A Bit of Tragedy

A Bit of Tragedy is an off-beat humorous but sobering story about the life of Daryl Cross, a minister's son, as he recounts his last three months of his drinking life. Careless drinking had pushed him into a whole new level of alcoholism, and he was becoming so sick with the disease it pushed him to a point where he had to make a decision between life and death. As an alcoholic, bad decision making had built up over time too that kept him drinking when dealing with relationships with those in his world. Drinking had also kept him blind to what was happening around him during his drinking years that eventually turned his life upside down when he learned he wasn't who he thought he was but someone totally different, and the story ends on a small twist of a mystery.He went out drinking one Friday night after a silly fight with his wife and that long night ended when he was arrested for DWI. Unknowingly he was born into a new level of alcoholism, hallucinations and irrational thinking had settled in and his wife, Karen, kept him at bay from her when she suspected he had an affair with a strange woman in the parking lot of a bar. Then her friend, and his best friend's wife, Betsy, used his confusion he was in to seduce him and alcohol to keep him silent. The second time they had an affair Karen caught them. That put Daryl in trouble with his family when Karen reported the events of their recent lives to them at dinner that sent Daryl into anger and hopelessness and more drinking. His brother David blamed him for their dad's death after a quarrel between their families at their last dinner, and the problems with David and Daryl continued that pushed Daryl over the edge of madness when they finally clashed over Daryl's wife, Karen, and David finally revealing who he really was; his family has been hiding from him for years.

Mr. Whitlock was born and raised in a southeast suburb of Oklahoma City. After graduating from Del City High School in 1969 he joined the Army and served a tour and a half in Vietnam. He came to Minnesota shortly after his ten years of service had ended in search of work in 1984. He continued his college education in English literature in the late eighties, joined numerous writing groups and attending many short story classes.Alcoholism has always been a subject of interest to him since his earlier days writing in his teens. For generations his family had fell victim to it and researched it as years went by. One of the issues that struck him about the subject he could relate to: most alcoholics and their children have difficulty in learning and expressing themselves. They also lost interest in reading as time went on: books bores them to tears, and their vocabulary had drop dramatically since falling into alcoholism. So he wanted to write a novel about an alcoholic based on that and created a character that also had a tough time expressing his self but pushed it one step further: his character fell into the depths of madness of fourth stage alcoholism where he was forced to make a decision between life and death. The message the author wanted to get across with this story: drinking and driving is not the only thing that doesn't mix: family life and drinking also doesn't mix well. He began working on A Bit of Tragedy since 1995 and believes he has finally accomplished an entertaining and informative novel about the madness of what most people call "full-blown alcoholism".He is also the author of Acid Dream and Other Essays. Poems. Stories & Songs.