Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Having a Bad Life: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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A horrifying childhood. A devastating disease. In his darkest despair, he finally found hope

Lewis Kempfer nearly destroyed himself searching for something that would make him happy. His battle with self-hatred began with physical and psychological abuse from the trusted male adults in his life and continued into adulthood when the church rejected him for being gay. Traumatized and suicidal, his only salvation came from getting himself on stage.

Moving from city to city in search of fame and love, he lands in the dog-eat-dog-world of Hollywood showbiz. But a terrifying diagnosis casts a dark shadow on a promising Tinseltown career, and he falls into a downward spiral of dangerous liaisons and hardcore drug addiction. It will take a near-death overdose in his blackest hour to find strength from the last place he ever expected...

"Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Having a Bad Life" is a raw, rapid-fire account of one man's frightening journey to self-acceptance. From dicey sex clubs to crystal meth motels, Lewis holds nothing back in this bittersweet tell-all. His emotional tale of love, loss, and redemption will move anyone who's ever felt alienated or outcast. It is a shockingly candid true-life story. If you like authentic narratives, stories of triumph, and surmounting the challenges of being LGBTQ, then you'll be enthralled by Lewis Kempfer's riveting memoir.

Winner of the 2021 IndieReader Discovery Awards for the Category LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction, recipient of a 2021 Gold Medal from Literary Titan; 2020 and 2021 Winner of the Silver Medal for respectively, Autobiography and LGBT, from the Reader's Favorite International Book Awards; Finalist in the 2021 Page Turner Book Awards, and an Honorable Mention for Memoir in the 2019 Writers Digest Self-Published eBook competition.

Author Bio

Lewis Kempfer is an award-winning author and performing arts jack of all trades from Denver. In 2000, he co-founded the Boiler Room Theatre in the Nashville area. While directing and producing at the Boiler Room, he wrote book and lyrics for two original musicals, "That '60s Christmas Show" and "Billy Bob's Holiday Hoedown," both of which played to enthusiastic, standing-room-only houses. His six-year body of work at the theater led to working as a production manager, producer, and show writer for Disney Creative Entertainment at Disneyland. His second book, "120 Seats in a Boiler Room: The Creation of a Courageous Professional Theater," releases in October 2022. His 2019 literary debut of "Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Having a Bad Life: A Memoir" has earned seven awards, including First Place for LGBTQ Biographies in the 2022 BookFest Awards; the 2021 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Award for LGBTQ; and the 2021 Indie Reader Discovery Category Award for LGBTQ Non-Fiction. He also wrote and produced a Telly Award-winning short film, "From Concept to Completion," in 2007.