How far would you go to protect your child?
Teddy Mentor finally thought his troubled teenage son was safe. No more drugs. No more police. No more fear. Only guilt. Then came the midnight call from the wilderness program. Jesse had run away.
But what can Teddy do? Risk his shaky job and head to Montana to search for Jesse? Let the authorities handle this. They know what they’re doing. That’s why Teddy sent Jesse away. Because he already failed. No. Teddy can’t jeopardize what little he has left for the adopted son who said Teddy wasn’t his real father. But Teddy is a parent. A single parent. And Jesse is all he has left.
The novel asks the question how much should a parent sacrifice for their child? In Jesse’s Girl, the answer is: Everything.
╰┈➤Book Details
● Title: Jesse’s Girl
● Author: Gary Morgenstein
● Genre: Thriller
● Sub-genre: Crime Action/Adventure
● Language: English
● Pages: 318
- Amazon Kindle Edition
Excerpt:
Ever since he’d received the call in the middle of the night that Molly had died, Teddy Mentor had moved the phone away from the end table by the bed. Here in this bedroom, once theirs, then hers, now his, it sat on a pea- green marble table just beneath the window. Even across the room, six feet away, the phone still jolted him. On the second ring, he stiffened like some zombie coming to life.
It was about Jesse. It was one of his dealers calling about money. It was a desk sergeant. It was the morgue. On the third ring, he remembered: Jesse was safe. Let it ring. He had no one else to lose.
He stumbled toward the phone and stubbed his toe on the end table. Down he went to one knee. At fifty-four, stubbing your toe was like being shot. He scowled at the digital clock that he’d also moved so he wouldn’t count the sleep lost, the hours ticking off into the ozone, never to be retrieved.
Slamming down the clock because, of course, that was to blame, Teddy grimaced and answered the phone on the fifth ring. One-eighteen and he had to pee for the second time that night.
“Yeah,” he said hoarsely.
A faint crackle like a connection from space hummed, followed by a cheerful voice with a Western tinge.
“Hello Mr. Mentor, this is Paul Jennings at the Mountain Wilderness Center.”
Teddy flinched. Oh no.
“I’m so sorry to bother you so late.”
“What happened?”
“Well sir – ” Paul hesitated. “We had a little
incident with Jesse last night.”
He closed his eyes, as if that’d help. “Is he okay?”
“Nothing like that. He wasn’t hurt or anything.” Pause. “He left the premises during the night.”
Teddy rubbed his eyes hard, trying to wake up because this wasn’t supposed to happen. This was supposed to be when the nightmare started ending. But from the window came the smell of bagged garbage drifting up the courtyard two floors below, carried on a warm late July breeze, so he knew it wasn’t a dream; it was real and it sucked. “Great. Why?”
“We don’t know for sure.”
“Did you try asking him?” Teddy couldn’t remember if Paul was the fat one with glasses or the thin one with a red beard. He had only seen their pictures from the staff page on the website.
“Well that’s the rub, sir.” Paul cleared his throat.
“Jesse hasn’t returned yet.”
Teddy sat cross-legged on the floor and wished he hadn’t quit smoking. “How long has he been gone?”
“We’re not really sure, sir.”
“What the hell do you mean? I just paid you ten grand and you lose my son after two weeks?”
“I understand you’re upset.”
“That’s one word for it.” How late was the mini-mart on Seventh Street open? He could get cigarettes there. “He disappears in the middle of the night, and you just discovered that now?”
“Oh no, sir,” Paul chuckled, eager to deliver reassuring news. “We saw he was no longer in the cabin around seven this morning when the residents gathered for breakfast. He’d tucked a pillow under his blanket, darn old-fashioned trick but seemed to work…”
“He’s a clever boy,” Teddy said. Here we go again. Here we go again.
“That’s one word for it,” Paul answered slowly. Right. Paul was the fat one — Teddy remembered now. “One of his roommates contacted the tech on duty and
we then set out looking for him. The group just returned a few minutes ago, and that’s when I called you.”
“So where do you guess he is?” His armpits
were drenched.
“That’s the good news. Nearest town is Morton, that’s more than twenty-two miles away. Twenty-two point three, actually, sir. So it’s unlikely he would’ve made it that far.”
“He could’ve hitched a ride.”
“Folks around here know better than to pick up one of our kids. We’ve got the sheriff on this; he’s sent out an alert. Not many places for Jesse to hide, doubt he had any food. He’ll come back hungry and thirsty. They usually do.”
“Or he won’t because he’s hurt.”
Paul chuckled again. “I don’t think so, sir. Like I said, this happens sometimes. Kids get anxious, frightened, and think running away is an option.”
“But you don’t know for sure he’s okay. You don’t know for sure where he is.” Teddy’s lower back ached. He wanted to lie down and close his eyes and make it all go away.
Paul’s voice hardened slightly. “We know these kids, sir. Just wanted to give you a shout and let you know not to worry.”
“You don’t think I’m going to worry that my sixteen-year-old son is missing somewhere in the middle of Montana?” Teddy shouted.
“Sir, it sounds far worse than it is.”
“Silly me for over-reacting.” Teddy’s chest
tightened.
“When will you call me back?”
“When we find him, sir.”
“When do you think that will be?”
“Hard to say.”
“Few hours, few days, few weeks, what’s the
standard time frame when you misplace an adolescent?”
“Is none. Don’t worry. We’ll find him. Just hang tight
And stay in touch.”
Teddy sat there for a moment, his head throbbing. Damn you, Jesse, he muttered. Damn you for doing this. For saying screw you, Dad, once again.
– Excerpted from Jesse’s Girl by Gary Morgenstein. Reprinted with permission.
At what point did you decide to be an author and what was your path to publication?
I grew up in a very dysfunctional family and, even as a little boy, writing was my escape. I wrote my first baseball short story when I was around eight or so. I nearly sold a science fiction novel to Doubleday when I graduated from college. My first novel was Take Me Out to The Ballgame, published by St. Martin’s Press, followed by The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees from Atheneum. I’ve written seven novels including the dystopian trilogy The Dark Depths, which begins in 2098 after America and the West have lost World War Three to the Islamic Empire. I’m also an award-winning playwright whose plays, from Dancing on Glass and A Black and White Cookie to the political satire AOC and the Untold Story of the 2028 Election, have been performed all over the country.
Describe your writing process. Do you outline, plot and plan, or is your writing more organic?
I wish I was so organized! Years ago my wife created a genius board for me to use post-its for all my ideas, characters, plot, etcetera. I spent hours one afternoon proudly posting and never looked at it again. While I do make notes and have a general idea where I’m going, it’s all very organic. My novels are character-driven, even the thrillers and larger canvas stories, so the characters take over and show the way. Besides, the fun of writing is being surprised.
Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in your jobs/education in your writing?
Jesse’s Girl was inspired by my son’s lost battle with addiction, which raises the common question for writers: How much of reality do you put in your novels and how do you fictionalize? With Jesse’s Girl, virtually everything is fictionalized. I took the emotions and fed them into a creative food processor. I think when a writer uses facts from their lives, the tendency is to use them as they happened, which greatly limits the creative possibilities.
Do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is your opposite?
I very much identify with Teddy Mentor, the single parent in Jesse’s Girl. Back in 2009 I self-published my novel Jesse’s Girl on Amazon, an emotional thriller about a desperate father’s search for his adopted teenage son who’s run away from a substance abuse program. Except Jesse hasn’t vanished, but is looking for his biological roots, taking father and son on a dangerous path and asking the question: How much should a parent sacrifice for their child. In Jesse’s Girl, the answer is everything. I wanted to motivate my only child to fight his addiction. It didn’t work. He never read the book. After he passed, I put it aside. Then a friend read the novel and insisted I revisit the story. Now I’ve taken the novel out of my emotional vault and, featuring considerable edits, have brought out a new edition, hoping the story will connect with readers including parents of children with issues, whatever they are.
Describe the book in 10 words or less for people who are just learning about it.
An emotional thriller combining a thriller’s pace with the heart of a family drama. (Oops, that’s fourteen!)
Is there anything you would like people to take away from your book?
I’m a great believer in writing honestly. I think you have to show reality, the way broken people behave, as long as the edginess isn’t gratuitous; the reader is too smart to fall for that. But amid the darkness writers must show a way forward. It shouldn’t be squishy “let’s hold hands and dance in a circle” nonsense. But we must give them hope for these characters and their story because, by reading our novels, they have made it their story. As Rabbi Shneur Zalman said, “A little light dispels a lot of darkness”.
What is your favorite line from your book?
The best advice is to write. Simple as that. There can’t be any excuses. If you want this badly enough you’ll work hard because believe me, it’s a lot of work. And always remember that a writer must devour their young. Which means edit edit edit. But don’t discard those pages. You never know when you’ll realize they were pretty good after all!
Have you ever experienced writer’s block? How did you deal with it?
Who hasn’t, right? One of the best cures for writer’s block is from the great Philip Roth, who said you should never write yourself out at the end of the day, but save a paragraph to start the next day so you’re not confronting the evil blank page.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I love yoga and practice at the yoga studio four days a week, along with walking my beloved pug, who is my muse. I’m also a voracious reader.
About the Author
The novels and plays of the award-winning writer Gary Morgenstein have been featured in national media from the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, New York Post and Sports Illustrated to NPR and Fox News.
Including Jesse’s Girl, Morgenstein’s seven novels include the critically acclaimed trilogy The Dark Depths comprised of A Mound Over Hell, A Fastball for Freedom and A Dugout to Peace, which begins in 2098 after America and the West have lost World War Three to the Islamic Empire and baseball begins its final season at Amazon Stadium.
Morgenstein’s stage dramas, which have been performed all over the country, include A Black and White Cookie, A Tomato Can’t Grow in the Bronx, Dancing on Glass, Walking Charlie, The Silence of Our Friends and the bi-partisan political satire AOC and the Untold Story of the 2028 Election.
Connect with him on social media at:
╰┈➤ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/gary.morgenstein/
╰┈➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garymorgenstein
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