After posting a mock-up of the cover for my 2014 work in progress on the Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud Facebook page, I had a few people ask what it's about. Adding Fire to the Fuel is on the stigma society clips on the word and the diagnosis of Alcoholism. Here is an excerpt from Adding Fire to the Fuel: The Stigma of Alcoholism -- likely the only snippet from the forthcoming book posted until fall 2014.
“When they begin casting for “Real Housewives of Phoenix,” no doubt Trish would make the short list of any TV producer. The former Indiana University cheerleader still had her college figure in her early 40’s, even after two children. The planes of her face, the delicate nose and well-chiseled cheekbones spoke of a decade and a half of modeling work. Her blue eyes were flecked with gold. And she had freckles – even they had sexiness about them.
She was blonde and bold, both came
from bottles: Clairol and Jim Beam respectively.
The stormy marriage and
two trips to rehab (where I met her) only sweeten what the sweet Midwesterner brings to
her gossipy neighborhood and the intrigue-hungry reality show.
She’s a dream. Her job’s a dream. Her kids are a dream. Her home,
all 3,500 square feet of stucco in the desert, is a dream.
The Mercedes is parked under the beams
of the carport. A hummingbird feeder dangled from one end of a
crossbeam. Trish, on that October morning, dangled from the other end
by her graceful neck. That’s how the police found her. Here’s the
story of how she got there.
She died sober. This was only her tragically extreme, unnecessary and self-serving answer to the tragically extreme, unnecessary and self-serving stigma she faced as a result of being a not-so-anonymous alcoholic. Neither Trish's suicide nor the societal stigma is acceptable."
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