Outskirts Press, INC.

It is New York City, May of 1950, and Hollywood screenwriter Harrison Harper is in turmoil—devastated by the death of his fiancée, Amelia, and torn by his feelings for the newest woman in his life, film star Venus Kingsley.

Struggling through alcoholism, Harrison suddenly finds himself being blackmailed by a mysterious stranger who claims to know the truth behind Amelia’s death—a truth that Harrison has kept secret for two agonizing years. As dangers rise and situations worsen, Harrison must conquer his vices and his enemies, and overcome the agony of lost love, all the while trying to resist the call from a bottle of liquor…and to stay alive in the process.

Writing and drinking. . . drinking and writing, was there ever a cycle more repetitive and fulfilling? No—there was not. In that sense I was a warrior. The noble one to sacrifice his precious sobriety in exchange for prose that is true and real and exceptional. But truth be told I was more than happy to hand such a fickle thing over. It was nothing in comparison to the free and floating mind of the drinker; sobriety is a prison. To drink is to escape. I was the great and bold and daring escapee of such a place. I was not there. Physically, perhaps, I sat there at that big oak desk before my typewriter and staring out at the city that was once again bathing in the pouring and fierce rainfall. My mind—but my mind was elsewhere! It was truly far away, gliding through the skies in which sat a land all different and exotic and it was the land of mountainous and golden-dipped clouds lingering around the bursting sunlight.