Thomas talks with Slade Templeton, lead singer of Crying Vessel and published horror writer.  Slade talks about his bliss of the search for self and creation, including creating music, art, and writing, and the creation of his child, the trauma of the birth and starting out this journey in pure terror, his close relationship to his mom growing up, his struggles with addictions and his suicide attempt and the blurred lines between joy and escape, balancing stress and happiness, and how to stay in that happiness, the book being the least blissful thing he has ever done, egos in literature being bigger than egos in music, writing a “fictional autobiography”and writing much of his trauma in the book, wanting to take a stance on mental illness with the book and how we are not very different from each other, not understanding emotions in himself and others and how his autism plays into that, how he can tap into emotions with music and writing a score for his book to write effectively, his book unlocking memories he had repressed, finding beauty in terror and horror, how horror unlocked emotions he could not feel otherwise, and how others can find bliss in the search for self. 

You can find Slade’s book, Truth of the Shadows, at https://www.sladetempleton.com 

Slade’s band, Crying Vessel can be found on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cryingvessel and instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cryingvessel/