Publication Date: Oct 2025
Blurb:
Ex-con Woody Barker lives on a houseboat (the Ship Happens) off the Gulf Coast and spends his days bickering/flirting with his ex-wife and attending doctor appointments about his malfunctioning ticker. He’s already survived several heart attacks and is debating the merits of quitting smoking so he can get on the organ donor waitlist. But he gets the surprise of a lifetime when an old girlfriend reveals on her deathbed that Woody has a seventeen-year-old daughter he never knew, Caroline.
Caroline is pregnant and trapped in an endless loop of bad choices. Her good-for-nothing boyfriend, “Tater,” is the only “reliable” person in her life. But when her estranged dying mother begs her to go back to her singlewide trailer to dig up the bathroom vanity subfloor to “get something that needs to be gone yesterday,” Caroline finds herself at the center of a very dangerous plot that–if she survives–has the potential to turn her world upside down in a positive and seismic way.
While Woody and Caroline don’t know or trust each other yet, they instinctively know they can’t (and don’t want to) go through the world alone any longer.
What To Expect:
Readers can expect a Southern fiction novel full of dry humor and action.
Content Warnings:
Language: Mild – Some occasional mild profanity, mild crass joking
Sexual Content: Closed Door – Minimal romance, no explicit scenes. Teenage pregnancy
Violence: Mild to Moderate – Past sexual assault and domestic abuse
Substance Use: Alcohol, smoking
Prejudices: None
Religious Themes: Episcopalian faith with male and female priests, including last sacraments and communion
Other Topics: Foster care. Death of loved ones.
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