When Provo novelist G.G. Vandagriff dusted off one of her old manuscripts in 2006, the story she found was as much a mystery to her as the audience for whom it was written.

"I had to read it in order to find out who the bad guy was," she said. "I didn't remember anything. I certainly didn't remember writing it."

A sufferer of chronic depression, Vandagriff had undergone electro-convulsive therapy in 2001 as a last-resort treatment. The shocks to her brain did not cure her, but they did rob her of about 10 years of memories and the ability to write. Only recently did she put ink to paper and finish the job she started 15 years ago. The result is "The Arthurian Omen," a thriller that centers around the discovery of a lost manuscript.

"It was really, really fun," she said of the writing process. "I said, 'Man, this could be a really good book. I can't believe I came up with that.' "

Like a 'cast-iron pot'

Vandagriff's battle with depression began shortly after the birth of her daughter 27 years ago. An avid genealogist, she discovered the disease runs in her family -- in fact, her generation is the first not to host a member who was institutionalized for life with mental illness, she said. She tried a host of medications over the years, but nothing helped.

"I just plunged," she said. "It was like I had a cast-iron pot over my head."

She was able to produce her first three books -- a 1993 genealogy primer and two entries in the murder mystery series "Of Deadly Descent" in 1994 and 1996 -- during that dark period, but over time the illness made it impossible to think clearly. She couldn't leave the house. She was contemplating suicide. So her doctors and family intervened, recommending her for risky shock therapy in 2001. The treatment left her with short-term memory loss that was supposed to clear up, but didn't.

"It was like I lost about 10 years, and I lost not just memory, but ability," she said. She found herself unable to do some basic tasks like sew and take photographs. And still the depression lingered.

Miracle cure

It was five years later before Vandagriff would find the release she so desperately craved. She turned to religious studies for solace and became deeply interested in the stories of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. She had conceded to the notion that she was one of the fabled 5 percent of depressives on whom medication has no effect.

On the suggestion of a friend, she went in 2006 to see a member of her church congregation who was a family practice doctor rather than her usual psychiatrist. She was apprehensive at first, but decided there was nothing to lose, she said. "I decided I would put all my fears on the altar. I was extremely sick. I couldn't even go out of the house."

The doctor prescribed a combination of two new medications she had never tried before. Later, her psychiatrist would say no psychiatrist would have thought to prescribe those drugs. But Vandagriff said when she woke up the next morning, it was to a new life.

"I had never felt such peace," she said. "It was like the world opened up, and I just saw opportunities everywhere."

Rediscovering writing

On the right medication, Vandagriff said she felt better than ever. She could enjoy time with family and friends, and she felt like writing again.

"When those walls came down, suddenly I was fully engaged with life," she said. "I was a completely normal person. I wasn't the person I had been for 25 years."

Vandagriff's husband, David, remembered that for some of their kids, it was the first time they had ever seen their mother unfettered by depression. They "didn't really know the person that was trapped inside all these years," he said.

For him, accepting that she was healthy again took time. He was worried that she would relapse at any time. He remembered the exact moment he believed things were fixed for good.

"I think the time that really struck me was when I heard her laugh -- and she really laughed," David said. "It had been so long since I heard her laugh like that."

As part of the healing process, memories began trickling back, too, Vandagriff said.

"Within the week, I had a glimmer of a memory that I had started a sequel to my murder mystery series," she said.

She asked her husband to go through an old computer and look for old work. The first thing they found shocked them both: a fully completed manuscript.

"I had written the completed sequel to 'Of Deadly Descent,'" she said. "I remembered the characters from my previous books. It was just like reading somebody else's book."

She reread the manuscript, though in her eyes it was for the first time. She notified her publisher, who immediately wanted to see it. Vandagriff was skittish, having spent so long away from the work, so she retooled it for a few months before turning it in. "Tangled Roots" was published in May 2007.

But that wasn't the final chapter in the rediscovery process.

Another mystery manuscript

"The day after I got that accepted by Deseret Book, I had another memory come to me," Vandagriff said.

She asked her husband to dig through the computer again. That time, they came up with a small file called "Arthur" that contained the first 87 pages of a story.

Vandagriff started connecting the dots at that point. One shelf in her office was crammed with books on Wales and Celtic lore. The family had been on a vacation there years before, and that trip hadn't eluded her memory.

"I thought, 'You know, I must have been ready to write a book about that,' " she said.

She grew so excited she said she began working like a "woman possessed" to finish the story, writing and rewriting both day and night, she said. Eventually, the plot began to develop around a supposed lost fifth-century manuscript that reveals King Arthur's true identity.

"I had to work up a completely new plot," she said. "It didn't take very long, because I worked so hard."

After a few months, "The Arthurian Omen" was done. She submitted it to Deseret Book's non-Mormon publishing arm, Shadow Mountain, and the book was published in April.

Back on track

With sunshine in her life again, Vandagriff said she's writing prolifically -- and her portfolio proves it. She's touring parts of the country to promote the latest book, including a stop today at 1 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Orem. She has a nonfiction book coming out next month, "Deliverance from Depression Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." The volume was co-written with her husband and son, Greg, about the family's experience dealing with her illness, which was also passed on to Greg. Following that, the fourth "Of Deadly Descent" book, "Poisoned Pedigree," will be released this fall.

Vandagriff said she's got several others planned as well. She cites her fight with and eventual victory over depression as a major influence in her writing since 2006.

"I couldn't cry before. I kept my distance from everything," she said. "[Afterward,] my characters didn't have this emotional distance that I kept them at before."

The family is glad that distance isn't there anymore too, David said.

"She continues to amaze me with how quickly she can write and rewrite," he said. "All of her talents and all of her energy is back."

• Ace Stryker can be reached at 344-2556 or at astryker@heraldextra.com.