The readers of Running Away asked for the mom's story. This is it.

 

Peg's Story: Detours starts with Peg looking back:

When I started high school in 1971, my plans for the future were not clear, but they included an exciting career that would take me all over the world, far from the boring small town of my parents.

Instead, a series of detours became my life.

That Christmas I missed the first sign my world was about to be shattered. By June I would run away; by August I would be running again, from far worse, convinced I could never go home. There was little coordination among police of different states and missing children couldn’t be put into the FBI’s database.

It was easy to disappear for ten years – and my running was not yet done.

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• Kirkus Reviews: "A nuanced yet plainly told novel..."

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Available directly through Amazon. Retailers may order through Ingram.

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Kirkus Reviews: "A tense and unsettling portrait of a family torn apart by a predator in its midst."

 

The plan is in place. By the time they realize her camping trip was bogus, Maggie is in another state, about to run again from new dangers. When Peg realizes her daughter is not coming back, she knows she must find her quickly or they may never see each other again. Peg's missing journal from when she ran away as a teen is the only clue to Maggie's whereabouts.

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Originally published as Running Away, this novel won an Honorable Mention in the Writer’s Digest 2008 International Self-Published Book Awards.

 

• Judge Commentary: “I could not put this book down.”

• The movie Running Away has been shown in Europe and on Lifetime.​

 

Available directly through Amazon. Retailers may order through Ingram.

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“Tough times make you stronger, Michael, as long as you don't lie around feeling sorry for yourself.” That's what his beloved step-father Swede said. Tough times are all they've had since Swede died.

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Now, while Michael stops to flirt with Shenia, his little sister finds their mother dead with an empty pill bottle by her hand. "Stay together" says the note she left, and the only way Michael can see that happening is if the grandparents they’ve never met take them in. Michael doubts he'll be welcomed, but hopes his half-siblings will be accepted because they’re “cute little white kids.”

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Figuring their chances are best if they show up in person, Shenia and Michael start to cross the country with the kids. They don't realize they're being stalked.

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• One of five finalists in the YA division of Kindle Book Awards 2023.

• Amazon Expert Reviewer: “The writing is good…the plot is gripping”

• Publisher’s Weekly: “…issues of race and identity are nicely handled”

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Thirteen-year-old Nina narrates the story of her mother Alice, who has always been responsible, proper, and totally uptight. It's always been just the two of them.

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Alice is stressed when they cut her teaching position, but that’s nothing compared to the shock of her hippie father dropping into their lives. Alice left home at sixteen and never looked back.

 

Now Nina has a chance to know her grandfather, and sides of her mother that have been hidden for years, including the piece that turns Alice into the Rosa Parks of the Taxpayers Civil Rights Movement.

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• Judge, 25th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards: “Overall, one of the most interesting and useful novels I’ve seen.”

• Amazon Reviewer: “I …found myself laughing, crying and getting totally sucked into the story. Yet…the ethical storyline is still sticking with me”

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For more than 200 years, The Saturday Evening Post has been publishing a who’s who of American authors — Ray Bradbury, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Louis L’Amour, Jack London, Joyce Carol Oates, Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Tyler, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Sinclair Lewis, among so many others — and continues to support the legacy of the storyteller.

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This anthology includes 31 stories they consider the best from 2016, including Sheri McGuinn's "Maria Angelica's Baby."

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Maria's always been a good girl. Now she has secrets she must keep hidden.

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When Amazon moved print books from CreateSpace to KDP, I discontinued this book rather than continually updating it. Now I've been using KDP a few years and most of what is said about CreateSpace still applies with KDP. Just think "Amazon" or "KDP" when you see CreateSpace! Most of the other information is still useful. So I am making the eBook available again.

I first wrote this book after helping my students produce a full-color school yearbook we could sell for $7. You can limit sales like we did or make your books available online around the world.

Common Core Curriculum guidelines include publication standards from kindergarten through high school. This guide can help you develop projects to satisfy those standards and prepare students for the new workplace.

You can publish: a body of work by one person, cookbooks or other fund-raisers, anthologies, affordable yearbooks - even if you're tech-challenged!