Great Review from www.teensreadtoo.com
Rating: 5 Stars

Millions of people suffer from anxiety disorder (panic attacks) on a daily basis. Most suffer needlessly, either due to lack of medical treatment, misdiagnosis, or ignorance of the condition. I DON’T WANT TO BE CRAZY is one woman’s brave confession of her struggles with the debilitating disorder.

Samantha Schutz was first diagnosed with anxiety disorder at age seventeen, after years of suffering with the problem. She uses this memoir to describe the devastating effects of the condition on her life and her relationships. The book chronicles the ups and downs of Samantha’s life from age seventeen until she graduates from college and gets her first job in the publishing industry.

Told in verse, the story reveals everything from the gripping terror of the attacks to the many therapists she consulted for help. Samantha titles her entries with the current drugs (Klonopin, Serzone, Xanax, Paxil, etc.) and the dosages she was
prescribed to treat her condition. She also explains her attempts to stop the medications, and her belief that things would get better, only to relapse with increasing frequency.

Samantha's honesty is evident throughout. She doesn't promise miracle cures, and she truly marvels at the support she received from her family and most of her friends. This is an inspiring book for anyone living with or connected to someone
living with anxiety disorder.

So I promised I would update about the new book, so here I am. Thanks to all who emailed me girl names...I finally decided on Annaleah.

I've been working on the outline a lot recently and even enlisted my friend Judy to help me brainstorm. So far, the story is that Annaleah, a sixteen year old girl, lives next to a cemetery--which is sort of ironic since she's never actually known anyone who's died. She's visited the cemetery since she was a little kid, but she's not at all dark or goth. She just thought that it was fun to make up stories about the names and dates on the headstones. But Annaleah's life is suddenly turned upside down the summer after her junior year when her boyfriend unexpectedly dies. Don't worry. That doesn't give anything away. I'm pretty sure the book begins at his funeral.

To prepare for writing this book I've spent some time at a little cemetery near where I grew up. I'll be basing the cemetery in my story on it.

I've also been reading some really great books. I definitely recommend Good Grief by Lolly Winston (it's funny and poignant at the same time) and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (I'm only about 50 pages in, but it's already really intense). I also read parts of Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. It's really interesting and kind of gross and scary at the same time.

Ok, hopefully more to come soon...

NEW BOOK!

So I've started thinking about my new book. "Started" isn't really the right word as I've been tossing around an idea for the last year. But it's summer and this weather (and sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop) makes me think of 2 summers ago when I was finishing writing I Don't Want to Be Crazy.

It's been hard to get motivated--I've never written fiction and it seems daunting to create an entire world, that includes believable characters . . . but I think that I'm finally ready to start writing (that means getting a sample to my glorious editor to see if he likes it).

One thing that keeps me from starting to write (ok, it's really moslty plain old procrastination) is that I have no name for my main character. It's really hard to find a name for her. Got any ideas of a good name for a 16 year old girl? Post them in the comments section or email me at samanthaschutz@hotmail.com.

So I suppose I should say what I'm writing about. Would that somehow jinx me? OK, all I'll say now is that it's about a girl who lives next door to a cemetery.

Will it be prose or verse, you ask? I'm not sure, but I am leaning toward verse.

I've been a crappy blogger up until now, but I'll keep you all up to date on how the writing is going.

OK. Time to brainstorm about my cemetery-girl....

The paperback is coming! The paperback is coming!

The paperback edition of I Don't Want to Be Crazy will be out this August.

It's only $7.99
288 pages!
229 poems!

Order it now!

http://www.amazon.com/I-Dont-Want-Be-Crazy/dp/0439805198/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1753127-9961647?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180292560&sr=8-1

Free podcast of me reading from I Don't Want to Be Crazy

Listen to a reading I did at KGB. It's very NY--you can even hear the occasional fire truck go by!

It's free...
com/index.php?post_id=122874">
http://www.indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/
index.php?post_id=122874

Last week Scholastic celebrated PUSH's fifth anniversary with in-house readings by a variety of its authors. Seen here (l. to r.): Billy Merrell (Talking in the Dark), Coe Booth (Tyrell), David Levithan (founder and editor of PUSH), Thu-Huong Ha (Hail Caesar), Brian James (Dirty Liar), Samantha Schutz (I Don't Want to Be Crazy) and Eirreann Corrigan (Ordinary Ghosts).
From Publishers Weekly:

"Five years ago this month, Scholastic launched its PUSH imprint, spearheaded by David Levithan, who is now editorial director of Scholastic Press and PUSH. Focused on publishing cutting-edge books for teens written by first-time authors, the line was an editorial experiment that has clearly worked. PUSH has published more than 20 titles by such authors as Markus Zusak, Kevin Brooks, Patricia McCormick and Chris Wooding, and there are more than 1.2 million copies of its books in print.
To commemorate the imprint's fifth anniversary, the publisher is releasing This Is PUSH: New Stories from the Edge, an anthology of tales by PUSH authors edited by Levithan. And in March, Levithan and four authors of new PUSH books will hit the road, visiting five cities (New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Miami).
Levithan, who began at Scholastic as an intern at the age of 19, was an associate editor at the house when the issue of a new teen imprint first came up. "I asked the question of what kind of teen publishing we wanted to do at Scholastic, and that question turned into a four-year conversation," he recalls. When the conversation finally wrapped up, he says, "We took the radical approach of going with first-time writers and being on the cutting edge of teen publishing. Our idea was to give aspiring authors a chance and to be a magnet to attract people who hadn't dreamed of writing. We gave them a space to do that. As a result we have a largely very young, very diverse group of PUSH authors.""

Just found out that I was named to the ALA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list!

That means they think that teens who generally don't like to read will like my book.
That's awseome!

Thanks American Library Association.

(Isn't this photo of the best bling ever?!)

The PUSH Antholgy is available NOW!

It's only $6.99 and features new work by all 15 of your favorite PUSH authors--

including a new poem by me! (It's over ten pages long.)

Check http://thisispush.com/ for more info . . .

I'll post an excerpt soon.
-sam

Yippie! More reviews.
This one is from VOYA (Voice of Youth Adovcates)
http://www.voya.com/

In this moving memoir, Schutz details her struggle with anxiety disorder. She has always been a perfectionist, thanks in great part to her parents' constant pushing. Shortly after beginning college, Schutz starts to experience strange symptoms-shaking, sweating, racing thoughts, and feeling trapped in her own body-which turn out to be panic attacks. The fear and discomfort of the attacks rule her life. She relies heavily on medication to regulate her days, but worries that she is only able to cope with her disorder because of the medication. Even with pills and therapists, Schutz battles fear, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. Her illness bewilders her, at one point even forcing Schutz to wonder if she is doing it to herself. Schutz worries that perhaps she needs this disorder, that maybe she does not want to get well. Schutz vacillates between feeling as if she has conquered her affliction to being right back in the thick of it, feeling alone, scared, and desperate. The ending seems hopeful, but given her past, it is hard to be certain that she has overcome her demons. Written in verse, this memoir successfully conveys what it is like to suffer from panic attacks. The intense tone often feels frantic and breathless, pulling the reader into Schutz's frame of mind. Her story will have a wide appeal thanks to both its content and form. Once readers pick up this insightful debut, they will not be able to put it down.