The Sharp Edge Of Yesterday
The future looks bright, but there’s no escaping the past.
Grace Reed is on the run with devastation hot on her heels. She escaped a religious cult and rescued her children from her ex-husband, but fate isn’t done with her yet. She is about to hit rollover—the crisis point in middle age when latent superpowers activate-and all signs point to her developing a rare and overwhelming talent.
That puts her on the government radar as a threat to society.
Big rollovers lead to big problems, and big problems get eliminated. Department of Public Safety Agent Valerie Wade is assigned to Grace’s case and must choose between following orders or fighting for her client’s right to live. Meanwhile, Grace is fighting to overcome past traumas and survive the onset of her powers.
Rollover activists Jack, Elena, and Amy are willing to pit their skills and talents against the bureaucracy and help Grace beat the odds against her survival. Once they join forces with Valerie, nothing in the world can stop them…except betrayal from within.
While Grace’s friends struggle to bring her safely through her rollover crisis, their enemies work behind the scenes to destroy them. Grace gave up her home, her faith, and her freedom to protect her children and safeguard their futures. Now she will face an even bigger sacrifice.
Rough Passages: A Collection of Midlife Disaster Stories
Four novellas, four shorter stories, and many extras, all in one convenient volume.
A third of the population carries the potential to develop superpowers between the ages of forty and sixty, and no one can predict which few will activate. Reaching middle age might only mean blowing out one extra candle on the birthday cake, or it might lead to becoming a human fireball, drowning a city, or teleporting into outer space.
This story collection introduces five characters whose lives are disrupted by the uncertainties of power:
- A single mother with two jobs whose new talent improves her ordinary life beyond her wildest dreams.
- A Marine captain tasked with investigating the all-too-human crimes a squad of superhuman soldiers inflict on one another.
- A lonely woman whose desperate homesickness is matched in strength only by her ability to wreak seismic havoc.
- A devout grandmother torn from home and family, abused and imprisoned, who gains godlike powers and must choose between revenge and forgiveness.
- A teen, afraid to take the R-factor test that will define her future, who learns there are worse things to fear than a positive result.
In print now from your local library or favorite bookseller. Also on Amazon
The first Rough Passages Tale is also available as an individual novella-length audio.
1: Extraordinary
A trip to the traveling carnival with two toddlers and a mobility-challenged parent isn’t most people’s definition of fun, but it’s closer than Valerie Wade usually gets. A few hours kicking sawdust and revisiting favorite childhood memories, that’s all she asks.
It’s her annual treat, a visit back in time to the carefree years before she learned that her blood carries a potential death sentence, before life beat her down and broke her spirit. It’s where she can forget about secrets, debts and obligations for a few hours and remember what hope feels like.
Everything changes that night, under the bright lights and the striped awnings. The monsters and freaks aren’t in the sideshow tents. They’re walking the aisles, and before the carnival is done, Valerie will be taking her place among them.
Available on Audible or from your preferred audio retailer.