Middle Tennessee author and filmmaker Paul Andrew Skidmore has combined his love of writing with his skills in marketing to help others tackle the issue of suicide prevention.

In his book The Darkness Rolled Over Her a young woman, Guin, has decided to take her own life and wants to say goodbye to a few friends first. She joins them on a weekend fly fishing retreat where she gets paired up with expert fly fisherman Roy. Their time and conversation together challenge Guin’s perspectives and complicate her decision.

“This book is very, very loosely based on an event that my dad participated in and the organization that takes veterans with PTSD, or wounded veterans, fly fishing,” Skidmore said, “The very act of fly fishing helps people with PTSD because they are outside, breathing fresh air in a calm environment with the sound of rushing water and a repetitive motion of fly fishing to focus on.

“It helps bring down cortisol levels and adrenalin levels that stay heightened in PTSD. The heightened levels are good things when something happens because it is sort of your fight-or-flight response. But PTSD causes that to continue to happen even after the actual event, and an act like fly fishing helps you bring all that down and actually be able to heal. So it’s not just a fun activity or a social event, but it really is a very healing activity.”

Skidmore said his dad once told him about the time he participated in the fly fishing retreat, and for some reason Skidmore couldn’t get it out of his head.

“At the time I had already published my first short story, which is called ‘Kindling,’ and I was looking for more story ideas,” he said. “This story rolled around in my head and then I worked on it for several months. . . . It went to a place where my character was dealing with harmful and suicidal thoughts, which is how the book opens.”

Skidmore had two very close friends who had experienced suicidal thoughts and had been open about it. He talked to others in that situation and sent The Darkness Rolled Over Her to them for some feedback. He based the main character’s mindset on some of his own experiences with depression and loneliness.

“I don’t think I’ve ever have been what I would call suicidal in a way that a few of my friends were, but there have been days when it’s been ‘if this is what life is then I don’t really want this anymore, and if this is all that life is going to be about, I don’t like this’,” he said. “Really I guess that is kind of a form of the same thing. It is not wanting to exist, and that feeling of isolation—lack of motivation to do things.

“It really is something that all of us feel to some degree at some point in our lives,” he continued. “For the story, I took my experiences and turned the volume up.”

Then Skidmore worked with a friend who is a counselor, who he said helped him take the very tough subject matter and put it together in a way that would be the most helpful and not be hurtful for anyone.

“I like to tell stories of hope and I like to see the warm relationships that exist there in the story, but it can be a heavy subject and kind of hang with people; so, the counselor gave me some tips,” he said.

Several months later, around Thanksgiving 2018, two of Paul’s friends lost people very close to them to suicide, in individual instances. One was an actress and film connection and the other was a 12-year-old girl.

“At first I felt helpless against this demon that is taking peoples’ lives and then, after taking a break from writing, I realized that a story like this may be more important than I thought it was,” he said.

Skidmore decided to make his story interactive so readers can fight back against the isolation that feeds suicide and depression.

“When people are able to talk about it in healthy ways and not keep it stuffed down and are able to reach out to friends when they are in times of need, then the situation becomes less dire,” he said. “The number one thing we need to do to combat this mental health issue is just talk about it.”

To foster discussion, Skidmore, with intern Emma Goodwyn, developed a PDF study guide. Titled Five Coffees and a Book, it is designed for groups of two or more, and accompanies the story.

The study guide is divided into sections to study for five weeks. The first week, people get to know each other more, with questions engineered to develop discussion. Week two is general discussion of the book with focus on specific characters taking place over the following weeks. The group work is very informal, giving participants a chance to talk about people who have encouraged them, to share their stories if they would like to, and talk about how they can reach out to others, encourage them and provide a safe place for these friends.

Skidmore says he hopes people will do this study with more than one group, so those involved in the support systems will multiply organically.

The Five Coffees and a Book experience allows people to be face-to-face with each other in person or virtually and talk about real things.

Skidmore also created a line of merchandise to visually show support for suicide prevention. In Skidmore’s book, fly fisherman Roy gives Guin a fly named Lucy. That fly is featured on the cover of the book, designed by artist Jeremie Benzinger.

“I quickly saw that Lucy could be a sign of encouragement and hope for people,” Skidmore said. “I made magnets, car stickers and T-shirts that are another way for people to participate in the story and give them a way to encourage people. We are the most connected we have ever been as human beings, but we are simultaneously the most isolated and have the most broken relationships that we’ve ever had. We are feeling isolation now and we need to build those human connections.”

Perhaps The Darkness Rolled Over Her and the Five Coffees and a Book study groups can help some participants understand a little bit better about what others are going through.

“All of us have felt separation or loneliness,” Skidmore said.

For more information and a free digital copy of the book and study guide, visit fivecoffeesandabook.com. The Darkness Rolled Over Her is also available in paperback for $5.99.

A Darkness Rolled Over Her film will be coming soon as well.

Follow the progress of the film at skidmore.substack.com and find more on the work of Paul Andrew Skidmore at parabolos.com.