The Church of All Awry

I always had this strange feeling that everyone was laughing at a great party that I wasn't invited to. And I wasn't convinced I really wanted to go. But to feel invited would have been nice. In 1975, a seven-foot, turbaned fortune-teller insisted that before I was born, they came at me with knives. Soon after, I learned the truth - my parents had tried to abort me. Barely nineteen, I moved my bed, my bong, and my delusions into the attic of the Unitarian church of Poughkeepsie, intending to side-step adulthood. I wanted no part of that party. Then this ridiculous carnival psychic told me - and my brother confirmed - I wasn't invited. Was I born a mistake? And if so, was there a place for me in this world? Terrified yet compelled, I stuck out my thumb setting off on a 7,000-mile hitchhiking odyssey that circled 1970's America in search of belonging. Along the way, I thwarted kidnappers, fended off predators and con men, leapt clear of murderous pickup trucks, and escaped evangelists of every stripe. I reached Big Sur and found splendor-but no one to share it with. When I called home from a payphone, I learned that my closest friend had just been murdered...while hitchhiking! >THE CHURCH OF ALL AWRY is a humerous American adventure memoir that will appeal to readers who feel alienated by the lives laid out for them and are searching for purpose outside conventional structures. It is ultimately a hopeful story of stepping forward into agency, connection, and grace.