Our Story so Far
Deborah Fruchey attempted her first novel when she was 8 years old. She published her first novel, The Unwilling Heiress, (Walker & Co.) in 1987. This comedy romance was chosen by the American Booksellers’ Association as a Best Book. In that same year, however, she learned for the first time that she had Bipolar Disorder and alcoholism. She had to learn how to live all over again in a new way.
In 2005 Deb married musician Robert Hamaker. In 2010 she published her book on coping with mental illness, Is There Room for Me, Too?, which was once called “the best book of its kind.” In 2011, Deborah produced her second comedy romance, A Scandalous Creature. In 2014 came the poetry collection Armadillo, from Cyborg Productions. In 2018 she published a flash fiction collection entitled Priestess of Secrets. And in 2020 she published her second poetry collection at Zeitgeist Press: Three Kinds of Dark.
In 2019 Deborah began working as an editor. Our Lady of Telegraph Avenue, a collection of tributes to poet Julia Vinograd, and Bat Flower: Poems, Plays, and Other Perversions by Vampyre Mike Kassel, were first. In 2020 she produced Hollow Quills & Jackal Fur by Bana Witt (who, sadly, died shortly afterwards) and If Thirst is Proof of Water, by Rudy Jon Tanner. Both are poetry from Zeitgeist Press. 2021 opened with the publication of another poetry book, Armageddon Bootcamp, by Maria Rosales, and also Touchstones, Maria’s first prose collection. In 2021 Deborah also reissued her signature book on mental illness with a new cover & title: Mental Illness Ain’t for Sissies! The Benicia Literary Arts anthology Yearning to Breathe Free followed, and the first print collection from Steve Arntson, Gypsy & Other Poems, as well as Embodied, the first formally published collection from poet Jan Dederick.
2023 so far sees the publication of a beautiful collection of 35 Sonnets and the 35 watercolors which inspired them, by Steve Arntson & Diane Lee Moomey. Forthcoming is Rudy Jon Tanner's first posthumous collection, For Whomever Thinks a Piano is Furniture, and a second edition re-issue of Vampyre Mike's The Worlds According to Loki, in publish-on-demand format, so it will once again be available to his fans. Thanks is due to Dr. David Kallinger and Jane Haver Kassel, respectively, for generously supporting these last two publications.
All of Deborah’s books are available at Amazon.com, and her ebooks are also available a Smashwords (now owned by Draft2Digital) and all the outlets they serve. She has her own tiny publishing company, www.lastlaughproductions.org, where you can also see the music that she & her husband have produced.
Deborah edits a local poetry website, Strictly East (www.strictly-east.org), and has been included in many anthologies (including Poets from Hell, Trafford Press, 2005).
She has worked as a banker, file clerk, library aide, reader for the blind, and other unsuitable things. She no longer understands why she ever bothered with anything but writing. Her goals in life include a small cult following and a flat stomach.