SAN DIEGO, California, July 31, 2023 – From screenwriter and multi-award-winning author Ken Schafer, comes a fiercely intelligent, introspective, and laugh-out-loud funny young adult novel of self-discovery, available everywhere books are sold. And for a limited time, the Kindle version of this "Must Read" Novel (Midwest Book Review and Reedsy Discovery reviews) will be discounted 66% for a special $1.99 book launch price. The Kindle version can be played on virtually any computer, iPhone, iPad or Android device using Amazon's free Kindle App.
An Otherwise Perfect Plan is a contemporary coming-of-age story narrated by a quirky teenage girl who infuses it with sarcasm, hyperbole, and wild flights of fancy—including a paleolithic “Shark Tank” with the planners of Stonehenge—all as she tries to make sense of her life with a single mom working two soul-crushing jobs, dysfunctional high school teachers, and her unruly emotions with a mind of their own.
Life hasn’t been easy for Gwen Pendergrass as a free-lunch student living with her mom in a one-bedroom apartment whose tiny, Marquis de Sade-inspired kitchen seems intent on inflicting grave bodily harm. The only thing making life palatable is her neighbor Peter, a loner like herself who goes to the same high school, and who shares her love of books, banter, and endless reflection on the absurdities of the universe.
When Gwen’s mom receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that would get her life back on the track she’d been on prior to Gwen’s unplanned birth, Gwen is beyond ecstatic… up until her mom says she has to reject the offer, because they can’t afford to take advantage of it.
Gwen cannot, will not, let this happen, no matter the cost, so she intercepts the rejection letter her mom was mailing, then ropes Peter into a Hail Mary of a scheme to find her father, undeterred by knowing utterly nothing about him, not even his name! The only thing she has to go on is a strip of photographs of him and her mom, taken in a photo booth somewhere in Las Vegas the weekend of her conception.
And while she receives surprising help from unexpected allies, before she knows it, her white lies, scheming, and emotional roller coaster start to make a mess of everything, and it quickly becomes a race to find her dad before her mom catches on, her head explodes, or it all spirals completely out of control.