Whatever Gets You Through the Night
Teri Denine

At 26, newlywed Bari Jordan has achieved more than most women her age, especially when she lands a highly-coveted position as an advertising executive at one of  New York City's top companies. But maintaining such an important position requires long hours and lots of time away from her perfect husband Earl and their love nest. Her high school sweetheart is having trouble of his own working for his father at their family-owned paper mill and struggling with unresolved family problems that have tormented him since childhood. 

With no one at home to talk to and Bari too busy climbing the corporate ladder of success, Earl begins to feel alone. Not to mention his ego is challenged when he loses his job and Bari becomes the sole breadwinner.

After Earl is lured into an underground world of deception, he emerges as a dark, sinister stranger to Bari--terrorizing her and spiraling their relationship into an emotional abyss. And when Bari's life become at stake, she turns to a Jamaican spiritualist for help. But will the spiritualist and the talisman that her grandmother handed down to her be enough to save her from a path where even angels would fear to tread?

About the Author

Teri Denine lives in Middlesex County New Jersey where she spends time writing screenplays, novels and inspirational works. She is also a script editor and supervisor.  Teri is currently working on her next novel.

Author's Website: www.teridenine.com

Teri Denine

Author Q&A

1. What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time I like to relax and watch a really good movie. I also like to workout to relieve stress. Depending on the time of year it is, I work in my flower garden. That serves as my therapy. LOL!

2. What kind of music do you like to listen to? Why?
Anita Baker is my all time favorite artist in the world! I listen to her music and it soothes my soul. Anita Baker is obviously a woman who knows life and love and she sings it from her heart and I love that!

3. What's your all time favorite movie? Why?
I have several “all time” favorite movies. Some of them being "Scarface", "Goodfellas", "Imitation of Life" and "Waiting to Exhale."  I have seen each of these movies at least 1000 times (no exaggeration!) but when they come on, I just can't turn the channel. I love the blood and gore that the mafia movies offer and I love the gut reality of the latter two.

4. What's your all time favorite novel and/or writer? Why?
I have several favorite writers on my list but I choose to put Terry Mcmillan on the top of it for a couple of reasons.  Terry is so real with it! She writes about real life situations and creates characters who we can all relate to, nothing overly dramatic or contrived. Terry McMillan is the one who made it possible for African American fiction to be taken seriously.  Her career is definitely one that I can say I aspire to when I grow up!  

5. What do you like best about being a writer?
Honestly, what I like most about being a writer is that I get to play "God" in a world that I created. It is so much fun giving life to the characters that I create. You almost want to ask them for a birth certificate!

Reading Group Guide Questions

1. Bari and Franki were raised together in the same household by the same parents. Discuss the personality differences between them. Which girl is a mirror of their father Jimmy and which is a mirror of their mother?

2. Grandma Greta passed down her posy kerchief to Bari for luck and protection. Was the power of the posies any different than the power derived from the dusts and other articles Bari received from Zuma?  Discuss examples where the posies and/or the articles from Zuma were helpful to Bari’s life or marriage.

3. It has been said that most women/men see certain signs at the beginning of a relationship that would indicate the direction at which the relationship will go.  Discuss some of the early signs that would have told Bari about her relationship with Earl.

4. Is it possible to live, sleep and eat with a person on a daily basis and not have any idea whatsoever that that person is abusing drugs? Is it possible to be completely oblivious to every sign? At what point should the lights have gone on for Bari?

5. Earl’s father killed his mother when he was a little boy.  Earl is haunted by his deceased mother’s image and has become drug addicted as a result of it. Should he have faced his past and turned his father in? Would this have helped his life? His marriage?

6. Bari had a very supportive base of family and friends. What could they have done to help Bari get strong and take control of her life?  Could they have helped her? If so, how?  If not, why not?

7. Bari’s career skyrocketed from the very beginning of her employment with Choler-Raines. She put her blood, sweat and tears (as she put it) and a whole lot of time into her job. If she had put the same effort into her marriage do you think it would have made a difference?

8. At the family’s reunion dinner at Christmastime when hazel, Ricky, Bari and Franki were all together for the first time in years, Bari’s physical appearance was frail and stressed. With the small amount of knowledge that Hazel had that perhaps something was wrong n her daughter’s life, could Hazel have taken a different approach in confronting Bari? What could Ricky have done even though he had no clue as to what was happening until that very night?

9. When Earl held Bari captive at their home, could Bari have gotten away f she wanted to? How should she have behaved? What did you expect when the children were singing “Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies…”? What would you have done that night if you were Bari?

10. Were you happy with the ending of the story? What would you have written differently? What would you have happen in a sequel?