I found this on a blog called, I kid you not, http://bookeywookey.blogspot.com/. What follows is the question posed. Your comments are welcome; my response to it is below.

Do we all have reading comfort zones, I wonder – that is genres or specific types of authors or periods or subjects within which we like to stay, knowing that our reading experience in that chosen sphere will most probably be a pleasurable one? Or do we read much more freely, never saying “I don’t touch science fiction/chick lit./poetry/etc.” but choosing our books as we happen to find them, unrestricted by preconceptions?

I read fiction and non-fiction, freely. I enjoy historical fiction, mysteries, young adult fiction; I also read non-fiction that questions the “norm”, i.e. that explores the bigger picture we as humans are a part of, such as spiritually, politically, environmentally…

The main thing I look for in fiction is well-developed characters and dialogue that is believable. I’m not an age-ist and I don’t have a preference of the gender of the character.

I won’t say “never”, but I RARELY read romantic fiction NOW– although I read tons of heaving-bosom-damsel-in-distress-type-historical-fiction (think Kathleen E. Woodiwiss)– when I was a teenager. I’ll confess, I’ll confess- I basically looked for the sexy parts first (didn’t we all?)

I RARELY read Sci-Fi; I RARELY read horror (Stephen King is about the scariest I get, and I love his books about writing. I have read a lot of John Grisham’s “lawyer” novels; I have NOT read any of his novels that veered away from stuff like “The Firm.”  I dabbled in chick-lit and enjoy Liza Palmer a lot, among others. As far as a steady diet of Chick Lit, though, no.

I have read every book that Chris Crutcher has written EXCEPT The Deep End, because certain elements of it are too intense for me. That’s one of his rare “grown-up” novels, although I know a lot of adults who read Chris Crutcher and love his writing as much as I do.

I have of course read several of my other Kunati authors’ books; in particular, I enjoyed Rabid, The Game and The Last Troubadour; Whale Song, bang Bang; Women of Magdalene, On Ice, Toonamint of Champions, Shadow of Innocence– and I have already ordered Madicine, Janeology, and Callous. I can’t wait to read Bathtub Admirals, Nuclear Winter Wonderland, and Hunting the King.

So, how about it? Do you stay in your “Comfort Zone”?

Beth Fehlbaum, author

Courage in Patience, a story of hope for those who have endured abuse

When I was a little girl, my mother pointed out to me the areas of the road patched by tar, and told me that those were, in fact, what was left a boy named Johnny, who, just last week, had played in the street and was run over.  I didn’t know any better, and, hell, at that point the woman hadn’t given me any reason to doubt her credibility, so I stayed as far away from the street as I could, not wanting to be all flattened out and sticky like Johnny was.

We’d go to the public pool, and in order to keep me away from the skimmer doors in the wall of the pool that flap back and forth to collect stuff like leaves from the surface of the water, she’d tell me that “just last week, a little boy named Johnny got his arm cut off when he stuck his hand in that door.”

Poor Johnny. He had a such a tragic existence. Weekly.

Tonight I received one of those hysteria-spreading e-mails about Barack Obama’s ancestry. I won’t repeat its contents anymore than that. It doesn’t deserve another syllable. I e-mailed my friend, as well as everyone else on her mailing list she had sent this message. I copied/pasted the Snopes.com address that debunks all the Obama rumors, and also expressed my disappointment that an intelligent person like my friend would spread this kind of shit.

People, our country is in trouble. What’s at stake is far too important to rely on slanderous e-mails.

The other day, a friend of mine and I were talking about this election. She said, “Ya know, George W. Bush was elected in part because ‘he was a guy you’d want to have a beer with.’ But did anybody find out if he could run the country? No!”

We, the voters of America, are not children. Don’t fall for lines about Obama that have as much credibility as my mother’s tales about Johnny-the-tar-spot, or Johnny who lost an arm to a pool skimmer door.

Incidentally.. she’s one of the people who forwards the hysterical Obama e-mails.

Think about it.

Hi, I’m Beth Fehlbaum, author of Courage in Patience, which will be published by Kunati in September, 2008.
Courage in Patience is a story that is close to my heart. I’ve been an English teacher for about ten years, and I’ve known kids who have left impressions on my heart that will stay with me always. The students in Courage in Patience are composites of teenagers I have known over the years.
As a teenager, I always got along well with the teachers the other kids hated. As a teacher, I am just about always able to forge a bond with all my students– even those kids who other teachers see, do the sign of the cross, and thank God that that kid is not in their class. For some reason– probably because I was a quirky, on-the-fringe-kinda-kid, too, I’m able to reach the kids whom others have deemed unreachable. You’ll find kids like that in Courage in Patience.
It was important to me, too, that the parents be more than one-dimensional, perfect authority figures. I took pains to make sure that the parents have cracks in their armor, that they hurt; that they have regrets; that they feel shame about failures in their pasts.
Courage in Patience has been described as “everyone’s story.” And I’d agree with that assessment. The main character, Ashley, has been sexually abused by her stepfather for six years. When she finally gets up the courage to tell her mother what has been happening, her mother stuns her by turning her back on Ashley. A trusted teacher convinces Ashley to report the crime, and when she does, it is then that her life begins anew.
Ashley is reunited with her father, David, whom she has not seen or spoken to since she was three months old. He takes her home, to Patience, Texas, and they begin to rebuild what they have never really had– a relationship.
While Ashley’s path to recovery is the centerpiece of the novel, woven through it are the struggles for authenticity of her classmates in a summer school English class. Among these challenges are racism, bullying, domestic violence, loneliness, facial disfigurement, and censorship.
I want to hear from you! I am committed to being accessible to my readers. I hope you’ll e-mail me at beth@bethfehlbaum.com.

On February 21, the Kanawha County (West Virginia) school board will meet to vote on a policy requiring that teachers at Nitro High School notify parents if a novel set for study contains offensive material. Teachers are required to offer an alternative novel for study if the parents do not want their children to read the “offensive” novel.
One parent wrote, “A parent has every right to decide what constitutes offensive for their child.”
This brouhaha came about as a result of one teacher using Pat Conroy’s novel, The Prince of Tides, in the classroom. Scrutiny of The Prince of Tides led to suspension of both it and another Conroy novel, Beach Music. According to the article (http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200802060765), “Those books had been suspended from the high school after the parents complained about violence, sexual assault, child rape, suicide and other graphic themes.”
In a terrific response, Conroy wrote,
I received an urgent e-mail from a high school student named Makenzie Hatfield of Charleston, West Virginia. She informed me of a group of parents who were attempting to suppress the teaching of two of my novels, “The Prince of Tides” and “Beach Music.” I heard rumors of this controversy as I was completing my latest filthy, vomit-inducing work. These controversies are so commonplace in my life that I no longer get involved. But my knowledge of mountain lore is strong enough to know the dangers of refusing to help a Hatfield of West Virginia. I also do not mess with McCoys.I’ve enjoyed a lifetime love affair with English teachers, just like the ones who are being abused in Charleston, West Virginia, today. My English teachers pushed me to be smart and inquisitive, and they taught me the great books of the world with passion and cunning and love. Like your English teachers, they didn’t have any money, either, but they lived in the bright fires of their imaginations, and they taught because they were born to teach the prettiest language in the world. I have yet to meet an English teacher who assigned a book to damage a kid. They take an unutterable joy in opening up the known world to their students, but they are dishonored and unpraised because of the scandalous paychecks they receive. In my travels around this country, I have discovered that America hates its teachers, and I could not tell you why. Charleston, West Virginia, is showing clear signs of really hurting theirs, and I would be cautious about the word getting out.In 1961, I entered the classroom of the great Eugene Norris, who set about in a thousand ways to change my life. It was the year I read “Catcher in the Rye,” under Gene’s careful tutelage, and I adore that book to this very day. Later, a parent complained to the school board, and Gene Norris was called before the board to defend his teaching of this book. He asked me to write an essay describing the book’s galvanic effect on me, which I did. But Gene’s defense of “Catcher in the Rye” was so brilliant and convincing in its sheer power that it carried the day. I stayed close to Gene Norris till the day he died. I delivered a eulogy at his memorial service and was one of the executors of his will. Few in the world have ever loved English teachers as I have, and I loathe it when they are bullied by know-nothing parents or cowardly school boards.About the novels your county just censored: “The Prince of Tides” and “Beach Music” are two of my darlings, which I would place before the altar of God and say, “Lord, this is how I found the world you made.” They contain scenes of violence, but I was the son of a Marine Corps fighter pilot who killed hundreds of men in Korea, beat my mother and his seven kids whenever he felt like it, and fought in three wars. My youngest brother, Tom, committed suicide by jumping off a fourteen-story building; my French teacher ended her life with a pistol; my aunt was brutally raped in Atlanta; eight of my classmates at The Citadel were killed in Vietnam; and my best friend was killed in a car wreck in Mississippi last summer. Violence has always been a part of my world. I write about it in my books and make no apology to anyone. In “Beach Music,” I wrote about the Holocaust and lack the literary powers to make that historical event anything other than grotesque.People cuss in my books. People cuss in my real life. I cuss, especially at Citadel basketball games. I’m perfectly sure that Steve Shamblin and other teachers prepared their students well for any encounters with violence or profanity in my books just as Gene Norris prepared me for the profane language in “Catcher in the Rye” forty-eight years ago.The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in “Lonesome Dove” and had nightmares about slavery in “Beloved” and walked the streets of Dublin in “Ulysses” and made up a hundred stories in the Arabian nights and saw my mother killed by a baseball in “A Prayer for Owen Meany.” I’ve been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English language.The school board of Charleston, West Virginia, has sullied that gift and shamed themselves and their community. You’ve now entered the ranks of censors, book-banners, and teacher-haters, and the word will spread. Good teachers will avoid you as though you had cholera. But here is my favorite thing: Because you banned my books, every kid in that county will read them, every single one of them. Because book banners are invariably idiots, they don’t know how the world works — but writers and English teachers do.I salute the English teachers of Charleston, West Virginia, and send my affection to their students. West Virginians, you’ve just done what history warned you against — you’ve riled a Hatfield.
Sincerely,Pat Conroy

My novel, Courage in Patience, addresses the censorship issue, using a real book, Ironman, by a real-life banned-book author, Chris Crutcher. Beverly Asher is a passionate high school English teacher, committed to reaching students where they are. Recognizing that the “clientele” in her summer school class will be difficult to “sell” reading to, she chooses a book that she knows the kids will find relevant. One student in the class is experiencing growing pains, and, rather than see the changes he is going through as normal and part of the the vital process of becoming an independent thinker, his parents zone in on some elements of Ironman. Their complaints include, but are not limited to, the inclusion of a homosexual character in the story; the use of the word, “nigger,” swearing, including taking the Lord’s name in vain; the inclusion of a mentally ill student in a general education classroom; the discussion of sexual abuse, and the fact that the characters talk about having sex.
In a pivotal scene before the school board, Beverly Asher pleads her case:

“Reverend Langley mentioned aspects of the plot of Ironman that included things like divorce, and sexual abuse, and kids not getting along with their parents or teachers, and those are real issues for today’s teenagers. They have been issues for kids for years. They were issues for every one of us in this room, I’ll bet. Even if your parents didn’t divorce or you never had a conflict with a teacher, I’m sure everyone in here knows someone who has experienced those things. I’ll bet that at least ten people in here are related to someone who is gay…Our kids, yours and mine; your grandkids, nieces and nephews, and friends’ children—all of our kids are growing up in a world that’s sometimes very messy, and they have a lot to deal with..Chris Crutcher does tell a story that includes some of those painful aspects of life—but did any of you who read the book recognize the healing that occurs? I assume that none of you would be here if you hadn’t read the book, correct?..Surely, then, you recognized the aspects of the story that balanced the painful stuff, didn’t you? Loyalty. Self-control. Facing the truth even when it’s hard. Seeing parents as humans instead of as one-dimensional beings. If you are as committed to truth as you claim to be, then you must be willing to see what is wholly true about Ironman, and not only what is true for whatever agenda you have.”

The notion of one person, or a group of people, deeming a work of literature “offensive” is blatantly unAmerican. The term “offensive” is subjective; it is infuriating to think that there are people who believe that they have the right to decide for an entire school whether or not a book is offensive.
And, with regard to a teacher being put in the position of identifying what will possibly offend one person, or a group of people, and having to offer alternatives: at what point will he or she know if the ALTERNATIVE novel will offend someone’s sensibilities? Who is in charge of deciding what will be offensive to one group or another? Will there be 1 student reading the intended novel for study, and 24 kids reading 24 different novels that each of their parents has “decided constitutes an INoffensive novel”?
The Freedom to Read Statement says it better than I ever could:
There is no place in our society for efforts to coerce the taste of others, to confine adults to the reading matter deemed suitable for adolescents, or to inhibit the efforts of writers to achieve artistic expression.
To some, much of modern expression is shocking. But is not much of life itself shocking? We cut off literature at the source if we prevent writers from dealing with the stuff of life. Parents and teachers have a responsibility to prepare the young to meet the diversity of experiences in life to which they will be exposed, as they have a responsibility to help them learn to think critically for themselves. These are affirmative responsibilities, not to be discharged simply by preventing them from reading works for which they are not yet prepared. In these matters values differ, and values cannot be legislated; nor can machinery be devised that will suit the demands of one group without limiting the freedom of others.
It is not in the public interest to force a reader to accept the prejudgment of a label characterizing any expression or its author as subversive or dangerous.
The ideal of labeling presupposes the existence of individuals or groups with wisdom to determine by authority what is good or bad for others. It presupposes that individuals must be directed in making up their minds about the ideas they examine. But Americans do not need others to do their thinking for them.
To see the full text of the Freedom to read statement, go to: http://bethfehlbaum.com.p12.hostingprod.com/the_freedom_to_read_statement

Alexis Moore, a person who has been very supportive of my book, e-mailed me this morning asking that I spread the word about her need for support of the first bill that her organization, Survivors in Action, has submitted to the California legislature. The bill would create a database of people convicted of domestic violence, no longer allowing people with a history of domestic violence to keep the abuse hidden. There is a sample letter you can copy & paste for ease in submission. If you prefer to e-mail rather than fax the letter, the link to Fiona Ma’s office is at the bottom of the page. Just copy & paste the text of the letter into the “contact me” box on Fiona Ma’s webpage. Thanks! The following is from Alexis’ blogsite, alexisamoore.blogspot.com
If you would like to contact Alexis directly, here’s her contact info:
Alexis A. Moore
P.O. Box 4584
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
916.941.7292, direct
916.941.7216, fax
Lexi.Moore@yahoo.com
http://alexisamoore.blogspot.com/
Thanks for your time!

Beth Fehlbaum

Nadgas Law: The California Domestic Violence Database Law California We Need Your Support: One Person Can Make a Difference
Every 12 seconds a woman is beaten in this country as the result of domestic violence. The FBI reports that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 to 44—more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined. California has the special opportunity to help protect women and children and promote healthy families. One letter can make a difference!

The present antiquated laws are doing little to prevent or deter domestic abuse. This bill will send a strong message to domestic abusers and to what would be potential abusers that domestic abuse will not be tolerated and that their violent past will not go unnoticed by the general public.

We need letters of support as your opinion does matter California. Please fax or e-mail letters of support to Assemblywoman Fiona Ma today. I have included a sample letter here for you to use. One person, one letter can make a life saving difference!

Here is some background information on the bill.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTIONAND RIGHT-TO-KNOW ACT OF 2008Assembly Bill 1771 (Ma)According to the Department of Justice, more than 180,000 Californians call in each year for assistance in dealing with domestic violence, and more than half of those calls involve a weapon. By the time a call comes in it could be too late.California can reduce the number of domestic violence incidents by providing information about prior convictions online, and by providing potential victims with useful tools to avoid violence. This information is already public; any person with means can hire a private investigator to conduct a search. However, many Californians are without the means or ability to secure such services and deserve to know if a potential partner could place them at risk.The Domestic Violence Prevention and Right-to-Know Act of 2008, also known as “Nadga’s Law,” would require the following:1. The Attorney General would develop an online database that would report the name, date of birth, county and date of conviction for individuals convicted of felony domestic violence or multiple counts of misdemeanor domestic violence. The database would keep updated information available for 10 years.2. The Superior Court of a county would be required, without charge, to provide additional information to a requester about a domestic violence conviction.3. The prior conviction could be used to secure a restraining order against the individual.4. A new assessment would be placed on domestic violence convictions to provide additional funding for domestic violence programs.With this simple change, Californians will be able to protect themselves and their loved ones from violence.CONTACTBill Barnes, Chief of Staff or Nick Hardeman, Legislative DirectorOffice of Assembly Majority Whip Fiona Ma- website/”contact me”: http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a12/

http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a12/
916-319-2012
Fax: 916-319-2112
############ #

Sample support letter…It is really this simple!

Your Name
City, State

Re: Support for CA AB 1771

To Whom it May Concern:
I support CA AB 1771. Please vote in favor of CA AB 1771; The Domestic Violence Prevention and Right-to-Know Act of 2008, also known as Nadga’s Law. It is long overdue.

Sincerely,

Your signature

Fax support letters to 916.319.2112 or 916.941.7216
Or contact Fiona Ma thru her website:
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a12/

On Holly Desimone’s blog (http://fightforjustice.blogspot.com/), I found an awesome story about two Nova Scotia teenage boys who stood in support of a ninth grader who was being bullied. Check it out– it’s fantastic:

(From a Globe & Mail article)

“David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends organized a high-school protest to wear pink in sympathy with a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied…[They] took a stand against bullying when they protested against the harassment of a new Grade 9 student by distributing pink T-shirts to all the boys in their school.‘I learned that two people can come up with an idea, run with it, and it can do wonders,’ says Mr. Price, 17, who organized the pink protest. ‘Finally, someone stood up for a weaker kid.’So Mr. Shepherd and some other headed off to a discount store and bought 50 pink tank tops. They sent out message to schoolmates that night, and the next morning they hauled the shirts to school in a plastic bag.As they stood in the foyer handing out the shirts, the bullied boy walked in. His face spoke volumes. ‘It looked like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders,’ Mr. Price recalled.The bullies were never heard from again.”

I am the author of Courage in Patience, a story of hope for those who have endured abuse. One of the themes woven into the story is bullying. Like the young men from Nova Scotia discovered, when we stand together against those who would victimize others, the seemingly supernatural power that a bully has over a weaker person practically evaporates into thin air.
It’s not easy, though, is it? In addition to being a writer, I am also a public school teacher. On a daily basis, I witness and combat bullying behaviors. Often, bullying is subtle, sneaky, and easily denied by the person or people who have decided, for whatever reason, that they have the right to make another student’s life hell. While I hate to make generalizations, there are days that I believe that fifth grade girls are possibly the meanest creatures on earth. If the boys are bullied, I’m not seeing it to the degree that I see the girls doing it.

My students are surprised when I tell them that I was the type of kid they would have picked on. I didn’t dress like everybody else. I was keenly aware of how awkward I was, and it showed. Being a grown-up and a teacher now, I realize that ALL kids feel awkward about themselves at some time or another, but I remember how wretched it was, and whenever I see a kid being picked on, the memory of that torture screams anew. Fortunately, now I am in the position to do what so many of my teachers did NOT do: insist that it stop. I cannot remember ONE teacher ever (1) making the harrassment stop and (2) taking me aside and saying, “Hey, are you okay? It’s wrong that those kids acted that way. NOBODY deserves that, and I’m going to do everything I can to make it stop.” Bullying was considered a rite of passage, I think, and that’s — let’s call it what it is, shall we? Bullshit. It’s bullshit.

Why, do you suppose, is it that some kids seem to skate through all those hellacious hormonal changes, and others (like I was) look, act, and feel like a hormone with legs? Stir in some sadistic kid who is PROBABLY picking on other kids because he or she feels like shit about him- or herself, and it’s like a little walk through hell every day.

I teach fifth grade. The bullying I have been fighting this year has included a group of girls labeling another one a “whore” and a “cockroach”; they even put the word out that anyone who played with the girl was likewise a “cockroach.” When confronted with it, the leader of the group denied it, but her minions admitted to it. It’s still going on; I know it is; I see the little looks the girls give each other; the subtle way they leave their victim out of conversations. It disgusts me and the girls know it disgusts me and that when I catch them red-handed, they’re going to get an earful.

I’ve seen notes with fabricated “she saids” about another girl, and, again, when confronted, the letter-writer admitted it was all lies. She only wrote it to fire up the others against the girl.
The little girl being ostracized could have been me. To be honest, I was such an invisible wallflower of a kid to everybody but the bullies, I don’t think there would have been any big show of support for me, any more than there would be for this little girl. Maybe…a teacher somehow inspired the boys.

And…maybe…I could do the same.

SOMETIMES THE ONLY WAY TO SURVIVE LIFE IS TO FIND THE COURAGE TO FINALLY LIVE.

Courage in Patience Ashley Nicole Asher’s life changes forever on the night her mother, Cheryl, meets Charlie Baker. Within a year of her mother’s marriage to Charlie, typical eight-year-old Ashley’s life becomes a nightmare of sexual abuse and emotional neglect. Bundling her body in blankets and sleeping in her closet to try to avoid Charlie’s nighttime assaults, she is driven by rage at age 14 to to tell her mother, in spite of the threats Charlie has used to keep Ashley silent. Believing that telling will make Charlie go away, instead it reveals to Ashley where she lies on her mother’s list of priorities.

“We’re just going to move on now,” Cheryl tells Ashley. “Go to your room.” Ashley’s psyche splinters into shards of glass, and she desperately tries to figure a way out, while at the same time battling numbness and an inability to remember what happened when she blacked out after Charlie tackled her. She knew that when she awoke her clothes were disheveled and the lower-half of her body was covered in bright red blood– but she has only a blank spot in the “video” of her memory.

When Ashley’s friend, Lisa, sees a note from Cheryl telling Ashley that Charlie would never “do those things to her,” and insisting that she apologize for accusing him of molesting her, Lisa forces dazed Ashley to make an outcry to her teacher, Mrs. Chapman.

By the end of the day, Ashley’s father, David, who has not seen Ashley since she was three months old, is standing in the offices of Child and Family Services. He brings her home to the small East Texas town of Patience, where he lives with his wife, Beverly, their son, Ben, and works with his brother, Frank. Its neighboring town, Six Shooter City, is so quirky, it’s practically on the cusp of an alternate universe; a trip to the Wal-Mart reveals to visitors that “there’s either something in the water..or family trees around here don’t fork.”

Through the summer school English class/ Quest for Truth taught by Beverly, an “outside-the-box” high school English teacher whose passion for teaching comes second only to her insistence upon authenticity, Ashley comes to know Roxanne Blake, a girl scarred outwardly by a horrific auto crash and inwardly by the belief that she is “Dr. Frankenstein’s little experiment”;

Wilbur “Dub” White, a fast-talking smart mouth whose stepfather is a white supremacist who nearly kills a man while Dub watches from the shadows, forcing Dub to realize that he cannot live with the person that he is, any longer; Zaquoiah “Z.Z.” Freeman, one of the few African-Americans in Patience, whose targeted-for-extinction family inherited the estate of one of Patience’s founding families and has been given the charge to “turn this godforsaken town on its head”;

Hector “Junior” Alvarez, a father at sixteen whose own father was killed in prison, who works two jobs and is fueled by the determination to “do it right” for his son, “3″, and his girlfriend, Moreyma;

T.W. Griffin, whose football-coach father expects him to be Number One at everything, and whose mother naively believes that he is too young to think about sex; and Kevin Cooper, a not-so-bright football player with a heart of gold, whose mother, Trini, a reporter for the local paper, is instrumental in exposing the ugliness that is censorship.

Every person in the class is confronted with a challenge that they must face head-on. The choices they make will not be easy—but they will be life-altering. With the exception of her mother and step-father, Ashley is surrounded by people who overcome their fear to embrace authenticity and truth– the only way to freedom. But will Ashley have the inner-fortitude to survive the journey to recovery and the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Will Ashley find her voice, speak up for herself, and break the bondage of her abusive past? Realizing “she’s gonna need a lot more than we have,”

David and Bev enlist the help of Scott “Dr. Matt” Matthews, an experienced, slightly unconventional therapist who insists that Ashley can and must come out of hiding in the closet in her mind. The Chris Crutcher novel, Ironman, is taught by Beverly Asher in the summer school class. When T.W.’s overbearing parents read the book, they decide that the book should be censored, and they involve the pastor of Patience’s largest, most conservative church to lead the fight through the Purify Patience organization. Its mission is to cleanse Patience of Profanity, Promiscuity, and Parent-Bashing Pedagogy—all complaints the group has about the novel, Ironman. Its hidden agenda, however, is to return Patience to a time when “Patience was 100% white”, “women knew their place”,”everyone had plenty of money”, and “Christian values were taught in school.”

The censoring, pseudo-Christian, white-supremacist, misogynist organization is exposed for what it is in a courageous move by one of its own (well..his mother threatens to twist his ear off if he doesn’t speak up), isolating the pastor and causing most of his “flock” to deny they ever knew him. National and world press attention shine speculation on the dirty little secrets hidden in Patience, and its inhabitants are forced to examine their own values and beliefs.

Alone in the dark, Ashley must face her worst fears in a pivotal scene between her, Charlie, and her mother. Will she find the strength to advocate for her own right to exist in a world that is free of fear and abuse? Can she, like her friends, find Courage in Patience?

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