Smith, Lynn Marie

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Smith, Lynn Marie

PERSONAL: Female. Education: American Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduate, c. 1997.

ADDRESSES: Home—CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Atria Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer and public speaker. Guest on television programs, including Oprah, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (ABC), and True Life, MTV. Member of advisory board, Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

WRITINGS:

Rolling Away: My Agony with Ecstasy (memoir), Atria Books (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Lynn Marie Smith explores the seductive but treacherous path that led her from casual drug user to full-scale addict in her debut memoir, Rolling Away: My Agony with Ecstasy. In 1997, with a freshly earned degree from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Smith left her small-town life in Danville, Pennsylvania, and moved to New York City. There, she hoped to use her education and natural talent to break into professional acting. In a vibrant new city far from home, though, other pleasures proved more enticing than the stage. According to Smith, she found the sheer raw energy of the New York club scene virtually impossible to resist. In that atmosphere, she first tried the notorious club drug ecstasy, and after her first transcendent experience, she was hooked. In her memoir she describes the euphoria she felt when she was "high," as well as the panic attacks and nightmares she experienced when the drug wore off. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that Smith's "descriptions of how good the highs feel are riveting," while a reviewer in Publishers Weekly stated that "the book's greatest strength is its alarming passages about coming down from a high and about the emptiness of living for the next pill-popping moment."

Even as she fell deeper into addiction, other aspects of her life in New York proceeded normally. As she writes in Rolling Away, she earned a living. She took singing lessons to expand her abilities. She met and fell in love with Mason, a Manhattan native. When the inevitable crash arrived, however, it came down hard. Physically and psychologically devastated, Smith experienced panic attacks, uncontrollable rages, and mental deterioration until she finally suffered a psychotic breakdown. Rescued by her mother and returned to rural Pennsylvania, Smith entered a difficult period of rehabilitation. In the end, her rehab was successful, and her experiences inspired her to become a public speaker and anti-drug advocate for MTV. She became a member of the advisory board for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Smith now travels throughout the United States, lecturing on the perils of ecstasy and encouraging teens to avoid her mistakes. Lynne F. Maxwell, writing in Library Journal, called Rolling Away "a brutally honest memoir and testimonial to the courage of recovery."