CINCINNATI, OH — Mark E. Scott’s latest book, Free Will, takes readers on a thought-provoking journey through the life of a man facing one of the most important days of his life — a day defined by choices that could alter his future forever.
Set against the backdrop of a city that seems as restless as he is, Free Will follows the tumultuous story of Jack Current, who is still alive despite his best (or worst) intentions. In the back of a police car with the woman he may have fallen in love with after what can only be described as a 16-hour flow of energy that neither of them wants to disrupt, Jack grapples with questions of freedom, fate and personal responsibility. Every encounter and memory tugs him in a different direction, challenging his assumptions about what it means to be truly free and forcing him to confront the choices that have shaped his life so far.
Free Will, the dramatic conclusion to Scott’s darkly humorous, unique Day in the Life trilogy, follows Jack and Aria as they dive deeper into their individual histories of loss, grief and guilt between catnaps, snowy hikes for food and being stalked by a reporter determined to find out what really happened to them the night before.
Having survived drunken pub crawls, a tumble off a bridge into a freezing river, relentless intrusions by police and a long night lurking in the hospital, Jack and Aria have deftly managed to avoid getting arrested or locked in the psych ward. Now all they have to do is figure out how to get home.
The young couple’s greatest desire is to hide from the world, drink mimosas and spiked coffee, and write to each other in a notebook. But outside forces — some comic, some heartbreaking — intervene as Jack waffles between self-recrimination and a shot at salvation. Liquor, letters and love may offer a reprieve from the past’s inexorable glare, but can they also lead to redemption, forgiveness and reconciliation?
Jack and Aria may have saved each other, but, like it or not, they must deal with the aftermath of their last 16 hours. It’s pounding on the door.
Free Will is the final installment in Scott’s three-part Day in the Life series, in which the unexpected, twisted saga of Jack and Aria unfolds over a combined period of 24 hours.
Book One, Drunk Log, traces the first eight hours of Jack’s unsteady march toward his intended demise. Book Two, First Date, finds the couple navigating the immediate aftermath of Jack’s failed attempt to end his life and quite possibly, falling in love.
About the Author
Born in the small manufacturing town of Galion, Ohio, author Mark E. Scott lived in various burgs in Ohio and Michigan before joining the Navy and spending four years traveling the world aboard the USS Mount Whitney. Upon returning home to southwest Ohio, he enrolled at Miami University and completed a degree in education, only to become a banker soon thereafter. Scott now lives happily in a condo in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. In his free time, he enjoys writing, finding new and creative ways of tricking his children into answering their phones, and anything related to travel and outdoors, of late, tumbling down snow-covered mountains while dragging otherwise perfectly good skis behind him.
For more information, please visit www.markescottauthor.com, or connect with him on Instagram @markescottauthor.