FOUR MYSTERIES  AND TWO PLAYS BY DAVID LAING DAWSON 

 Here Not There and My Name is Walter James Cross - Two Plays

Here Not There - In their golden years Charles and Shirley have downsized to a small Condominium. Charles comes home one night very late, a little drunk, carrying a mysterious box. He has decided this is the night he and his wife should confront their failures, their diminishing opportunities, the state of the world, and the very meaning of life. Shirley would rather go back to bed. From a review "the very first show of the Fringe meets with a standing ovation". Walter - Walter tried to kill himself and failed, so he decided to tell his story instead. Finding an abandoned theater, he stands on the stage alone and recounts his descent into mental illness, into schizophrenia. Created by a  psychiatrist who has worked for many years with schizophrenic patients, this compelling dramatic monologue presents an accurate depiction of a devastating, costly, much maligned, and misunderstood illness.

 Here Not There premiered at the Hamilton Fringe Festival: View Magazine: "Great acting  makes this play highly enjoyable" and "the play is firmly together". Here Not There Video Promo

ISBN 978-0987824479 $11.95,108 pages and distributed by Ingram available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Chapters Indigo and in Kindle, Kobo and Nook versions

 Also available as an on demand video  or to purchase

Walter was originally a film shown on TV Ontario and at various film festivals and performances. It can also be seen on demand or purchased

Preview Walter

"Novel takes readers into Dramatic Life of Psychiatric Hospital patients! Excellent writing style"

"it feels authentic from beginning to end. It's not a comfortable book to read, but it is thought-provoking."  From Blog Critics

DON'T LOOK DOWN Four men, age 18 to 81, have murdered, and now share a room in the secure forensic psychiatry ward. Who better to get inside their heads, and find both the tragedy and comedy of their lives than psychiatrist and novelist David Laing Dawson.

Frank has just completed a ten year sentence in a Federal Prison for manslaughter. He is remanded for an assessment in the Forensic Ward of a Psychiatric Hospital. On this ward Frank shares a four bed room with Joseph, a man suffering from severe depression and delusions of jealousy, David, a young schizophrenic man, and Henry Thornton, 81 years of age, sometimes confused, and possibly guilty of the mercy killing of his companion and lover.

Dawson explores the comedy as well as the tragedy of these four lives as they intersect in a dramatic way in a place none of them wishes to be.

 This story has the ring of truth and insight only an insider can provide. And though the characters and events are tragic, the author finds many moments of shared humanity, warmth and good humor.

Four stars on Amazon "This is fiction which rings true and is quite a reading adventure"

ISBN 978-0-9810037-5-7, $19.95 US distributed by Ingram 

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SLIDE IN ALL DIRECTION 

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A new compelling story of crime, addictions, love and redemption, played out in the shadows of a post-industrial steel town. Known as a Canadian Elmore Leonard, Dawson is perhaps a little kinder and gentler but no less real.

The Hamilton Spectator: January 31, 2009

"a work of fiction that's as close to reality as it gets"

"Compelling characters find their way through a storyline bursting with crime, murder, addiction, tough love and tenuous redemption. Yet it doesn't feel crowded. You may not root for the characters but I'm betting you'll end up pulling for them."

"Slide in all Direction is a powerful read ... with a climax that really does blur the line between fiction and true crime." The Hamilton Spectator March 7, 2009 

Five Stares A little Elmore Leonard, a little Seinfeld amazon

His earlier works have been translated into 7 languages.

 Distributed by the Ingram Book Company, trade paper, 232 pages, $19.95 US retail (ISBN 978-0-9810037-1-9) 

 THE INTERN

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During the tumultuous sixties, Dr. Robert Snow interns in a big city hospital. Dawson lets his readers feel the triumphs and tragedies, the exhausting, overwhelming experiences of hospital life and death. Set against the social upheavals of 67/68 the author once again gives us vital characters struggling in an ambiance that rings all too true.

 Distributed by the Ingram Book Company, trade paper, 236 pages, $19.95 US retail (ISBN 978-0-9810037-2-6) 

 ESSONDALE A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

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Is this hell, or just a psychiatric hospital? Dr. Robert Snow isn't sure. Waking from a drunken stupor in a small green room, the doctor finds he's on the other side of the diagnosis - in a place where life and mental health seem to be going pretty cheap these

days. Murder and sexual abuse haunt the hospital, but Snow doesn't really care. He'd rather be dead anyway. When a charming, manic cowboy and a world-weary intellectual invade Snow's self-imposed isolation, they drag him out of his depression - and into the heart of Essondale's black mysteries...

 Distributed by the Ingram Book Company, trade paper, 236 pages, $19.95 US retail (ISBN 978-0-9810037-4-0)