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Scout Selection: Acts of God and Other Damage

Acts of God and Other Damage

A quirky tale about addiction and recovery, marching band and meth.

 

Ever since his wife died in a car accident ten years ago, Miles has raised his daughter, Gates, alone. Though happy when he’s working with the local marching band or being active in his church, Miles feels that something is missing from his New Orleans suburban life. So he joins a polyamorous Christian dating website and starts flirting with a woman whose username is TickledPink72 — and who lives closer than he thinks. Miles’s student John Ed is drawn into his band teacher’s life when Miles reaches out to the troubled boy, who has been expelled from school for having drugs in his locker. Now a regular attendee at AA, John Ed struggles to overcome a difficult past with a single mother in a low-income neighborhood. Meanwhile, Gates is already an independent thinker at age thirteen — wily, smart, and questioning. Unlike her father, Miles, she isn’t into church — until Gates discovers that John Ed attends AA at the same time as youth group. Under her father’s nose, Gates aggressively pursues a relationship with the older teen, even faking alcohol addiction to get close to him. At a church party hosted by a neighbor, each character’s search for wholeness comes to a (literally) explosive head. But will the resulting shock bring an end to that search — or a new beginning?

About the Author:
I am a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with an MFA in fiction from the University of New Orleans, and I’m currently a freelance journalist. My bylines have appeared in Time Out New York, Huffington Post, BRIDES, The Bitter Southerner, Thrillist, Jackson Free Press, xoJane, Thought Catalog, Punchnel’s, Neutrons/Protons, Gambit Weekly, and a number of anthologies (from Pelican Press, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and University of New Orleans Press). I have never been agented; however, I did publish a book in 2015 with a small LGBT press (Prizm/Torquere). It’s also relevant to mention I’ve spent my share of time in AA. When not writing, I sing and play keys and tenor sax in a couple bands.

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Categories: Romance

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