TV show gone rogue. A band that refuses to shut up.
Veronica Lark never meant to start a band. She just wrote a script about a group of middle-aged women who reform their high school band — messy, loud, and unapologetically themselves. Then someone decided to make it into a TV show. And then she was the one holding the guitar.
What follows is part midlife crisis, part feminist rebellion, and part rock-and-roll resurrection. With split perspectives between Veronica’s dry, sharp humour and Zack’s chaotic spiral, Rocking the Second Act is about music, survival, love that doesn’t fit the clichés, and women refusing to disappear quietly.
Chapter 1: Lost in the Fog
Brain fog, burnout, and the joy of being called “resilient” one too many times. Veronica’s life has collapsed into cold coffee, blank documents, and the claustrophobia of midlife invisibility.
Chapter 2: Cocktails, Chaos & the Pursuit of Dick (Or Lack Thereof)
Dragged to a trendy bar by her oldest partner-in-crime, Veronica is ambushed with espresso martinis, audio erotica, and a reminder of the band that once made her feel loud and alive.
Chapter 3: The Bottom of the Bottle Isn’t the End of the World
Enter Zack Salinger. Once the swaggering frontman of Midnight Ashes, now a has-been in rehab. His voice cuts in for the first time — raw, messy, and haunted by the women and music he burned through on the way down.
Chapter 4: The Whispr Incident (A Tragedy in Three Acts)
Veronica downloads Whispr, and what starts out as some ‘me’ time ends up as full body screaming from her children.
Chapter 5: The Pin
Here’s Zack again, trying to do the work… and not implode in the process.
Chapter 6: I Write Myself a Story
A spark of rebellion, a story begins, and Kat picks up the guitar.
Chapter 7: The Girls in my Head
Every band has to start somewhere. For Veronica, it begins not with a guitar riff but with a blank page and too much coffee.
Chapter 8: The Muddled Eggs Manfesto & the Green Room
Veronica finds that her writing is an escape from the ‘meh’ of her life. She also ends up lipsynching to 80s rock anthems with her daughters’ drama tutor.
Chapter 9: Six Strings & Small Talk
Zack’ brother, Noah, visits him in rehab and teaches him about Yungblud.
Chapter 10: Audition Logistics
Wrangling the calendar on her phone is taken over by her kids, and there is some dodgy spellcasting around the breakfast table.
Chapter 11: The Absolute Worst Time to get Pulled Over
On her way to pick Lily up from her audition, V gets humiliated by an erotic audio story. (This chapter actually came true for me, the author. I still shudder when I think about it.)
Chapter 12: Firestarter
V rewrites the raunch so that Kat gets laid in a way that is realistic… but still hot AF, and Bronwyn starts a fire that V doesnt want to put out.
Chapter 13: Stillness
Zack sees Jasmine again and is invited to join their Jam Crew.
Chapter 14: Mum Reacts to the Raunch
V’s mum, Marion, gives her opinion of the sex scenes in Second Verse… and its not what V expected! Bronwyn and V get some serious script-writing done.
Chapter 15: So, I Joined a Garage Band
Zack takes Jasmine up on her offer of joining the Jam Crew… and sees someone unexpected from the past.
Chapter 16: The Knock-on Effect
A pivotal day: Lily lands the role, Bronwyn sets unseen wheels in motion, and Veronica faces a career-changing encounter she never saw coming.
Just dropping in to say - this is very helpful especially as you have multiple series going. I wish Substack natively provided a more intuitive indexing tool for us serial writers (though knowing the platform it will sooner come from Gary!)