Book Nook - First Date

 It was a dark and snowy night, and Jack and Aria should have been dead. Instead, they find themselves shivering on a riverbank, having survived a fall from a suspension bridge into the currents and debris of the Ohio River. Lucky enough to slam into an anchored barge, they emerge from the water stunned, bruised and still somewhat drunk. Now, they must work their way through the muck of the riverside to solid ground. Fully intent on ending it all just minutes before, Jack finds himself clinging to Aria for dear life — a life he feels just might be worth living after all.

 

In First Date, the new book from Mark E. Scott, readers follow Jack and Aria through the next eight hours of their story — hours harrowing, ludicrous and poignant — as they grapple with law enforcement, EMTs, firemen and the medical system. Confronted by an over-zealous sheriff’s deputy, the formidable Nurse Rita, and an inebriated priest with anger management issues, they are forced to navigate the immediate aftermath of their bifurcated bar crawl through a blizzard.

 

First Date is a story of individuals haunted by suicide, remorse and unanswered questions: questions whose answers are not to be found in the bottom of a bottle. Secrets are revealed and souls are bared, but answers are still elusive. For now, they only have each other, a dollar store notebook and a teddy bear.

 

First Date is the second installment in Scott’s three-part, Day in the Life series, in which the unexpected, twisted saga of Jack and Aria unfolds over a combined period of 24 hours. Book One, Drunk Log, was released in 2022 and traces the first eight hours of Jack’s unsteady march toward his intended demise.

 

About the Author

Born in the small manufacturing town of Galion, Ohio, author Mark E. Scott lived in various burgs in Ohio and Michigan before joining the Navy and spending four years traveling the world aboard the USS Mount Whitney. Upon returning home to southwest Ohio, he enrolled at Miami University and completed a degree in Education, only to become a banker soon thereafter. Scott now lives happily in a condo in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. In his free time, he enjoys writing, finding new and creative ways of tricking his children into answering their phones, and anything related to travel and outdoors, of late including tumbling down snow covered mountains while dragging otherwise perfectly good skis behind him.

 

For more information, please visit www.markescottauthor.com, or connect with him on Instagram (markescottauthor) and Facebook (Mark E. Scott, Author).