Ten Year Roulette
Life By The Fingernails
by
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I throw the thing in reverse, punching it, cranking the wheel hard over then forward in a hurry, throwing up gravel then racing down the hill with everyone watching to see if this fool would actually follow us. But no, the only other car on that road was coming directly at us, the headlights blinding me. Elton's buyer/seller? Whatever. It was the same ride all over again, a beeline to the main road then a hard right and we're gone. Nobody to pick up from any woods this time. Before we've gone a quarter mile we're all laughing and swearing, a car full of panty-waist muggers who just saved a fool's life. I could only marvel at what would have happened to that idiot tonight if he had tried his Pollyanna routine with someone genuinely dangerous. Robbed, knife in the guts, thrown down the hill and car stolen or you name it.
What's that old saw about not suffering a fool? We didn't, and we did. Lucky for him. And not one of us ever made Career Mugger. We didn't have it in us. They invented confession for this kind of thing but we never told a soul. Except you.
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About the Book
In Ten Year Roulette: Life By The Fingernails, Tory Bleaker delivers a brutally honest memoir about survival on the edge of youth rebellion, drug culture, and personal chaos.
Growing up in a struggling American Midwest town, Bleaker drifts into a world where experimentation quickly becomes routine. What begins with curiosity about marijuana and psychedelics soon expands into a decade-long gamble with alcohol, heroin, and the dangerous lifestyle surrounding them.
Through vivid episodes of reckless parties, unpredictable friendships, and life-threatening situations set in Phoenix Arizona as the decades cross from the 1970’s to the 80’s, Bleaker chronicles the strange mix of humor, fear, and excitement that defined those years. Friends come and go, some escaping the lifestyle while others do not. Each experience becomes part of a long, uncertain balancing act between survival and destruction, all while balancing the crazy on-off activities and goals of a blues-rock band guitarist.
As the years pass, the fight between specter of impending physical addiction, willpower, and ever-present family love become impossible to ignore. Faced with the continuing path of spiritual and physical oblivion or changing direction entirely, Bleaker confronts the moment that forces him to make a decisive turn away from the roulette of self-destruction.
Honest, reflective, and often darkly humorous, Ten Year Roulette: Life By The Fingernails offers readers a powerful tragicomic story about risk, survival, and the difficult path toward reclaiming one’s life. The view of the economic times of the era vs. the current 21st century pressures is an added flavor of the story. If you enjoy raw memoirs about addiction, counterculture, and personal resilience, this book invites you to witness a decade lived dangerously—and the turning point that changed everything.
About the Author
Tory Bleaker is a casual oil painter, casual poet, and lifelong musician playing multiple instruments all as an antidote to the current modern world. “Ten Year Roulette: Life By The Fingernails” is is first book.