SUICIDE IN PAST

Also part of that childhood: her mother's suicide. Her brother, David Batts, and his wife, Barbara, raised Gibbons from the time she was 13. The details are part of Ellen Foster, which Gibbons wrote when she was 26.

Her books weren't only literary successes -- Ellen Foster, published in 1987, won the Sue Kaufman award for first fiction from the Academy of Arts and Letters -- but popular ones as well. Oprah Winfrey chose Gibbons' debut and a later novel, Charms for the Easy Life, for her wildly popular book club, and Ellen Foster was turned into a TV movie.

Starting with her debut novel, Gibbons has had the double-edged ability to look in the mirror and write about the reflection.

Marlette spoke of that talent in the end of his introduction at the Festival of the Book:

``When I asked her editor Ann Patty last night at dinner, `Why is it that writers so often seem fraudulent, filled with hypocrisy, pretense, self-infatuation, inauthenticity and yet Kaye Gibbons, from the first word of hers that I read to the moment I met her, seemed so utterly honest, authentic and true?'

'She said, `Kaye is constitutionally incapable of falseness. Every word that flows from her lips is true.' So here she is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth -- Kaye Gibbons.''

But Gibbons' truth is complicated and tragic. Her success didn't ease her personal demons and did not bring wealth. She's twice divorced and has dealt with a daughter's illness, along with the 2003 suicide of a close friend.

Friends and colleagues say that despite her optimism, her illness dragged her down.

''Someone had convinced her that she was cured,'' said author Sally Buckner of Cary, who was the first person to publish Gibbons -- a high-school poem that won a Peace College contest. 'And she went off her meds. And I thought, `Oh my Lord.' That was the beginning of the downward spiral'' that led to her Wake County court appearance.

At her sentencing, attorneys said Gibbons had posed as a Florida doctor to write prescriptions for the painkiller hydrocodone, which she said took the edge off as she finished a novel. Her lawyer said her addiction and the pressure to finish the book led her to submit bogus prescriptions online and try to pick them up at Raleigh pharmacies under the doctor's name.

Longtime friend Nancy Olson, who owns Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, said she hadn't spoken with Gibbons in more than two years.

''She's withdrawn totally from her friends,'' said Olson, whose bookstore supported Gibbons over the years with readings and signings. ``I just don't have any idea what happened.''

Perhaps members of her family know, but they have been elusive.

Barbara Batts spoke briefly with the Associated Press. ''Kaye was in her own little place,'' she said. 'She called and said, `I need help,' '' and moved in with the Battses again. Batts agreed to a longer interview but then didn't return phone messages.

Neither did Gibbons' brother (and Batts' husband), David. Her nephew and friend, J.D. Batts, didn't respond to an e-mail message.

Gibbons' first husband and the father of her three daughters, Michael Gibbons, said he was not in the loop. All he could do is make sure his daughters stay in contact with their mother.

''They're not overjoyed with the situation, but they're not in counseling,'' he said.

Late last year, David Batts e-mailed Gibbons' friends, seeking help paying her bills.

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