Why I Wrote Last Call:
In late 2003, I was 36 years old and typing in my journal about how f&*#@ up my life was with alcohol and drugs — my life was spinning out of control and I was too scared to ask for help. Soon after this journal entry, I received my 2nd DUI and knew I needed to do something different, but wasn’t sure what that would be? I was quickly nudged by my attorney to go to an AA meeting and get a court card signed to show the judge some mercy on me. GASP! I didn’t want to as I didn’t want to give up the two things that made me the happiest – drugs and booze. Six weeks after that piece of advice, I walked into a meeting – I sprinted out at the end of that meeting and ran home and drank two bottles of wine that night. That whole next week, all I could think of was that meeting and what kept running through my head was HOPE. Maybe I should give this sobriety thing a try? I’ve got nothing to lose. A week later I went to my second meeting and I haven’t looked back since. I started journaling more and more about my life and my experiences that had led me to that AA meeting and by early 2005; I had compiled a 250 page manuscript for my own Memoir, “Last Call”. I worked with an Editor and attended writer conferences and symposiums while trying to get an agent or a publishing house to show some interest – no such luck. So I went about my daily living in getting and staying sober and moved on in my professional career.
My memoir literally sat on my book shelf for over 10 years until a friend of mine urged me to self-publish it through Amazon Kindle. In early 2015, I took that plunge and it’s been an amazing journey of self-discovery (again) love, and being of service to others. One thing that makes me the happiest is to get that email from someone saying how much my Memoir helped them see their addiction clearly, and that they weren’t scared to ask for help because of my experience. That, my friend, is what keeps me blogging, connecting and doing whatever I can to help others in their sobriety plight.
About The Book
“That evening I wanted to go to a teenage party, and I wanted to drink alcohol, the grownup beverage of choice, the potion glamorized on TV and in movies, the stuff the older cool kids were drinking every weekend. I wanted to be cool. I wanted to fit in. Whatever it took.”
She was attractive, popular and determined to grow up in a hurry. How would she have known that at age thirteen, during her first teenage drinking party, her life would play out in such a way that it would rule her life decisions going forward? The handsome boys and pretty girls were guzzling a certain punch, and she wanted to be like them. Tentatively, she ladled the jungle juice from the punch bowl and had her first sip of alcohol. She wanted more. It couldn’t have come at a better time. This is what she’d been searching for – relief. Instant relief.
Getting drunk becomes her rite of passage as she careens through junior and senior high school caving in to peer pressure for her need to feel accepted. Through secretarial school and early jobs, her twenties are a blur. Quicker than she can take a tequila shot in a Mexican café, change her lovers weekly, and party with the dregs of society, as well as the socialites and future executives – Nancy finds a lifestyle that seems to work for her. She continues on and drinks and uses cocaine through the snows of Aspen, the desert heat of Scottsdale, the California coast and her Pennsylvania homelands, only to find herself alone and desperate in her quest for love and her own identity. Milk, she decides, has a longer shelf life than her romantic interludes. Surfer Boy, Boston Boy, Blondie Boy. Her big question becomes, who is going to marry her? As she approaches her early 30’s, she thinks getting married will fix her. Surely, this is what its all about?
Ride along with me on my crazy ride before I got sober and then while getting sober….I’d love your thoughts on my story and I hope it helps and touches you in some way.
Five Star Reviews from Amazon:
A raw & hilarious debut: A total page turner – I couldn’t put it down! This memoir is brutally raw and honest while also being laugh out loud funny and personable. You’ll feel like Nancy Carr is your close friend shortly into the first pages. If you are looking for a great memoir, some great laughs and (possibly) ready for some soul searching, you’ll love this book. Highly recommended.
Hits hard & fast: Written with great candor, the author pulls no punches brightly detailing a descriptive marathon of her journey from middle school to adulthood, loaded. She strikes a resonant chord of normalcy we can all relate to, and layers in her very own personal and graphic lifestyle choices with alcohol and addiction. Ms. Carr exposes and owns the moments that define her life’s arc and trajectory. It is an engrossing and relatable story that pulled me in, like a harrowing movie that, despite knowing the ending to, kept me turning the pages wanting to know what happened next. Part confessional, part cautionary tale, the author seems to know in the end that in some great struggles a peace is found that, if we’re observant, brings perspective on the pain endured.
Excellent: Amazing. The “open book” philosophy in Nancy’s writing is a key thread that binds the lives of alcoholics together. We are free to share our experience, strength and hope with others that may need to begin living without alcohol. There were so many times in the book where I wanted to scream “No! Not again!” however every reader that is in the program knows it takes what it takes. I would suggest this book to anyone whether you are in the program or not for how Nancy sheds the burden of her cocoon and her metamorphosis can encourage anyone moving through some of lifes most difficult challenges.
