Lucky Kara!
Chapter 12 in “Between” made me cry! Kara is so lucky her mother made her dad leave when she was little. My dad drinks all the time. Mom thinks he’s going to stop any minute, then we’ll be a normal family. It’s hard to stay awake in class because I can’t sleep until he gets home. Nina
“Straight from The Onion Vine Trilogy…now complete! Book1-’Between’, Book2-’Turnaround’, Book3-’Lasting Past’
Tweens, teens, single parents, the Trilogy is now complete and available as Ebooks at all popular sites. Who doesn’t goof up in high school, like…”I hate it when that happens!” Ask Kara, who falls in front of everyone at the coolest hangout ever. Embarrassed? Kara happens to be a runner on the track team, AND this is her first time at The Onion, on the first day of school. BFF Annie talked her into this! Why did she ever listen?
Before she’s ready, Kara is thrust into the scary world of boys, dating, jealously, fake-friendly classmates. Seriously, all she wanted was to survive and maybe pass Algebra!
Kara lives with her single mom, friends even call her ‘Mom’. The first time she met Scott, a blurb came out about Mom. “What was I thinking? She asked herself with a blush. Even that takes a different turn.
Even if she passes Algebra, Kara is losing who she is. Mom reminds her of the Kara SHE knows and BFF Annie helps, in her own way. Their friendship is challenged at ‘The Party in the Woods’. Kara struggles with where her loyalty is, and comes up with a solution, sort of. Kara soon makes a new friend who helps her cope with unanswered questions…about Scott. So far he’s not talking, but Scott isn’t the only one with secrets. In “Turnaround” Kara is sure she can help, but becomes a ‘learner’ like she couldn’t imagine. This changes her perspective, especially when it comes to her dad. Where has he been all her life? Kara finds out, and about Scott at almost the same time.
The end of her Sophomore year at Lakewood Kara has to look ahead. There’s next year without Scott, and next year without Scott, and next year without Scott. In “Lasting Past” her focus on this makes her miss what’s going on with Annie. What about all the overnights, and the times Annie just showed up to get away from her house? This is no time to look back. Kara can’t remember exactly when life got so ‘complexicated’.
Straight from The Onion Vine
I’ve written the first book Between in a series for tweens entitled Straight From the Onion Vine. The second book is almost ready (hang in there). And I already know EXACTLY what’s going to happen in Book Three.
Kara, my main character comes from my own experience as a nurse and mother, working around patients and realizing that there’s a lot of mental anguish among girls before and during high school. Fears that they are not normal, thin, pretty, intelligent, (you name it) enough. But, the one question they don’t seem to ask is – according to who? So, this book comes from caring, strength and confidence and a mighty place called love.
In Between, Kara is searching for some similarities in this new world of differences called high school. Her best friend, Annie, who was her rock in middle school, is changing in ways Kara doesn’t understand, and nothing can prepare her for the utter out-of-placeness of those first few days. Kara ends up meeting people, but relationships are different now — maybe because she is getting older. She’s not taking anyone at face value, and Kara learns not to let some silly high school ‘categorization’ get in the way of finding out a person’s true characteristics for herself. When she begins to do a lot of soul searching about what urks her, parallels unfold among her friends that she could never have envisioned. Family secrets are shared among friends that should never be made public at school for fear of the old rumor mill: the Onion vine.
Beyond their high school personas, Kara finds friends that offer her support, similarities, comparisons and contrasts and windows. Windows on who she is…that even she didn’t realize were there for the opening.
Enjoy the read! And I hope to hear from you!
