Wildrye

Wildrye is the working title for a domestic suspense/historical fiction novel-length manuscript.

Excerpt:

“Ruthanne Sorenson and a dozen other girls gathered in the church basement to dress in their finest before being presented upstairs. A tang of fresh paint on the walls and brewed coffee for the reception after replaced the usual aroma of mildew and dirt that flecked off the soles of farmer’s boots. The fluorescent tube lights yellowed their debutant white gowns matching the water stain marks on the asbestos ceiling tiles. A gauze-thin sheet was hung for privacy but Ruthanne noted she could make out every detail of Preacher Stallwert when he walked past six times down to the red agate stone on his bolo tie.  

An audience of townspeople, golden crucified Jesus, and the black and white portraits of the Forefathers, including Ruthanne’s great, great grandfather, waited for the girls in the main hall. Delores and Henry Senior, Ruthanne’s parents, showed their teeth in apprehensive smiles. Today these girls became women. Today was Hatching Day.  ”

Abstract:

Montana, 1964. RUTHANNE SORENSON is a feisty thirteen-year-old farm girl who idolizes movie stars in a place that values obedience and modesty. Forced into an arranged marriage to an older cattle rancher, her spark is snuffed out over a year suffering physical and emotional abuse and isolation. When she’s about to give up on life, she is compelled by an unlikely ally, a Mexican American migrant worker’s daughter, to get out. When her husband’s dead body is found, all evidence points to Ruthanne, and she must flee and leave her infant son behind in the care of her mother.  

She finds sanctuary in San Francisco using a series of aliases imitating the stars she adores and is hired by one of the city’s wealthiest families as a live-in nanny. But as throngs of hippies descend on the city for the Summer of Love, so does a Montana bounty hunter, and the mansion’s high walls may not be enough to protect her. Now Ruthanne must play the role of her life to avoid the noose and reunite with the son she yearns to raise.  

WILDRYE follows the three lives of one girl forced to grow up too soon, whose actions challenge her family’s loyalty, and who learns to forgive the unforgivable in the name of love and motherhood.