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What type of research did you do for Our Drink?

Chris: To begin with, I wanted to find a book that described the family experience--the whole picture of addiction and alcoholism where not only the teen is considered, but all the people who live with him. I looked in bookstores, but there wasn't anything I could find that seemed real. Then I looked on the Web where I located many helpful articles and links. Still, they didn't carry over to our living room. At that point I realized the need for an up-front book discussing binge drinking and its effects on the family.

Toren: I didn't do any except while I was in college and in S. America (in my own lab) doing my own research.

How did you decide to write Our Drink? Who came up with the idea?

Chris: When I first saw Toren's journal writing, its abrupt power and brutal honesty, I knew our family needed to face the true world of alcohol. It forced me to rethink our history. Out of desperation, I began writing in my journal. When the paper began to stack up, I asked Toren what he thought about creating a book. I wasn't sure if it would be a good thing for us, stirring up all that turmoil.

Toren: My mom was visiting me at rehab and we were in line at the cafeteria when she first brought up the idea. I was doubtful and couldn't imagine what it would all be about. But I said, "Okay, let's think about it after I get out of here."

How did you actually go about writing the book?

Chris: Toren and I each wrote our portions independently. We merged the material by e-mailing documents between Florida and Washington State. During Toren's halfway experience, we met twice to go over some of the drafts.

Toren: I continued in the same style as my journal entry (which became Chapter Four.) The remainder of the book I wrote from the public library while in the halfway program.

What kinds of decisions did you have to make personally in order to write the book?

Chris: I had to face reality. I had to step up and say it like it was. I had to be honest with every family member about my own feelings and reactions. In order to do this, I began to ask difficult questions about myself and my culture. I decided to scrape away the veneer of shiny parenthood.

Toren: I basically had to decide that I wasn't going change the content in order to cater to any certain person and that I would try to really portray how alcohol affected me.

Why would you write a book that exposes you and Toren to public scrutiny?

Chris: Being criticized will be difficult. But through the years I have learned that each time I think I'm doing a better job of parenting than someone else, it's not true. The myth of the perfect little family behind the white picket fence isn't my yard. It's much easier to be who I really am than try to fool everyone. I am the mother of Toren.

Toren: I had to expose myself in order to leave S. America, go into rehab, go to the halfway house....so this is really just one more level of honesty. I am less concerned about what the public thinks than about what my friends or family think.

How did you react to one another's first writings?

Chris: Toren's journal entry to us was most shocking to read. I couldn't believe what I saw printed before me. It was a world I never thought one of my children would inhabit. His words caused me to re-evaluate everything I had done as a parent and the writing ultimately turned into a description of our family and our values, one that I could hardly admit.

Toren: I was extremely interested in what my mom had to say. Some of it made me feel like shit and some of it gave me a better understanding of my impact on the family.

What were your goals in writing Our Drink?

Chris: Our mission is to talk honestly to kids and families about alcohol choices and the consequences of heavy drinking.

Toren: We made a list of reasons early in our work, because we wanted to have a clear idea of why we were writing. Here it is:

• To fill in the gap between what's really happening with young drinkers today and what society perceives about young drinkers
• To help someone possibly recognize early symptoms of alcohol addiction/abuse
• To help parents and kids talk more openly about alcohol use
• To inform others about alcohol addiction and the disease of alcoholism
• To support parents and enable them to realistically examine alcohol use in their family
• To support kids in their drinking choices
• To dissolve the glamour of chronic heavy drinking
• To heal our family