There's No Accounting for the Strangeness of Things

is a memoir written in the aftermath of a father's death, exploring how his love, absence, deliriums, and ultimately, his mortality inform the trajectory of his daughter's life. Follow Valley Haggard through her childhood with artists and alcoholics onto a dude ranch in Colorado, a farm in Arkansas, a cruise ship in Alaska, and finally back to her childhood home in Richmond, Virginia. In the course of her vibrant and ever-evolving life, Valley navigates unhealthy relationships, addiction and recovery, child loss and birth, marriage, and the process of healing old wounds in order to create a family of her own. Written in the style of flash non-fiction, the narrative arcs towards connection and meaning in a world torn apart and then stitched back together, even though, sometimes there is still no accounting for the strangeness of things.