Scott McGowan

Author & punster Scott McGowan is a life long musician (piano, & vocals, guitar and flute) who has been self employed as a piano instructor since 1993 and has employed other instructors since 1997. Since the sudden, unexpected passing of his wife of 23 years and business partner of 20 years, Harlene in August of 2017 - just 2 days after receiving the paperback proof of Volume 1 of Weigh More Than a Pun a Day Plus Irony, Scott has gone through many personal and professional transformations.

After a 7 month hiatus from writing, Scott returned to his first Volume in the spring of 2018 to complete the final edits and embellishments and continued and completed Volume 2 in July of 2018 of which 20 pages had been written just prior to the receipt of the proof of Volume 1.

Scott then took about a year off from writing, struggling with major life decisions, such as simplifying his business and short-selling his home. In late September of 2019, shortly after making these decisions he became romantically involved with an acquaintance, Kathy with whom he became engaged on Valentine's Day of 2020.

About a month after Scott and Kathy became a couple, Scott returned to writing and by June of 2020, he had finished writing Volume 3 which is as long as the first two volumes combined. This completed Scott's trilogy.

A few months later, he embellished and expanded upon the real life autobiographical slice of life "The Creation of..." section of Volume 3.

Later that fall, in collaboration with his new friend Richard Berger, Scott authored a children's book "It's OK to Be Different." which was published in October of 2020. The book is written in 3rd person from the point of view of Richard's disabled dog Brody who got around with a special doggy wheelchair and roller skates. Brody's story and the book became the feature of a news clip on a well watched local major news station..

A few weeks later - on 12/12/20, Scott's Muse, Paige Turner paid an unexpected visit and by 1/29/20, Scott had authored the previously unplanned "The Final Updates" as an addendum to the pun book trilogy which refrains from the creation of any new original pun-filled fictional stories, but succeeds in providing tons of puns in the final continuations of randomly selected stories contained within the trilogy.

The Final Updates is over 140 pages of additional material - contributing to a grand total of over 700 pages of content in the 4 book series...

Sadly, in March of 2021, Brody began experiencing serious health issues that resulted in Richard Berger needing to make the difficult decision to have him put down. Shortly thereafter, Scott and Richard collaborated on another children's book with the purpose of helping children learn about grief, loss, healing, and doggy heaven. The Adventures of Brody at The Rainbow Bridge was published on 5/10/21.

Scott's fiancee, Kathy created illustrations for this book that portray the after life in doggy heaven.

During the summer of 2021, Scott wrote his first serious book first published on July 27, 2021 and then resubmitted with additional narrative in late August of 2021 in connection with some limited and conceivably final interactions and experiences involving his father. It is an autobiographical book of over 400 pages in length in which he shares triumphs, tribulations, joys, sorrows, adventures and lessons learned.

The last 100+pages describes the details of his "recent passage through challenging times" as subtitled.

Being an intense period of change in his life, although it only encompasses the last 4 years of his life at age 55, it takes up nearly a quarter of the contents of his autobiography..

Along with the sudden loss of his wife in August of 2017, Scott faced the unavoidable need to let go of the home they had shared for financial and emotional reasons as well the need to restructure his business and later adapt to the challenges presented by the pandemic.

During this period of great loss and change, Scott also fully awakened to the emotional abuse of his father and brother and as a result experienced more grief. At this time of major shifts in his life, Scott began educating himself about this issue, continued counseling sessions with the counselor he had been connected with shortly after his wife's sudden passing and made some difficult, but necessary and empowering decisions.

It is his philosophy that it is in our darkest hours that we are stripped to an inherently vulnerable core in which, upon stormy seas, our faith and resilience are greatly tested.

Inevitably, however, when we emerge from the depths of those chapters of our lives that are most fraught with confusion, devastation, fear and despair, we find meaning, purpose, clarity and joy once again.

We become like the phoenix rising,..

...And as we venture back out into the light - we are embraced by it - and it is as if we see the world with new eyes.

We are whole once again - and sense that there are newer and grander dimensions within ourselves that had either remained hidden or had not been as fully developed had it not been for the dark night of the soul that we have survived...and that it was in enduring our hardships that the next grandest version of ourselves has been sculpted.

...and we continue on our journey - stronger, wiser, and more compassionate - knowing that it was our descent into the fires of adversity that has given us the wings that - touched with fire - have - in symbiotic correspondence - given rise to an ascension of our being that helps us see things from a higher perspective of faith in the ultimate purpose of each of our own Divinely ordained immersions into the painful, yet spiritually lucrative, purifications of the soul

It is his hope that the sharing of some of the deepest personal aspects of his own journey through a difficult period of his life will help guide and inspire others through those periods of life that the darkness and pain and confusion cast their shadows as we grapple to find the strength to carry us through to the blessings that await us on the other side of these difficult lessons.

Since the publication of his autobiography, Scott has also gone on to write the 5th and final volume of his pun book series with the last volume being subtitled "A Glimpse Beyond the Final Updates" which was completed and self-published in early 2022.

Then, since marrying his second bride Kathy, in the summer of 2022, beginning on 12/21/23 Scott began the writing of his next serious book entitled Narcissism and the Journey of the Family Scapegoat which, although sharing some of his own subject experience in connection with toxic family dynamics and emotional abuse, this book largely explores the entire broad topic with an interweaving of a clinical and philosophical as well as spiritual approach.

In this last of his self-published literary works to date, Scott builds a compelling case for forgiveness being a vital, integral and in fact necessary component of achieving deep, profound and lasting healing from the negative and damaging impact of experiencing narcissistic abuse at the hands of such disordered members of one's family of origin.

Scott, in having been a family scapegoat himself, provides empathy, validation and guidance to other awakening scapegoats as they begin navigating their way through the painful exploration, understanding and hopefully eventually liberation of others from the emotional bondage of their own "family" perpetrators.

It is the author's sincerest wish that those who may unfortunately benefit from his recounting of his shared experience as well as his gentle candor and insight, will find great benefit and healing from the trauma of familial abuse - a painful phenomenon that will extend well into our lives if we do not recognize it and take steps to eradicate it as we heal from the past.