New Indie Book Release: After the Sucker Punch (Lorraine Devon Wilke)

New Indie Book Release:
After the Sucker Punch - Lorraine Devon Wilke
Literary Fiction - (340 pages - May 2014)

After the Sucker Punch is about a woman finding her father's journals on the night of his funeral and discovering he thought she was a failure. The existential crisis that results takes her on a wild ride of discovery and reinvention. At its heart it's the journey a daughter takes to understand a father when all that's left are his inexplicable words, a tale told with a compelling mix of humor and drama.

"Great plot with interesting twists. I particularly enjoyed the dialogue which often felt like I was eavesdropping on real life characters. And though there was plenty of humor throughout, the elements of the plot that dealt with faith, love, family and how to survive relationships were thoughtful, provocative and gave the story a depth that stayed with me long after I was done reading." - Reader Review


About the Book

Click to Read an Excerpt

They buried her father at noon, at five she found his journals, and in the time it took to read one-and-a-half pages her world turned upside down… he thought she was a failure.

Every child, no matter what age, wants to know their father loves them, and Tessa Curzio – thirty-six, emerging writer, ex-rocker, lapsed Catholic, defected Scientologist, and fourth in a family of eight complicated people – is no exception. But just when she thought her twitchy life was finally coming together – solid relationship, creative job; a view of the ocean – the one-two punch of her father’s death and posthumous indictment proves an existential knockout.

She tries to “just let it go,” as her sister suggests, but life viewed through the filter of his damning words is suddenly skewed, shaking the foundation of everything from her solid relationship and winning job to the truth of her family, even her sense of self. From there, friendships strain, bad behavior ensues, new men entreat, and family drama spikes, all leading to her little-known aunt, a nun and counselor, who lovingly strong-arms Tessa onto a journey of discovery and reinvention. It’s a trip that’s not always pretty – or particularly wise – but somewhere in all the twists and turns unexpected truths are found.

Author and longtime Huffington Post contributor, Lorraine Devon Wilke, takes an irreverent look at father/daughter relationships through the unique prism of Tessa’s saga and its exploration of family, faith, cults, creativity, new love and old, and the struggle to define oneself against the inexplicable perceptions of a deceased parent. Told with both sass and sensibility, it’s a story wrapped in contemporary culture but with a very classic heart.

Link to the eBook After the Sucker Punch on Amazon with Excerpt

About the Author

Author Lorraine Devon Wilke

Writer, photographer, singer/songwriter, and Huffington Post contributor, Lorraine Devon Wilke , started early as a creative hyphenate. First there was music and theater, next came rock & roll, then a leap into film when a feature she co-wrote (To Cross the Rubicon) was produced by a Seattle film company, opening doors in a variety of creative directions.

In the years following, she wrote for and performed on theater stages, developed her photography skills, and accrued a library of well-received feature screenplays; most recently, The Theory of Almost Everything was a top finalist in the 2012 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest. She kept her hand in music throughout – songwriting, recording, performing – leading to the fruition of the longtime goal of recording an original album (Somewhere On the Way). Accomplished in collaboration with songwriting/producing partner, Rick M. Hirsch, the album garnered stellar reviews and can be found at CDBaby and iTunes. She continues with music whenever she can (which, she maintains, is never, ever, enough!).

Devon Wilke’s current life is split between Playa del Rey and Ferndale, California, and is shared with her husband, Pete Wilke, an entertainment and securities attorney, her son, engineer and web designer, Dillon Wilke, and stepdaughter, educational administrator Jennie Wilke Willens and family. She curates and manages both her fine art photography and personal blog (Rock+Paper+Music), contributes regularly at The Huffington Post and writes a column for the award-winning newspaper, The Ferndale Enterprise. She has another novel in the works, as well as a non-fiction piece on brain injury, and invites you to enjoy her essays and journalistic pieces @ Contently.com. Her debut novel, After the Sucker Punch, is available in both eBook and paperback at Amazon and you can follow her adventures in independent publishing at AfterTheSuckerPunch.com.

Connect with Lorraine Devon Wilke via Facebook
and Twitter: @LorraineDWilke