We have the cover reveal for Other Broken Things by C. Desir. The story is an intense tale of an alcoholic female boxer and a look at what it recovery is really like.
About ‘Other Broken Things’ by C. Desir
Seventeen-year-old Natalie Spencer is two days out of rehab, two months after a DUI, and two minutes from losing her mind completely. With a half a year of court-ordered AA meetings and a hundred hours of community service required to work off the DUI, the holiday season seems like it’s going to be anything but bright.
If only she could go back to boxing, the one thing that made her feel proud of herself. But her parents took that away from her over a year ago and at this point, she can barely run a block let alone get herself strong enough for the amateur women’s boxing league.
But then a thirty-eight-year-old Bradley Cooper look alike named Joe and a crusty redhead named Kathy take Natalie under their wings and help her navigate the very rocky road of sobriety.
With school friends who prefer her as a party girl, a mom who spends an equal amount of time monitoring Nat’s every move and spreading holiday cheer, and a dad whose idea of parenting is installing a breathalyzer on her car, Natalie can use all the help she can get.
Unfortunately, working the twelve steps proves a lot harder than Natalie thinks and when her foundation begins to crumble, she seeks out Joe to keep her together. It’s a very, very bad idea, but hearts are rarely logical, especially ones that have been so beaten up by addiction. Now Natalie has to convince everyone—including Joe—that loving the wrong person is sometimes the best step you can ever make.
Tell us five random facts about yourself.
- I do roller derby for fun on the weekends. (Derby name: Desirial Killer)
- I teach Sunday School to 7th graders at a UCC/Presby church.
- I edit erotic romance novels for my day job.
- Both my boy best friend and my dog are named Asher, which is hilarious when I’m on the phone with the one Asher and screaming at the other to stop eating his own poop.
- For my 40th birthday, I went into a sensory deprivation tank, then took my family to Medieval Times for dinner.
Tell us about your journey to becoming a writer.
A long, long time ago (15 years or more, maybe), I had an idea for a screenplay. I wrote it and it was terrible because I didn’t know what I was doing. Years later I wrote it into a YA novel and it was still terrible because I still didn’t know what I was doing. I got involved with blogging and found critique partners who weren’t my mom and rewrote that book about 70 times and got rejected about 50 times. During all of this, I was still a rape victim activist, and one weekend I took a testimonial writing workshop for rape survivors. In that workshop, I discovered a voice in my head for a 17yo boy that wouldn’t shut up, even after the workshop was over. So I wrote his story and said to myself if anything ever happened to that book, I would donate 50% of my proceeds back to the writing workshop so more survivors could have access to it. He is Ben in Fault Line.
Describe your novel in five words.
Alcoholic girl boxer rediscovers herself.
Other Broken Things takes on some pretty heavy topics (addiction, rehab, ‘forbiddden’ love). How do you decide what to write about?
In this particular case, I was compelled to write Nat’s story. I lost a friend to addiction and had been circling around the idea of addicts and redemption and forgiveness ever since then. And I was particularly interested in what addiction looks like as a young person and how it might not be the same as for someone who’s older. The other heavy stuff in the book, that was the baggage that came with Nat when I discovered who she was.
Fill in the blank
If I weren’t a writer I would be…………a camp director.
If I could have one supernatural power it would be………………the ability to spread compassion.
My Hollywood crush is…………………………Lenny Kravitz.
My biggest accomplishment is…………either my awesome kids or the work I’ve done for rape survivors. Both of these things are absolutely crucial to my ability to keep going.
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