"Worst Thanksgiving Ever Trilogy" Available for Free

The Kindle eBook version of Worst Thanksgiving Ever Trilogy is now available as a free download at Amazon.com. If you haven't already, you can download the free Kindle Reader at the link below. It is definitely a wise move to get the Reader. Currently, I have over 1450 eBooks in my Kindle library, most of them were free. Including this one.

The Trilogy combines all three accounts that center around Thanksgiving weekend.2013 when I was mugged 5 times trying to find my son Benjamin who was abducted by the US embassy in Nicaragua. This is from the book's description:

"What would you do if your spouse used the police and courts to harm you? What would you do if your child was abducted in a foreign country? How would you survive being homeless, abandoned, and broke in a foreign country?

The Worst Thanksgiving Ever Trilogy combines Dr. Mangold's three accounts of his trials before, during, and after the abduction of his son Benjamin in Nicaragua one tragic Thanksgiving weekend. This boxed set contains Mythomania: A Psychodrama, My Worst Thanksgiving Ever: A PanAmerican Tragedy, and Desperately Seeking Cereal: A Travelogue.

In Mythomania, Dr. Mangold asks we can lead sane lives in a world gone mad. How do we create a sane world when we are sick ourselves? Mangold interweaves politics, medicine, and psychology in a real-life account of how he was broken by forces fueled by fear and lies. This heart-felt and transparent account takes us on a personal journey into a world that is flying upside and on the verge of crashing soon.

This true story recounts the struggles Dr. Mangold faced not only from an uncaring and unforgiving government but also from a wife whose own psycho-pathologies prevented her from performing the two tasks he needed so desperately during those struggles: love and support. It is more than an account of persecution and victimization. It is a story of drowning and discovering that the rescue rope had been severed by those entrusted to throw it in the first place.

Book two, My Worst Thanksgiving Ever: A PanAmerican Tragedy This recounts the doctor's tragic Thanksgiving in Managua, Nicaragua searching for his son Ben who was abducted by the U.S. embassy there. Dr. Mangold endured multiple muggings during his search and was eventually imprisoned in an Immigration detention center while the embassy flew in his ex-wife to pick up Ben.

Michael Mangold M.D. and Ben were pawns in a cosmic chess game between U.S. government officials and Mike's Nemesis. All he had was a handful of Córdobas and the truth against an unlimited amount of money and power. 

It is the "Story of Job" without an overcompensating God, and "The Odyssey" without the love and support of an awaiting Penelope. It is a true tale of good and evil and how the evil that people do has consequences for eternity.

Alone, broke, and abandoned by family and friends, book three of the trilogy, Desperately Seeking Cereal: A Travelogue relates how the good doctor survived being homeless in Nicaragua by using his wits and at times doing the "unthinkable.” With help from unexpected sources like a Roman Catholic priest in Estelí and Mormon missionaries in León, this book also describes how those who are entrusted to serve the needy and desperate often do so at a cost. If at all.

The book is a sequel to My Worst Thanksgiving Ever and the fourth in Dr. Mangold’s “Bridges” series. It is a tale of ugliness and beauty, of evil and good, and how all are to be found in the least expected sources."

WORST THANKSGIVING EVER TRILOGY

All three books are now available as a boxed-set on Amazon, Smashwords, and LuLu. This is the link to the Amazon site for my new eBook Worst Thanksgiving Ever Trilogy. The following is the book description:

"What would you do if your spouse used the police and courts to harm you? What would you do if your child was abducted in a foreign country? How would you survive being homeless, abandoned, and broke in a foreign country?


The Worst Thanksgiving Ever Trilogy combines Dr. Mangold's three accounts of his trials before, during, and after the abduction of his son Benjamin in Nicaragua one tragic Thanksgiving weekend. This boxed set contains Mythomania: A Psychodrama, My Worst Thanksgiving Ever: A PanAmerican Tragedy, and Desperately Seeking Cereal: A Travelogue.


In Mythomania, Dr. Mangold asks we can lead sane lives in a world gone mad. How do we create a sane world when we are sick ourselves? Mangold interweaves politics, medicine, and psychology in a real-life account of how he was broken by forces fueled by fear and lies. This heart-felt and transparent account takes us on a personal journey into a world that is flying upside and on the verge of crashing soon.


This true story recounts the struggles Dr. Mangold faced not only from an uncaring and unforgiving government but also from a wife whose own psycho-pathologies prevented her from performing the two tasks he needed so desperately during those struggles: love and support. It is more than an account of persecution and victimization. It is a story of drowning and discovering that the rescue rope had been severed by those entrusted to throw it in the first place.


Book two, My Worst Thanksgiving Ever: A PanAmerican Tragedy This recounts the doctor's tragic Thanksgiving in Managua, Nicaragua searching for his son Ben who was abducted by the U.S. embassy there. Dr. Mangold endured multiple muggings during his search and was eventually imprisoned in an Immigration detention center while the embassy flew in his ex-wife to pick up Ben.


Michael Mangold M.D. and Ben were pawns in a cosmic chess game between U.S. government officials and Mike's Nemesis. All he had was a handful of Córdobas and the truth against an unlimited amount of money and power. 


It is the "Story of Job" without an overcompensating God, and "The Odyssey" without the love and support of an awaiting Penelope. It is a true tale of good and evil and how the evil that people do has consequences for eternity.


Alone, broke, and abandoned by family and friends, book three of the trilogy, Desperately Seeking Cereal: A Travelogue relates how the good doctor survived being homeless in Nicaragua by using his wits and at times doing the "unthinkable.” With help from unexpected sources like a Roman Catholic priest in Estelí and Mormon missionaries in León, this book also describes how those who are entrusted to serve the needy and desperate often do so at a cost. If at all.


The book is a sequel to My Worst Thanksgiving Ever and the fourth in Dr. Mangold’s “Bridges” series. It is a tale of ugliness and beauty, of evil and good, and how all are to be found in the least expected sources."

Free Kindle Download

I am offering the book My Worst Thanksgiving Ever as a free Kindle download on Amazon.com starting today (Thanksgiving Day 2016) and running for the next four days. This is your chance to read all about my adventures trying to find my son Benjamin after he was abducted by the U.S. embassy in Nicaragua over the Thanksgiving weekend of 2013. This is an excerpt from Chapter 22 "Abyssinia Benny:"

The guards called Cereal into their office on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 4th. He had been acting as my intermediator since his Spanish was better than mine. He slowly walked out of the office, into the compound, and approached me with a disgusted and sad look on his face. He put a consoling hand on my left shoulder and said, “your sister came to Managua and now she and Ben are flying back to the U.S. Sorry.”

When I heard that I felt like Benny had died. The feeling was not very different than watching the Pediatric resident perform CPR on Jonathon. I knew it wasn’t my sister. It was Angie. Someone made up the story to throw me off balance again. At that point it didn’t take much pushing.

The mission to save my son was over. All of the pain, suffering, and emotional turmoil meant nothing. I was not a Job who had his overcompensating God. I was not an Odysseus who had his Penelope waiting for him. In all the great myths, the man who struggles against the gods and loses is not a Hero. He is a Fool.

They let me out of the detention center after five days. They also told me that I had to leave Nicaragua within three days. Where did that come from? I was there legally, with a passport and visa. I still had three months left on my work visa and had committed no crimes. I didn’t buy, use, or sell drugs; and besides defending myself first against a mugger in Managua and then a thug in Jinotega three weeks later, never hurt anyone. The only thing left was that the mandate came from the embassy, specifically from James. The gods still demanded their entertainment.

We don’t need a Satan to explain evil. Humans are perfectly capable of harming other humans. What did Embassy James gain from all this? Or Jennifer Fay Marshall? Unsurprisingly, both continued to bash me long after this tragedy was over. And I got kicked in the head one more time.

Who is "Cereal?"

This excerpt from My Worst Thanksgiving Ever also appears as the Prologue in Desperately Seeking Cereal. It not only explains why I use the name in the title of my newest book but also why I was so desperate to find him:

I met a man from Belize in the detention center. His name is Cyril but because of his thick patois I thought he said “Cereal.” The Nicaraguan guards pronounced it “Cero” which is Spanish for “Zero.” He hated that nickname because he is “not a nobody.” Instead, he asked me to call him by his middle name, Albert.

Cyril Albert Barnett claimed he is the nephew of the Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow. He said that his mom is Mr. Barrow’s sister. He spoke pidgin English, French, and Spanish. He helped me a lot during my incarceration. In return, I like to think I saved him from suicide.

Cereal ran a successful business and lived in an estate just north of Matagalpa. He was mugged in Managua one October night and the ladrones stole his wallet and passport. He reported it to the police who arrested him instead because he couldn’t prove that he was in Nicaragua legally. He sneaked his cellphone into the detention center, called his girlfriend, and waited for her to come help him. When she did show up with their infant daughter, Cyril told her where he had hidden $3,000 in their house in Matagalpa and she left to find the cash and bail him out.

He never heard from her again.

Belize does not have an embassy in Nicaragua so Cereal didn’t have any diplomatic options. He tried to commit suicide one day in October by overdosing on some acetaminophen he had been hoarding. He was still suicidal when I met him two months later. I promised to get the bail money for him ($500) upon my release. My plan was to have the funds sent by Western Union and instead of using it to pay for a flight back to the States, I would bail him out and then we would both take buses to the Belize embassy in San Salvador. He guaranteed me that his government would then fly us out, him to Belize City and me to Fort Lauderdale to pick up my car. That was Plan A. We would resort to Plan B if we got separated. This plan was to meet up at his estate in Matagalpa, dig up a chestful of money he had buried there, then pay for flights out of Managua. I felt good about both plans because neither one meant I had to deal with the embassy of the United States in Nicaragua ever again.

I promised to help Cereal and he promised not to kill himself.

Desperately Seeking Cereal

My newest book is here!

Desperately Seeking Cereal: A Travelogue is available immediately at LuLu.com for only $4.99. This is from the book's description:

"Alone, broke, and abandoned by family and friends, this true story relates how Michael Mangold MD survived being homeless in Nicaragua by using his wits and at times doing the "unthinkable.” With help from unexpected sources like a Roman Catholic priest in Estelí and Mormon missionaries in León, Desperately Seeking Cereal also describes how those who are entrusted to serve the needy and desperate often do so at a cost. If at all.

Desperately Seeking Cereal: A Travelogue starts where Dr. Mangold’s book My Worst Thanksgiving Ever ends: kicking his landlady out after she robbed the house in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua while he was in the Immigration detention center in Managua. For some unknown reason, an Immigration official told Dr. Mangold that he had three days to leave the country. Intending to help a man from Belize (“Cereal”) instead, the good doctor packed all of his remaining possessions and headed to Managua. When he got there, he discovered that Cereal had been released on a holiday amnesty.

Mangold then switched to Plan B, which was to meet up with Cereal in Matagalpa and then travel to El Salvador to fly home. Unable to find Cereal there or in neighboring Jinotega, Mangold headed to El Salvador alone. But he was mugged one more time in Estelí, robbed of his remaining money. That is where he met Father Rafael who handed him a $50 bill and said “go to León, it is safe there.”

Dr. Mangold took his advice and discovered that the priest was right. For almost a month, Mangold lived the homeless life, begging for food and money, and sleeping most nights outside. Desperate and hungry, he eventually returned to Managua, the last place on earth he ever wanted to be again.

The book is a sequel to My Worst Thanksgiving Ever and the fourth in Dr. Mangold’s “Bridges” series. It is a tale of ugliness and beauty, of evil and good, and how all are to be found in the least expected sources."

I enjoyed writing this book despite the ugliness of some of my experiences. It was not emotionally painful to relive these events, unlike Mythomania nor physically painful like My Worst Thanksgiving Ever. Give it a shot. I hope you enjoy and learn.

The Chicken Coop Fire

This is from the Prologue of my book My Worst Thanksgiving Ever and it describes a totally surrealistic event that happened on the Fourth of July in 2012. At the end, I put a note from my newest book Mythomania which describes a feeble attempt to make sense of the events that day. I say "feeble" because it is difficult to rationalize the irrational:

"The Midwest was in the middle of a heat wave and drought that Independence Day. It was so hot and dry that our Township banned outdoor fires on the 3rd. The closest large municipality, Milwaukee, set a record high of 102º Fahrenheit on the Fourth. I was inside the house on my recliner drinking a cold Diet Mountain Dew when I heard a loud rush of noise, comparable to a speeding semi-truck passing in the opposite direction, except it was constant and getting louder. I looked out of the kitchen window and saw that the chicken coop was on fire. I yelled for my wife Angie to call 9-1-1 and I rushed to put it out.

The coop is so far from the house that the two connected hoses ended about 15-20 feet from the fire. Yelling over the roar of the fire I shouted to our son Ben to grab the hose-end nozzle and throw it to me. I was downhill from the house and saw Angie put the other two children Jon and Savannah, into our S.U.V. which was partway down the driveway. She then shouted something to Ben who had picked up the nozzle to throw to me. He dropped it on the ground. When he turned from his mother to face me, he shrugged his shoulders and started walking towards the vehicle. I yelled again for him to throw me the nozzle. He stopped, looked at me, then faced Angie who said something to him. He started for the S.U.V.

In unbelieving desperation I turned back towards the fire which was so hot that I had to back up a few paces. Placing my right thumb over the end of the hose, I tried to create a stream forceful enough to reach the coop. It was hopeless. Goodwife Angela convinced Ben to abandon me in the midst of an emergency. Later that day, after they took off for God knows where, she told him something that was confusing and schizophrenic-like in its reasoning.

She told him that he was a 'Hero.'”

"The chicken coop fire is pivotal. Angie hid the kids away from me, told her friends that I was 'out of control,' and then proceeded to destroy my life because in her mind, I started the fire. She points to the ticket I got as “proof.” But deliberately starting a fire is arson, which is a felony. I was not charged with arson. I got a misdemeanor citation for having an outdoor fire the day before. Which is what I admitted to the cops. Remember, whenever someone calls 9-1-1 in Wisconsin, they must make an arrest or issue a citation. Ironically, I am the one who told Angie to call 9-1-1. Not only that, I was also the only one in the family who fought the fire. Hardly 'out of control.'”

MYTHOMANIA

Mythomania: A Psychodrama

How can we stay sane in a sociopathic society? How do we create a sane, empowering society when we ourselves have disordered personalities? I try to answer these questions in my newest book Mythomania: A Psychodrama. Think of it as a Prequel to My Worst Thanksgiving Ever since I describe the forces that conspired against me to destroy my clinic, finances, reputation, and eventually my marriage. Are you curious about how Angie ever got to the point where she thought that convincing the U.S. embassy in Nicaragua to abduct Ben away from me was a good idea? Worse yet, that she truly believed what she did was the only right thing to do?

I use Dr. M. Scott Peck's classic People of the Lie as a framework for my book. 30 years ago he tried to marry psychiatry with religion in an attempt to heal not only broken lives but also a broken society. In essence, what happened to me before the events of that Thanksgiving weekend was my own personal My Lai.

While there is precious little hope for People of the Lie, I do believe that we can take measures at all levels towards healing ourselves and our country. At the end of the book I offer a "Treatment Plan" with several suggestions that I feel are necessary for this process to be successful. Once again, enjoy and learn!

Audio Book

I received a great audition recording of Chapter 8 "The Gauntlet" by director Alex Freeman. He is able to portray the fear and panic that I endured while walking the streets of Managua after 10 pm at night, looking for my son Benjamin. It is a superb rendition by a talented producer.

If you have any comments, let me know. Thanks.

My Worst Thanksgiving Ever

My Worst Thanksgiving Ever

As of yesterday, the full version of My Worst Thanksgiving Ever is now available as an Amazon eBook. It will be available as a free download the next three days. Please download and read it and spread the word for me.

It's a good read but a sad story about how my then 12-year old son Benjamin was abducted by the American embassy in Nicaragua during the Thanksgiving weekend of 2013. To worsen matters, the people involved in the abduction then blamed me for "abandoning" Ben, and that despite getting mugged 5 times total in two nights.

If you don't have a Kindle, you can download a free copy of the Kindle Reader here. You can also find versions for your iPhone or Android device.

So again, please download and read the free version of the book some time in the next three days, enjoy, and spread the word.

Thanks.

Motherhood Privilege

Did you ever write a letter to the courts saying that someone you never met was "dangerous" and suffered "from a nervous condition?" Of course not. Neither have I. But Ms. Dunia Loreta Navarro, a "Delegate" from the Ministry of Family, Adolescence, and Childhood" (Mi Familia) in Managua , Nicaragua must think it is her duty to libel fathers like that. She not only made it up, but she sent an official letter saying those things to the family courts in Fond du Lac, WI during my divorce. Unfortunately, the court commissioner Sally-Anne Danner believed this slander and prevented me from seeing my own kids.

Calling an agency that breaks up families "Mi Familia" is governmental double-speak. Coincidentally, all of the people who pulled me apart from my own children are women: my ex-wife Angie, Sra. Navarro, court commissioner Danner, and someone I talked with for maybe two minutes in Nicaragua, Jennifer Fay Marshall of the NGO Batahola. I'm afraid they all fell into what I call the "Motherhood Privilege" trap. It's real, it's out there, and it's frightening.


Motherhood Privilege is the irrational belief that the mother is naturally the best caretaker of a couple's children. Angie didn't need to prove anything to these women. A father on the other hand at the very least would have to have a certified physician's diagnosis and a court order to show that mom has somehow violated the "laws of nature" and therefore shouldn't be the sole decision-maker for the children. But then again, what kind of wife would tell others these lies in the first place?

The answer is obvious but what isn't obvious is the harm these lies have had on the kids. She started out telling them I had "bipolar." No man in his mid-fifties suddenly develops bipolar. Next, she told them that I was a "threat" to them because she said I "abandoned Benny in Nicaragua" and so they were "scared" of me. Really, they are scared of me because of a lie? A real caretaker would try to ease her children's suffering by reaffirming the truth. But if Angie did that, her whole labyrinthine house of cards would come crashing down around her. Such Parental alienation is child abuse.

I know I am fighting a tough battle here. Motherhood Privilege has been the guiding force for divorce courts in the U.S. since the 1970's and is apparently now becoming an agent for spiteful change in Nicaragua. A great summary of the harm this does to our country and our kids is in the book Do Father's Matter? by Paul Raeburn. It is not only a good summary of how we got to this point in the first place but shows newer scientific evidence for the beneficial presence of dads. Taking a father away from his children is bad for men, for the kids, and for society. We seriously have to rethink our attitude.

My Struggle Continues

The second installment of My Worst Thanksgiving Ever (chapter 4-6) is now available as an eBook at Amazon.com. It is only $2.99 which is the cheapest price I can negotiate.

In this installment, I relate how I was assaulted twice looking for my son Benny. Despite the pain, I still felt hopeful of finding him. In the next installment, I relate not only how I was battered three more times before the long weekend was over but how Ben and I were both being manipulated by outside forces to keep us apart. Forces that had no right doing what they did. Look for it soon,
Mike

I wanted to get rid of the previous blog but couldn't find a "delete blog" button. So I just changed the name of the blog to reflect my latest creations the My Worst Thanksgiving Ever series.I can now devote blog #1 to health and medical issues and this blog to my newest endeavors.

The book will be published as installments. I just published installment 2 and last week I published installment 1. Enjoy them both. If you bought the first three chapters, send me a message through this blog with your email address and I will send you a free copy of the manuscript for chapters 4-6.