He Survived Prison-Now He Writes Your Nightmares: Daemon Manx Story

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Tonight's guest did not come out of some writing workshop or cozy little book club. Heather Damon Manx came out of a prison cell.

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He is real deal. Is real deal. He has done the time. He has paid for it. And instead of disappearing, he flipped it into something most people don't have the discipline to pull off.

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Came back strong.

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He did. He started writing, specifically horror. Again, horror, scary shit.

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I mean, makes sense.

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It does. And not the kind that feels made up. It's the kind that feels a little too close to something that you don't even wanna think about, like your worst nightmare. Have you ever had those dreams? You wake up, you're like, holy shit.

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They're vivid dreams and

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Mhmm.

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Yes. Horrifying.

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And now his books are sitting online at Barnes and Noble. They are available on the Kindle, Amazon, and at the same time now get this, Heather. He's building a following online talking music, mindset, and believe it or not, positivity, which I love. Positivity with, his friend. I believe her name is Wendy.

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Shout out to Wendy. Shout out to her. And, it's an unusual combo. Right?

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It absolutely is. I love to come back strong, and I love the positivity and the redemption. I I love it.

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Damon, you're on the open mic show. Welcome.

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How are you doing, Damon?

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Well, I'm doing great. Well, thank you both for having me.

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So Damon and I met a very, very long time ago in the My space ages. Do you remember?

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I remember mice space. And

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and I remember. And I just wanted to I just wanted to throw that out there because this is not some guest who who has just sporadically been thrown into my show. This We

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have history.

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We we have history. Now I wanna get right to it, Damon. You know, if you don't mind, we we talked about, you know, what kind of what got you into the the position that you're in. And and we also have a guest on the same show later. His name is Jacob Seeger, and he was in the federal prison system.

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We've been talking about, you know, things that break people. But for you, I wanna know how did that whole story, that whole league pull you into writing?

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Yeah. You know what? When you are and let's talk about prison for a second. Prison is a lonely place. Absolutely.

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And you could deal with it, like, any number of ways. You can maybe use it to hone your criminal skills and become a little more of a hardened person, or maybe you could look inward and try to deal with what you're facing. And I chose to do that. Like, I I chose to look inward. I wanted to better myself.

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I didn't want to be the guy who had gone into prison. So I sought out to change myself, and I I started taking classes while I was in prison, started doing a lot of reading. And I got ahold of one book, especially, and it was a book of short stories written actually by Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, called twentieth Century Ghosts. And I was so inspired by the originality of the stories. I'm like, you know what?

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Well, how hard could this be? You know? I little did I know it, a little harder than I thought. But I set out to put what I was feeling, put down my nightmares into stories, and it helped with this the healing process. Mhmm.

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Of course, what I was writing in the beginning was kinda on the terrible side, but they got better, you know, and and as I continued, they they got considerably better. And I I set out to write an epic, like a a one of those giant door stopper books. And before I had left the prison system, I had written a a compendium, quite a large book called The Ocean Ox, which went on to be a bestseller.

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Nice.

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Yeah. So that was like things came to fruition, but the the real win, you know, was by writing, it allowed me to get out what I was feeling. It allowed me to analyze things, and and it also allowed me to take a lot of the crazy horrible things that had happened to me Mhmm. That I experienced and put them into a fictional story.

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Kinda like stepping out of the reality you were actually living.

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Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And kinda, you know, just getting it out there. Mhmm.

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That's the thing.

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Damon, on that, if you don't mind me asking, did you obviously, writing was sounds therapeutic Absolutely. When you're when you're behind closed doors. Did you ever get close to losing control of your future before before the writing? I mean, was there ever was that kind of the the the breaking point? Was the writing that kept you going?

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Yeah. Well, the writing kept me going. And what got me to the breaking point was actually addiction. And I had fallen into it rather heavily after getting prescribed some painkillers for getting hurt in my neck, and I I I immediately fell for it. Head head over heels, totally out of control, and abandoned pretty much myself, everything that I loved.

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Mhmm. Music didn't appeal to me. Writing didn't appeal to me then. Like, it was just a disaster. The perfect storm.

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You know?

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And that led me to lose myself.

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And and but then losing yourself, falling into that rehabilitation, which, you know, it sounds like finding yourself as as as a writer. Was there a specific moment when you decided, I'm not leaving here the same way that I came in?

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Yeah. You know, and that was actually almost, like, within the first month that I was locked up. I had gone in first month. You know, I'm still detoxing, not really feeling like it's actually happening. It seems like a dreamer.

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I'm I'm watching someone else's life

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Right.

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Lay out. And I I found myself working in the county jail kitchen thinking, hey. Life is pretty good here in county jail. I'm gonna make the most out of it. So I set out to start making hooch, which is, you know, of course, alcohol from whatever we could find in the prison.

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Working in the kitchen, I found quite a bit. You know, I started cooking this stuff up in the underneath the dish tray, and and I think I lasted about three hours before I got caught. So I got thrown into the hole, and I I incidentally was there over Christmas. So my first Christmas locked up, I was in the hole. I'm looking out the little tiny window as the pastor comes by, and he's he's given out, like, t shirts and deodorant and toothbrushes to a lot of the other inmates.

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And I, of course, did not get any because I was now in jail inside of jail. And you know what?

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That hit me like

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just hit me so hard. I'm like, oh, man. What are you doing? And and it was that point where I'm like, things have to change right now.

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And did anybody in inside take you seriously when you said if you said that you wanted to be a professional author?

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You know what? Actually so I I have a knack for telling stories, fortunately, and I would always tell stories to my my cellmate at night. And his name was Kevin. And I'm telling them this story and we're getting into it and he's listening and he's like, you know, man, I really feel like you could write a book. And I I listen and I'm like, wait a second.

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I go, I I kinda feel like I could write a book. And and that's where it happened. And I was just been writing ever since. Yeah.

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And your horror hits different. How much of it is rooted in real emotion? Almost like from from the experience inside of of incarceration verse imagination.

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I you know, everything that I write pretty much is rooted in some part of my life. Taken whether it's something that actually happened verbatim, and I'm using it as a a backstory for one of the characters. I know I I in in one of my stories, used my own first day of school and how the kids were just freaking out when the mothers left. Like, the mothers left, the door slammed, kids jumped up, they were slamming themselves against the the door trying to get out, and I I just remained in my seat. I looked to the kid and up to me, and he's sitting there with his hands folded as this tear just runs down the side of his face.

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And, like, I was like, I didn't I was five years old, kindergarten, but I knew that moment was profound. Like, it stuck out, and it's always stuck to me. And I put it in the book because that's part of me. You know? And prison, yeah.

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I mean, I've got stories about prison, and they're verbatim ripped ripped from the pages of my life. Mhmm. One of the books I wrote is called Manxiety, you know, using my last name as a little play, And all the stories are based on things that have actually happened to me and some crazy stuff. Some funny stuff too, but it's not all doom and gloom. You know?

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Scares you what what scares you more now? And I wanna ask this question because going back to, like, school and the door shutting, and, of course, I I have a two year old daughter now. And trust me, I leaving her in daycare scares the shit out of me.

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You have all new theories. Oh my goodness.

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What scares

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you in new levels. Right. Absolutely.

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What scares you more now? Real life or what you can create on paper? It's a good question.

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I'm generally not scared of what I'm putting on paper, but, like, now what scares me is it is getting old, you know, getting old and not being able to do something like you used to do just five years ago. Or or now, you know, I I have a dog, Charlie. He's been my best friend for fifteen years. This this little dog's 15 years old. Aw.

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And now he's you know, he can't climb up the stairs so well. I gotta carry him. He wears a little diaper around the house, but he's still like he looks at me like I'm his best friend.

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And You are.

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It's the idea of losing my pup scares the hell out of me. The idea of not being able to protect people in the way I might have been able to at one time, that kind of frightens me. You know? Mortality frightens me. What's at the end of the light?

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Right. The end

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if there isn't any light?

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And Yeah. Speaking of that, that light, is writing horror or even just writing in general for you a way to process that light and what you went through, or does it relive it for you?

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No. It actually it's processed it. There has been so much process now because, you know, I I walked out of the system six years ago. Congratulations. It's been a lot of book.

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Thank you. I appreciate it. Also, last year, I celebrated thirteen years queen and silver.

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Oh, yay.

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Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah.

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Thanks. Yeah. It it was not easy

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It's not easy.

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To begin with, but every day gets better. How

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do you feel after that much time?

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That's good. You know what? I I've recently reconnected with a friend of mine, he's like, you know, hey. I I was kinda reluctant. I didn't know whether you would be the same guy, you know, or or, you know, if someone comes back from that.

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And he's like, dude, you you reinvented yourself. You're all over Facebook talking about music and you're laughing and yeah. I feel really good.

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You came back better than ever. Well,

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I addressed the underlying issues, you know, why was I always prone to addiction?

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And that's very important.

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It's very important. And and That's what we gotta get to.

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Absolutely. Damon, I wanna throw this out there too talking about Facebook. You have built a large, large following.

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That's amazing.

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But not the typical look at me influencer. Here are my tits. Why go a different route? Why go a different route? Be different.

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Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you're the same well, first of all, my tits aren't all that nice. Second, yeah, nobody nobody cares what they look like. But, you know, I I've talked to people about this before.

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I I used to get on, and I was trying to find my zone. And I was talking about my books. I was talking about my time in prison. And I was getting some followers, and I was getting some interaction, but people didn't really weren't that interested. You know, I've always been a musician.

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I always played guitar. I I sang somewhat. I wrote music as you will contest. And I just started talking about it one day, and boom. It was, like, on TikTok, and I was talking about guitar solos and my favorite guitar solo.

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And it just hit, like, 800,000 views, like, in a day.

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Overnight. Wow.

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So yeah. So from there, I'm like, well, you know, I think I found my niche. And it's if you find something that you're sincere about, something you're passionate about

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Mhmm.

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That shines through, and that's when the that's when the following happens.

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And you went from prison to pushing positivity. Love it. Does that ever feel like two different lives colliding?

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Well, yeah. Now it's it's almost making me speechless, but, yeah, the guy who went into prison and the guy who came out are two different people. Mhmm. And the name Damon Manx is actually reflective of that. I mean, if you can't tell, it's a it's a pen name because my parents were not that cool to name Damon Mac.

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But I I chose that name specifically because it represents the change that happened to me. Mhmm. Mhmm. So if you I'll tell it out to you. So Damon is is the old Gaelic or old English term for a demon that's capable of transforming the personality of a man.

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Manx is the Isle Of Manx or the Isle Of Manx. We have demon man, transformed man. I went into the prison and addicted and kinda reprehensible, and I walked out a different creation.

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That's deep.

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How about that? Has anyone reached out to you out of your, you know, 100,000 plus following saying that your content, your stories, your story actually changed something for them?

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Inspirational for sure.

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I think I've helped a few people Mhmm. Get on the right track as well because people have reached out, how did you do it? Mhmm. That's always the question. Hey, I'm struggling with this.

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How did you do it? And and I can tell them exactly how I did and and what worked for me, but I can also give them a little example of what I know has worked for other people and things that I would suggest.

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And it's interesting that you say mental health and and whatnot because, you know, I think about the story of, Darryl Sheets from the, popular TV series Storage Wars who just killed himself, shot himself in the head. Yeah. And, it was cyberbullying, they claim, allegedly, that that took place to to lead, this remarkable, remarkable no matter how you felt about him on the show, he's a guy who had custody of his granddaughter full time. I mean, a real guy with some balls. And you you see a man as strong as he looked and physically was and was just dying on the inside.

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So if someone's sitting where you were mentally, physically, or both, Damon, what is the first move they need to make in your opinion?

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Oh, well, like they say, you know, you've gotta admit you have a problem. Mhmm. You've gotta identify that problem that you have it, and you've gotta be willing to do something about it.

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Right.

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You know, I tell people that it's for people who want to who want it. You know, recovery isn't generally just for people who want it or for people who need it. It's for people who are willing to work it because it's a job. It's a debt job every day. You're So my

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You're talking positivity, music, and your books. I think it's tremendous. Again, Heather, I've known Damon a very, very long time. When I finally I I knew that he he had disappeared. I I didn't think anything of it.

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It was just, you know, you kinda lose touch with those friends, people that you've worked with. And back in the day, I had a syndicated country music radio show that was out on 200 plus radio stations across the country and mainly across the world. And he, you know, had a whole different persona that was this this amazing country music, kind of coastal, island theme, if you will. Mhmm. I tell you, this guy, he he he truly has always been such a creative son of a bitch.

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Mhmm. And and Damon, I love it. I know you

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still seen that transformation firsthand.

[00:18:56] - [Speaker 0]
Firsthand. And I love it. And this story. And he, you know, he was on another, show called Locked In with Ian Bick, which focused primarily just on the the the prison side. But, again, it all plays in from a cell to the shelves and now to a growing audience that is actually listening.

[00:19:15] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. So you can check out my my Ozanox series and any other one on barnesandnoble.com. Anywhere on Amazon, just plug in the name Damon Manx.

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Folks, he's Damon Manx, a published author. And, man, I tell you what, he's got things going on. It's the Open Mic Show, eight six 06:44 on air. And you can catch us on Instagram, Facebook. Be sure to check us out.

[00:19:38] - [Speaker 0]
We're live and on

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the air.

[00:19:39] - [Speaker 0]
It's The Open Mic Show. The Open Mic Show. Alright, Heather. We've got ten minutes left here. What I wanna do quickly is I wanna bring the the the chaos questions in, and I want man, I'm gonna always call you Rob.

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This is this isn't going in the show, but no, man. That's you can call me Mitchie, man. Hey. So we're gonna do a quick, quick ten minute, then we're gonna get you off here, get you out of here. So let's, just stand by real quick, and we're gonna do our, on the air or off the air version after the show.

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Is there anything, again, it's really this sucks because, you know, we're doing the AM, the the the traditional terrestrial radio, so I gotta stick to a clock. What, what would you like to what would you like to push in the ten minutes? What what did I miss that you would really like to have out there? And this part is not going in, but what when we start, that's what goes in.

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Oh, jeez. Man, I I I'm not even sure. Cool.

[00:21:13] - [Speaker 0]
Alright. We'll stick it to questions. Let's plug his books.

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Let's ring it.

[00:21:16] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. Let's do the, let's do the Amazon. Let's just get that again. Just some extra promo. Here we go.

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This will be the, after the show version. Here we go. Yes. It is called the open mic show. I'm Mike Aaron, appropriately titled, and we are after the show.

[00:21:45] - [Speaker 0]
Heather, was that great or was that great?

[00:21:48] - [Speaker 1]
I mean, was amazing. Very inspirational. I love it.

[00:21:51] - [Speaker 0]
I I love Damon, and he's still he's still with us. This is the after the show. What we do is we talk with our guests candidly, openly. Obviously, Damon has written some very very scary shit books that, I mean, are just remarkable. And we want you to go check them out.

[00:22:11] - [Speaker 0]
If you are an avid horror junkie, not a horror, but I mean, could be. But if you if you love some good books, go go check Don't judge me here. Yeah. Go check his stuff out. Amazon, get it on the Kindle, Barnes and Noble.

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Know, Damon, how many how many books do you have out in total now?

[00:22:34] - [Speaker 2]
I I think it's between 13 or 14.

[00:22:37] - [Speaker 0]
Nine. He doesn't even know. That's how creative this guy is. He's fucking he is remarkable.

[00:22:41] - [Speaker 1]
And it's all based upon things he's really actually living. That's what makes it so amazing. Is it it's like, you know, based on real life situations.

[00:22:48] - [Speaker 0]
Now Damon has a huge following online social media. I wanna I wanna give, and I'm sure he does too, a big shout out to all of his followers, his supporters. What's amazing are these videos you do, man. I mean, fucking simple shit. Like, hey, give me a song that starts with the letter l.

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Couldn't do it right now. I don't fucking know one. But I will tell you what, thousands of people Yeah. Click on that post, respond to him. I mean, man, how are you doing it?