Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.

Welcome to the Mad in America podcast. My name is Brooks Heem, and I am the author of May Cause Side Effects.

Today, I am interviewing another author, Susan Grundy.

Inspired while living in Costa Rica, Susan Grundy veered from her long-running career in marketing

to write about the weight of emotional distress and an easier way of being.

After her short fiction appeared in the Danforth Review in Montreal writes,

Susan dove into Mad Sisters, a highly personal account of her caregiving journey for an older sister

diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 13. Susan has completed a second novel about an architect

who breaks free from a painful ancestral cycle in her female lineage

based on Susan's farmer ancestors who fled religious persecution in the 17th century in Europe.

While not at her desk, Susan can be found walking in nature towards a cafe.

She divides her time between Montreal and London. Susan, thank you so much for being

with us today. Thanks, Brooke. Good to be here. Yes, it's great to have you. So I was lucky enough to get an

advance copy of Mad Sisters and to have read it. And I'm going to start with a question that might be a little

unexpected. Your parents' names are Norman and Lorna.

And it struck me right away that throughout the book, you refer to them as Norman and

Lorna as opposed to mom and dad or mother and father.

I found this distance odd.

Is there a reason why that happened?

And can you explain your relationship

with your parents? Hmm, okay. Great question. Well, I'm not surprised because we lived in a very

adult-centric household. So it wasn't very touchy-feely. And, you know, mummy daddy, no,

...