Ever Feel Like You've Been Totally SHUCKED?

I've been working on SHUCKED  on and off for more than four years. I held off on finishing it because it didn't fit my author profile. It's always been my goal to be recognized as a fantasy author - and SHUCKED is the farthest thing from that.

But in January my hubby re-injured his back and our lives took a very difficult turn. Due to the medications he was on, he could no longer drive. Nor could he lift. And walking was a struggle. The pain was constant.

I tried to continue working on my fantasy novel, but my heart wasn't in it. Yet there was Tabitha, calling to me from the sidelines. I told her to go away. Her story wasn't part of my life right now. She wouldn't stop.

I gave in, throwing myself into Tabitha's world, one I'm very familiar with since I grew up on a farm. Walking with her through this story of self-discovery and learning to deal with circumstances beyond her control was very healing for me. In SHUCKED, Tabitha struggles through her environment just as I was doing with my hubby's injury. After major surgery, we're entering the brighter side of our experience. If you read SHUCKED, I think you'll find Tabitha does a great job of working her way through unexpected disaster too.

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Suburgatory meets Indiana Jones...on a farm

 Fifteen-year-old Tabitha has had the kind of life that would impress even the greatest adventurers. She's escaped a croc attack in the Amazon, walked the length of the Great Wall of China, and earned a black belt in taekwondo in Korea. She owes her worldly experience to her mother's career in

Cover design by Steven Novak

archaeology, but when her mother takes on a dangerous new assignment, Tabitha is devastated to learn she can't tag along.

Instead, she's forced to live on a midwestern farm with her grandparents where she'll have to attend a full year of public school. It's Tabitha's greatest nightmare, because despite all her adventures, she has no practical experience with the one thing that frightens her the most - other teenagers.

Her math teacher is her mom's old high school boyfriend, she can't tell the friendly girls from the mean ones, and she develops a major crush on a boy she knows she can't trust. And just when she thinks she'll never get the hang of this normal teenager thing, an attack brings the danger of her previous life right up to her midwestern porch. Who could have ever guessed getting totally shucked would bring her face-to-face with her most exciting adventure yet?

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Now for the fun stuff!

WINNERS!

Subscribers to my newsletter were able to enter a contest to win 1 of 15 ebooks of SHUCKED. The winners have all been contacted via email.  Congrats to:

Bonnie H. ~~~ Cathy P. ~~~ Sara D.
Dee S. ~~~ Jacquelyn L. ~~~ Kris A.
Lourdes S. ~~~ Kassandra F. ~~~ Yvonne W.
Lisa C. ~~~ Patrick M. ~~~ Lysette L.
Becky N. ~~~ Ruth J. ~~~ Pam. B.

Check out this awesome Facebook banner my friend Sharon Rosen made for SHUCKED:

And Chris Whigham of Derby City Social Media created these bookmarks for SHUCKED:

My newsletter subscribers got first crack at these bookmarks, but I have some left, so I'm opening it up to everyone else - internationally! If you want three bookmarks, please fill out this form (until supplies last):

(I will not save your addresses or share them or sell them.)