*I’ll Be Home for Peacemas is available right here on ShannonONeil.net for just $10 thru Dec. 15th or in eBook form at one of these websites: Amazon.com ($3.99), BarnesandNoble.com ($3.19), Smashwords.com ($3.99). This week, I’m offering a holiday sneak peek of the first five chapters of the book. Enjoy!*

Chapter 1

[ Chapter 2 ]

Christmas 1982

I suppose it goes without saying that anything with roots in a lean-to wedding chapel sandwiched between an IHOP (site of the rehearsal dinner) and a bar (site of the reception) is probably destined for disaster. Unfortunately, my parents were so blinded by the powerful trio of love, rebellion, and alcohol that they failed to notice the army of red warning flags crowded into the hallowed halls of Wally’s Wedding Wonderland with them on that balmy summer night.

To their credit, my parents did not go down to Daytona Beach (St. Augustine’s sin-city neighbor to the south) on the night in question with the intention of getting married. My dad, Jack Hamilton, was a college sophomore and my mom, Liza Jane Bailey, had just finished high school. They were two years into a relationship born strictly out their mutual goal to upset their fathers, though I don’t think either of them knew how successful they would eventually be.

Along with several members of the 1980 state championship offensive line and a contingent of recently graduated varsity cheerleaders, my parents had made their way south for a long night of good old-fashioned bar hopping. In between drinking establishments number three and four, the underage drinkers stumbled into a nearby IHOP for fuel to continue their quest. Over pancakes and orange juice, the group happened to spot the neon pink sign for Wally’s. It was a little white chapel that would be washed away in a hurricane the following year, but in 1982 it was the only 24-hour wedding chapel on Daytona Beach. Someone (it’s still unclear whether it was a friend of my dad’s or my mom’s) made a joke about Wally’s that turned into a serious conversation that turned into my dad writing Wally a check for $25—the cost of the Spring Break Wedding Special–champagne and solo cups included. Continue reading “I’ll Be Home for Peacemas: Chapter 2” »

*I’ll Be Home for Peacemas is available right here on ShannonONeil.net for just $10 thru Dec. 15th or in eBook form at one of these websites: Amazon.com ($3.99), BarnesandNoble.com ($3.19), Smashwords.com ($3.99). This week, I’m offering a holiday sneak peek of the first five chapters of the book. Enjoy!*

[ Chapter 1 ]

Monday / December 24, 2007

I should not have yelled at the nice lady behind the ticket counter.

Incidentally, I also should not have thrown a piece of luggage at a fellow traveler, cursed at a young skycap, taken a swing at a security guard, and basically caused a disturbance that brought the entire ticketing lobby of the Jacksonville International Airport to a standstill for half an hour on one of the busiest travel holidays of the year—Christmas Eve.

I have come to these conclusions by way of a long, quiet hour of reflection, which I have observed in near monastic silence and solitude. Of course, by solitude, I mean controlled confinement inside some sort of holding cell reserved for potential terrorists and unruly travelers such as myself.

It’s possible that I might have arrived at said conclusions sooner if I’d been able to pace around and contemplate the many mistakes I’ve made this evening. Unfortunately, such pacing has been rendered impossible by the small size of the room and, to a greater extent, the giant, plastic zip-ties (handcuffs of the new millennium, apparently) that have me bound at the wrists and ankles. Continue reading “I’ll Be Home for Peacemas: Chapter 1” »