Approximately one year after the publication of his first book, Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania, Andy Behrman is working on a second book which picks up where Electroboy left off. After the years of unchallenged mania, indictment for art forgery, house arrest, 19 rounds of ECT, and ultimate stabilization depicted in Electroboy, Andy decided to relocate to Los Angeles, a move he characterizes as both manic and rational.

Leaving his friends and family behind in New York for a city clear across the country was a change of grand proportion, and any manic-depressive would ask him/herself something along the lines of: Is this yet another example of manic recklessness? But as Andy points out, "LA is hardly a manic town compared to New York. It's a city where everyone's asleep by nine-thirty. When it's ten-thirty, there's no place open to go out to dinner. It just takes too much effort to be a manic depressive in LA. So it would seem like the obvious choice for a person who's recovering from manic depression - the healthy choice." Apart from the mania-inducing hours kept by New York, Andy will write about the city's association for him with years of manic episodes, prison, psychiatric hospitals, and incompetent doctors as another reason to relocate.

The second book, which Andy jokingly refers to as A Memoir of Plainia, will essentially deal with the difficulties faced by many manic depressives who are learning to lead a life which is "a little bit more boring, a little bit more dull, and a lot more simple," Andy says, and will detail what it's like "giving up a lifestyle which is very manic and getting used to a life that's not at all manic." And "not-at-all manic" remains Andy's condition today. He describes himself as having been "99% even-keeled for about five years, with the exception of a few medication changes."

The sequel will also take a closer look at the causes and development of his manic depression, as well as his obsessive/compulsive, neurotic behavior. "I think that's something that never goes away, something that kind of gets absorbed into your life and you just kind of work with it," which is in stark contrast to the more classic manic-depressive symptoms that drove Andy to ECT. Interestingly, Andy's acute and critical condition of severe rapid cycling manic depression was more quickly and fully healed, albeit with drastic measures, than the more manageable obsessions and neuroses that continue to plague him.

His psychiatric family history will also be discussed more extensively this time around. Andy's grandfather was a manic depressive. "We don't talk about it too much. We talk about his behavior, but we never say he was a manic depressive." In discussing these highly personal family matters in terms of diagnoses and causes for his own behavior in his new book, Andy may put a recognizable face on the family tree of sufferers of manic depression, much like Electroboy's graphic description of the symptoms did for the disease itself, particularly for those who question their own diagnoses.

In addition to the sequel to Electroboy, there is a documentary of Andy's book tour in the works. Book Tour will capture the effects that the grueling schedule of a book tour can have on a manic depressive and will air, most likely, on television. "Anything can cause you to break down during a book tour," Andy says. "One day you're on the Rosie O'Donnell show where your book is exposed to fourteen million people in ten minutes, and the next you're in a Barnes and Noble in Providence, Rhode Island where your book is exposed to four people. Do the math work. It's a very manic-depressive experience."

Electroboy is now available in paperback from Random House.