Screwed Up Life of Charlie The Second

<B>Sometimes it's just easier to think I'm not the freak. I'm just in an alien world. . . </B><P> Being Charles James Stewart Jr. AKA Charlie the Second means never fitting in. Tall gangly and big-eared he could be a poster boy for teenage geeks. An embarrassment to his parents (he's not too crazy about them either) Charlie is a virtual untouchable at his high school where humiliation is practically an extracurricular activity. Charlie has tried to fit in but all of his efforts fail on a glorious monumental scale. He plays soccer--mainly to escape his home life--but isn't accepted by his teammates who basically ignore him on the field. He still confuses the accelerator with the brake pedal and as a result has not only failed his driving exam six times but also almost killed himself and his driving instructor. He can't work on his college essay without writing a searing tell-all. But what's freaking Charlie out the most is that while his hormones are raging and his peers are pairing off he remains alone with his fantasies. <P> But all of this is about to change when a new guy at school begins to liven things up on the soccer team--and in Charlie's life. For the first time in his seventeen years Charlie will learn how it feels to be a star well at least off the field. But Charlie discovers that even cool guys have problems as he embarks on a deliciously sexy risk-filled journey from which there is no turning back. . . <P> <I>The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second</I> is a funny honest and engaging book told with attitude and style. Drew Ferguson is a talented writer with great comic timing and an eye for the absurd. --Bart Yates author of <I>The Brothers Bishop </I>and <I>The Distance Between Us </I><P> Drew Ferguson's debut novel is equally funny and smart and will strike eerily familiar chords in anyone who remembers the edgy frustrating sex-obsessed days and nights of high school. You'll love his narrator Charlie and you'll also love this book. --Scott Heim author of <I>Mysterious Skin </I>and <I>We Disappear</I><P> Look out Napoleon Dynamite here comes Charlie the Second! In this page-turning laugh riot Drew Ferguson captures the voice of Today's Teen conquering the daily drudge that is Life in the Midwest. Colorfully candid unapologetically explicit yet touchingly tender <I>The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second </I>serves as a reminder to those who've escaped from Small Town USA as to the reasons why! --Frank Anthony Polito author of <I>Band Fags!</I><P> A terrific debut novel. Drew Ferguson is one of the most authentic new voices in contemporary fiction. --Steve Kluger author of <I>Almost Like Being in Love</I><P> Written in a fact-paced diary format Ferguson has created a beautiful and moving novel that literally has you laughing out loud one moment and shedding tears the next. --Arthur Wooten author of <I>On Picking Fruit</I> and <I>Fruit Cocktail</I><P> Lots of blurbs in lots of books promise laugh-out-loud hilarity. This book delivers. With Charlie the Second Drew Ferguson has created a memorable and original character undergoing the perils confusion and humiliation of adolescence. Between onanistic sexcapades that would make Alexander Portnoy blush <I>The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second</I> is an engagingly accurate portrayal of the highs and lows of growing up and figuring out who you are. --Brian Costello author of <I>The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs </I> <P><B>Drew Ferguson</B> received his MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago. His work has appeared in <I>Blithe House Quarterly The James White Review Hair Trigger The Great Lawn</I> and other publications. He currently resides in Chicago.