LUCKY STRIKE: A Tale of Love and Woe

Lucky Strike: A Tale of Love and Woe is the story of a young man’s search for balance and personal meaning. At the beginning of the story, James Earl “Rainy” Stiles feels lost and empty. He quits school, gives up his job, and is impotent as a result of an indecent exposure charge for skinny-dipping in a public lake with his girlfriend. If all this wasn’t enough, his best friend gets sent to a mental hospital. Rainy visits his friend, Gordon Waverly, who is surreptitiously trying to become business partners with a fellow patient, a computer genius who owns two valuable software patents. Rainy joins in a conspiracy to bring a hooker to visit the presumed virgin in an effort to close the deal. He seeks guidance from the Waverlys’ handyman, a character in his own right, which results in finding the angel of mercy. The efforts undertaken by Rainy to move forward in life include visiting his guidance counselor, consulting a guru, and pursuing an attractive young woman he meets at a book store. She helps him pick the reading material he needs to gain metaphysical awareness, and as they grow closer he’s forced to tell her about his problem. She is supportive and their relationship blossoms into what appears to be a life saving union for Rainy, until his high school sweetheart returns home from college. Rainy stumbles along life’s winding path, but eventually finds his way to stability and marital bliss.