THIS BIRD FLEW AWAY, a novel about child exploitation, survival and the healing process, is a complete 112,500 word manuscript intended for mature girls and women. I have chosen to use a simple narrative form to relate Bria's story in the most straightforward way. There are two first person narrators: Bria and Aunt Mary--an Irish American woman who becomes Bria’s foster mother. The reader only sees Jack through the eyes of the two female narrators.
"What is real love?" The whole world wants to know. They should ask Bria Jean, because she has it all figured out. Opinionated, stubborn and full of woe, Bria would tell you real love is having one person you can always count on through thick and thin. For her, that means Jack. And it doesn’t matter to her that she’s nine and he’s twenty-three -- not one bit.
When, at the age of twelve, Bria disappears, he doesn’t let her down. He and his Aunt Mary search for her, and when she surfaces, injured, abused and traumatized, they are there to help her heal, and put her back on the path to growing up. Jack fights to become her guardian but has no idea of the trials ahead of him. By then Bria is thirteen going on thirty, full of her own ideas on how her life should run. She also has some very fixed notions about who is in charge. We follow her through twenty years of a spirited, complicated life and leave her as a young woman beginning her professional career as a children’s advocate.
This is a love story, not a romance. Real love comes in many forms: the love between a morally upright, principled young man and a damaged, abused girl; the love between a mature, lonely woman and the girl she adopts as her own; the love of family and the strength we draw from it. And sometimes love means letting go and setting someone free.
THIS BIRD FLEW AWAY, a novel about child exploitation, survival and the healing process, is a complete 112,500 word manuscript intended for mature girls and women. I have chosen to use a simple narrative form to relate Bria's story in the most straightforward way. There are two first person narrators: Bria and Aunt Mary--an Irish American woman who becomes Bria’s foster mother. The reader only sees Jack through the eyes of the two female narrators.
Professional Reviews
New York Times bestselling author, Kathryn Lynn Davis, writes
“This is a tender, wrenching, funny, brilliantly written novel about so many kinds of courage, so many layers of beauty and strength, and the bonds of family (however unique they may be) that help us survive even the worst life makes us suffer."
Well Done & Beautiful
"The credit is yours that such an uncomfortable subject is rendered warm and human through your lucid and flowing prose. There is nothing standing between the reader and the story. The worst men can do is balanced by the best. Very vivid, very sensitive -- well done, beautiful and destined to be an important work." -- H.M. Goodchild, author of Twice Told Tales
Flawless!
Well polished, professional storytelling of the highest caliber as far as I’m concerned. The feeling of wound up emotion this reader experienced from Bria’s tale was very intense. Your brilliant writing takes the reader on Bria’s journey – one that stretches over a period of twenty years and two great countries – from the hopelessness of sexual abuse, to the heights of personal achievement and love. We cheer for her, applaud her and cry with her. An epic family saga – heaped with well crafted narrative, tear filled, insightful and clever. This Bird Flew Away is traumatic, intelligent determined and ultimately triumphant." -- J. McRae, author of Lucifer and Auld Lang Syne
(Baxter Springs, Kansas) - Discover how a beloved high school guidance counselor twists fate on behalf of four troubled misfits, and turns their life around.
