Petersburg native writes humorous, motivational ebook while recovering in a nursing home

Dec. 24--PETERSBURG -- Darren Lyons, a Petersburg native who currently resides in Oklahoma City, recently turned the short stories he wrote while recovering in the nursing home into an ebook to be sold on a variety of websites including Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes and Noble.

A graduate of Petersburg High School class of 1984, Lyons grew up in Petersburg and remains in contact with friends and family in the area, including his father, who still lives in the house he grew up in in Blandford, and his brother, who lives in Colonial Heights and teaches for Virginia State University (VSU).

Lyons went on to attend George Mason University where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in History. After searching in the local area for a while, Lyons eventually accepted a position in Florida and has progressed in his career full-steam-ahead ever since. He spent 20 years in a customer experience career where he built relationships across the globe, traveling to Asia and Central America over 15 times each and leading diverse organizations of over 1,000 full-time employees. At the height of his corporate career, Lyons was an Assistant Vice President for The Hartford Insurance Group, leading 500 Licensed Insurance Agents across four domestic sites.

In 2017 and 2018, Lyons' successful executive customer experience career was ended due to several health issues including two below knee amputations, stage five kidney disease, which requires dialysis three days a week, and congestive heart failure.

While it would be effortless for many people to be discouraged, Lyons decided he wasn't going to let his health problems diminish his happiness and motivation. As he spent the next six weeks in a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation, he would wake up early every morning to write about his experiences. Lyons notes that as a mentally-sharp, 52-year-old man "trapped" in a nursing home, he had a unique perspective on the experience, and he began to jot those thoughts down in the form of short stories.

Several of these short stories were originally posted on Facebook in real time, which allowed Darren to get feedback from friends who would be transformed into fans of his literary work.

After receiving positive feedback from his friends and family, Lyons decided to turn his Facebook posts, consisting of 19 short stories, into an ebook titled "A Day in the Life in a Skilled Nursing Facility" which shares his daily adventures, the people that he met, and how his interactions with the nurses, therapists, vendors and other residents impacted his journey.

Lyons describes his book to be equally as humorous as it is inspirational, and his style of writing as "scholastic urban" as he is as apt to quote Shakespeare as quickly as he may quote 2Pac to describe his observations. Each story is sprinkled with Lyons' descriptive, detailed style that invites readers to touch, smell and feel the humor, fear, sadness and inspiration of the ins and outs of his daily life. According to his press release, "it doesn't matter if you have a love one in a nursing home, work in a nursing home or may someday find yourself as a resident of a facility. These shorts will make you reflect on your health and "feel more human" towards the ill and shut-in." Lyons notes his ultimate goal is to motivate and inspire others to push through the tough times in life with a smile and a sense of humor.

Lyons released his ebook in partnership with Korrior, Inc. -- a company he and his wife Elaine recently founded with a vision to create inspirational books and faith-based media projects. The ebook is available on amazon.com/author/dclyons as well as iBooks and barnesandnoble.com.

Lyons doesn't intend on slowing down anytime soon. Recently, his ebook was featured on the nationally syndicated radio show, "The Author's Show" hosted by Don McCauley. He also recently became a member of The John Maxwell Team as a trainer, coach and speaker. He is available for speaking engagements at [email protected].

Lyons also plans to release a memoir titled "With Worn Out Tools: Navigating The Rituals of Mid Life" in the winter of 2019.

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