• Author will give presentations at NAMI (National Alliance of Mental Illness) conferences. • Author will give presentations at Harm Reduction Therapy conferences • Author has experience doing radio, TV, and podcasts, and will reach out to her contacts in these areas. • Author will use the book in a graduate psychology course as well as memoir writing courses at UCLA and for IWWG (International Women’s Writing Guild). • Targeting local bookstores, writing clubs, and women’s issues course participants for readings and signings. • Author will participate in book group discussions via Skype and in person. • Promotion via social media.

One day a teenage boy gets on his bike and rides forty miles up California's Pacific Coast Highway to avoid causing an earthquake he fears will endanger his mother and sister. But the quake he is experiencing is not coming from beneath the earth; it's the onset of bipolar illness. Blinded by Hope describes what it's like to have an unusually bright, creative child - and then to have that child suddenly be hit with an illness that defies description and cure. Over the years, McGuire attributes her son's lost jobs, broken relationships, legal troubles, and periodic hospitalizations to the manic phase of his illness, denying the severity of his growing drug use - but ultimately, she has to face her own addiction to rescuing him, and to forge a path for herself toward acceptance, resilience, and love. A wakeup call about the epidemic of mental illness, substance abuse, and mass incarceration in our society, Blinded by Hope shines a light on the shadow of family dynamics that shame, ignorance, and stigma rarely let the public see, and asks the question: How does a mother cope when love is not enough?