Alan Watts is een romanschrijver, scenarioschrijver en toneelschrijver wiens bestsellerroman de Franse Prix Printemps won en onlangs voor film werd bewerkt. Watts is ook een gerespecteerde docent en auteur van invloedrijke boeken over het schrijversambacht die makers begeleiden bij het balanceren van structuur en inspiratie. Hij richtte een schrijflaboratorium op om de vaardigheden van schrijvers te verdiepen en geeft les aan een breed scala aan individuen, van gevestigde auteurs tot beginnende verhalenvertellers.
"Learn how to structure your novel without losing connection to your voice. Why you are uniquely qualified to write your novel. The dilemma at the heart of your story. How your fears are a portal into your characters. The connection between your life themes and story themes. Why you kept getting stuck, and how to break through"--back cover.
Neil Garvin is a seventeen year old living in a small town outside Las Vegas. Abandoned by his mother when he was three, he blames his abusive father - the local sheriff - for driving her away. Neil is good-looking, popular, the quarterback of the high school football team and as cruel to his peers as his father is to him. He plans to get out of town on his "million dollar arm," until the night he accidentally commits a terrible crime and his father, unasked, covers up for him. As the FBI arrives and begins to narrow in, Neil and his father become locked in a confrontation that will break them apart and set them free