After The Sucker Punch

AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH

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.

After The Sucker Punch @ Amazon in paperback and Kindle: Go to Amazon

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 (reprints here). 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. You can follow her journey with this book at AfterTheSuckerPunch.com and be sure to check her website for links and information.