accident. I never planned to write a book, never wanted to write ‘that novel,’ but it showed up one day on a flight to LA. Literally. A voice inside me told me very clearly to ‘open up your laptop, open Word and start typing.’ After a moment of hesitation, I did what I was asked to do. Once my laptop was up and running, my hands flew to the keyboard and went into a writing frenzy for the next two hours.

Six pages had been written by the time I landed and it was not until I got to my friend’s apartment that I had a chance to look at it. I sent it off to my wife and we both read it at the same time, with similar reactions: ‘What is this?’ She also wanted to know if there was more, because she wanted to know what would happen. A book appeared in fits and spurts, and after exactly 12 months I wrote the last words.

I really didn’t know what to do with it. A few friends and family read it. They liked it, but I figured they were all biased. It wasn’t until one day, when a good friend of mine called me after he read it and said: “I would have never tried to commit suicide if I had read your book before then. This book will save lives.” That really blew me away.

I had no idea how to go about the publishing thing, ended up doing a bunch of research and found a small publisher in Minneapolis, Two Harbors Press, who looked at the manuscript and liked it. I ended up with a brilliant editor and a finished book nine months later. As of March 2012 it was fully released to the public. For unknown reasons, and to the amazement of my publisher, Barnes & Noble decided to pick up the book and put it in their stores in Minnesota. Flying Leap was also nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award for 2014.

If you would like to pick up a copy, you can order it on B&N (Paperback and Nook), Amazon (Paperback and Kindle) or iBooks.