Hey, this Event is Open Bar!

What does Open Bar mean to you? Since I’ve started telling people the title of my second novel (coming August 12), I’ve received an assortment of reactions. Personally, the concept of an open bar has had a variety of meanings, depending on the time of my life and the specific situation.

My first open bar event was my Bar Mitzvah, which involved a very light-drinking crowd in the late afternoon so it wasn’t put to good use. Years later, hearing about an open bar could be big news. Like in my twenties when drinks in New York City were expensive and my friends from the DA’s office and I were working for next to nothing and constantly broke. Those were the days when we’d be thrilled to hear someone announce, “Hey, this event is open bar!” On the flip side, we’d sometimes attend functions that we thought/expected were open bar and then to our dismay realized otherwise and grumbled, “Ugh, I can’t believe they have a cash bar here.”

Open bars can be about levity and bliss, indulging in celebration and relishing in the seemingly unlimited offerings to enhance the party. But as fun as they can be, such events can also quickly spiral out of control. As Miley Cyrus notes in her song Used to Be Young, “Turns out open bars lead to broken hearts and going way too far.” Some open bars have lead to disastrous results, such as those detailed here and here.

The dangerous risks of excessive drinking are well-documented, including drunk driving and alcoholism. I began my career as a domestic violence and sex crimes prosecutor over 25 years ago, and I’ve investigated or served as a hearing officer for hundreds of allegations of sexual assault that followed significant alcohol consumption.

Open bars sometimes allow people to live in the moment and make the most of a potentially fun and exhilarating opportunity. They can also provide a forum to drown one’s sorrows and/or overindulge in a really unhealthy way. So is the open bar primarily about exposure to concerning health and safety risks, or an exciting, positive conduit for enjoying life to the max? Maybe it depends on who else is attending with you, what kind of event it is, how old you are, what stage of life you’re in, and how you plan on getting home.

What do you think about when you hear the term open bar? What’s your most memorable open bar experience?

First Open Bar Marketing Images

Open Bar will be published in less than six months by SparkPress and distributed by Simon & Schuster. Here’s one of the first publicity images:

I’ll have a lot of info in future newsletters about an upcoming Goodreads Giveaway, early reviews, exciting blurbs, and much more.

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The Guys Don’t Read Novels Book Club

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