Victory Is My Name, Book One

Victory is bitter and sweet, tragic and joyful, sometimes brutally real, but always stubbornly hopeful. Like a Huckleberry Finn or Holden Caulfield born female, Vickie gets abused when she's young and grows up complicated, but never quite loses that "maybe I can..." spirit. She achieves some unlikely and amazing things, not by luck, but by grit and heart and a remarkably different kind of courage. It's not about being a hero, it's about never giving less than your best. It's about taking the life you get, and making it count.

Not just a story of overcoming, Victory Is My Name is about unlearning the untruths we are taught as children that hold us hostage for life unless we find our own way to the truth. One of them: You can't do that... You can't be that... You shouldn't want that, because you're a girl."

This will probably be called a "women's book," though its truths apply to all of us who struggle to fit Who We Are into What The World Expects or Demands from us, which might include most of humanity. One new truth we learn is unequivocal: Girls can.