Magic Pier

After Hurricane Sandy destroys Seaside Heights' Magic Pier, midlevel real estate lawyer Drake Garrison is compelled to return to his former place of employment to help rebuild it, just as his first child is about to be born. As the months go by, he struggles to balance the demands of two jobs, his home life and his friends' bowling team, as the business leaders and politicians around him seek financial help from a Washington overrun with people who would rather let livelihoods be destroyed than allocate the funds to help them. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking the seconds to summer 2013, and the economic disaster that could follow the actual one if everyone doesn't do their part. Magic Pier revisits characters first introduced in 2008's My Evil Twin and I, only older, (somewhat) wiser and without all that evil-twin nonsense.

Daniel P. Grote has also written the novels Of Robots, God and Government and My Evil Twin and I. He is an editor for The Press of Atlantic City and a regular contributor to the Matt Signal comics blog. He lives in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, with his wife, Hillary, son Logan and dog Chewie. He's a lucky guy. Follow @danielpgrote on Twitter.