Melinda Ferguson’s promising career as an actor was brought to a halt by drug addiction. In her book, Smacked: A Harrowing True Story of Addiction and Survival (Oshun), she tells of her life with an alcoholic mother, her turbulent childhood and years as a rebellious teenager, her aspirations as an artist, her attachment to heroin and crack — and her road to recovery.
Describe yourself in a sentence.
Temperamental, excitable, hungry, manic, lustful, me-me-me, disciplined and curious.
Describe your book in a sentence.
A page-turning, gripping journey to the cul-de-sac of hell — and then upward, onward and forward.
Describe your ideal reader.
Anyone, and I mean anyone, who wants to open my book and read the whole thing is ideal.
What was the originating idea for the book?
I loved the idea of being “smacked” out of one reality and into another, so when I got clean from heroin and crack, I began to write about the many different experiences and realities I’d been smacked out of and into.
Describe the process of writing and publishing the book. How long did it take?
It took my whole life to “make” the book, but in real time I was given four or five months to write it. I had to wake up at 4am every day. When the publisher called, I got such a fright, I went into a flat panic! But after spending a month sketching out a really good and concise plan, I approached each chapter as a stand-alone essay and, suddenly, I had a whole 310-page book!
Name some writers who have inspired you and tell us why.
TS Eliot has always inspired me — he is the master of image and he simultaneously penetrates my heart, my soul and my brain. Sylvia Plath and Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude do something similar. Recently I was introduced to Michel Houellebecq and he has totally blown my mind. He has got to be one of the most intelligent writers of our age — he makes me think and think and think. It’s dark and worrying stuff.
What are you reading at the moment?
Platform by Michel Houellebecq.
Do you write by hand or use a typewriter or computer?
I write by hand and on my laptop. I tend to lose my little scraps of paper, so I really try to just put it all in the laptop, but then I’m terrified of losing my laptop … oh, it’s endless, the neurosis.
What is the purpose of memoir?
To know that we exist.
Anything you’d like to add?
It’s very likely that some of you reading this may be in my book. So you should really go out and buy it.