People ask me why I chose to write a series about a female psychologist.  The truth is, I’m trying to make my years in therapy count for something.
 
Like my main character, Dr. Kate Holly, in “What Looks Like Crazy,” I have issues.  Also like Kate, I have a gene pool unfit for swimming, and the branches on my family tree are pretty shaky.
 
Although I’m not qualified to diagnose myself, I’m pretty sure I have OCD, ADHD, PTSD, and SAD.  Wow, I could create a word jumble with all those letters!  I used to feel bad about not being normal until I discovered nobody else was normal either.  I know a few people; actually, I know a lot of people, who should be on a Prozac drip.
 
But think how boring it would be if we were normal!  So I created a clinical psychologist named Kate Holly whose life is anything but.  Not only does she deal with a number of wacky patients, her friends and family are missing a few screws as well.
 
First, there’s her best friend, receptionist, and self-appointed PR person, Mona Epps, who will stop at nothing to catapult Kate to fame and fortune.  Mona wants Kate to have her own TV show like Dr. Phil.
 
Next, there’s Kate’s mother and aunt, fifty-something-year-old idential twins who still dress alike and make a living as junk dealers.  They’re known as the Junk Sisters, and Kate is certain that, not only are they responsible for making her neurotic, they screwed her out of getting a prom date.  Imagine two plus-sized women driving a candy apple red 2007 Navistar CXT monster pickup truck filled with junk.  They insisted on decorating Kate’s house, which is why Kate claims it looks like a flea market threw up in it.
 
Then there’s Kate’s ex-boyfriend, Thad, a psychiatrist who refers patients to Kate in return for lewd descriptions of her underwear.  Thad thinks the answer to all problems, including world peace and ingrown toenails, can be solved by getting naked in his hot tub.
 
I don’t dare forget Kate’s Aunt Lou, a woman who smokes non-filtered cigarettes and carries an ice pick in her purse and can’t understand why her niece, Dr. Holly, can’t treat her vaginitis.
 
Finally, there’s Kate’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Jay Rush, the love of her life.   Jay is a firefighter who, in Kate’s opinion, takes too many chances.  She fears he will be swallowed up in a burning building just as her firefighting father was when she was only ten years old.
 
This doesn’t even take into account Kate’s nutty patients, but I can assure you they will keep you laughing and guessing; because it isn’t long before Kate realizes somebody is out to get her, and it could be almost anybody!
 
I hope you’ll join me in getting a little Crazy in 2008.  If you’re looking for irreverent and politically incorrect fun, What Looks Like Crazy might be just what the doctor ordered.

Charlotte Hughes

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