Incomplete

Mild-mannered English teacher Brian Smith has a big secret: he used to be a rock star. Kind of. In the summer of 2000, his one-hit-wonder punk band released a radio-friendly pop song and made it big. Then, just as quickly, it all fell apart. Though he's been living a quiet white-collar life for the last two decades, settled in his static suburban normalcy of treadmills and lesson plans and parenthood, a chance discovery leads to a collision between his old world and his new one. What happens when the rock & roll ghosts of the past come back to haunt you? This retired rock star is about to find out. Incomplete is a rock & roll version of The Goldfinch - with echoes of Nick Hornby and Frank McCourt. This coming-of-age novel examines art, love, grief, guitars, writing, and everything else that defines us.

Former almost-rock-star Brian "Brick" Smith thought his punk-rock days were behind him. He was wrong. Before he became a mild-mannered English teacher, Brian was the songwriter and bass player for a one-hit-wonder punk band: Call Field. Two decades ago, Brian and his bandmates were on a stratospheric ascent through the music industry... until Call Field unexpectedly crash-landed and broke up. Since then, Brian has been living a quiet white-collar life, teaching at a suburban California high school, and desperately trying to put his past behind him. Despite Brian's best attempts at anonymity, one of his star students, the precocious Veronica Jones, has stumbled upon his not-so-secret identity. After convincing Brian to relay the story of how he wrote his band's only hit song, Veronica is left with many, many unanswered questions. Why did the band break up? What happened to Call Field's other members? Why is Brian so reluctant to revisit his past? Veronica wants answers. All the answers. Brian doesn't know it yet, but his incomplete music career isn't over. The tenacious Veronica Jones has a plan - and it's one that will bring together all the shattered pieces of Brian's jigsaw-puzzle life. Of course, with Veronica taking charge, almost anything can happen... including retired almost-rock-stars rising from the ashes and facing the music of their painful punk-rock past.