Reckless Beginnings VBT

Blurb:

Tammy Mellows, a fourteen-year-old native of England, was shocked when her father and troubled older sister, Donna, moved to the States.

With her family now separated by divorce and divided by an ocean, Tammy felt helpless when she learned Donna had run away and couldn’t be found.

Thanks to her father insisting she stay behind in England to finish school, Tammy could do nothing for the next three years but pray that Donna would be found safe.

When Tammy’s lifelong dream of moving to the States was finally fulfilled, she had high hopes of looking for Donna. But with no leads and faced with turmoil in her own life, there wasn’t much Tammy could do.

After a forbidden secret love affair and a catastrophic dispute with her father, Tammy eventually meets Steven, settles down and has his child, only to discover he is a heroin addict. Thrown into a life of drugs and violence. Shadowed by his addiction, she becomes the silent and forgotten one. Living in fear of what Steven might be capable of and struggling alone to provide for her young son.

What consequences might she face if she leaves Steven? Is she ever going to find her sister alive? Will she have enough courage to conquer the impossible challenges of her twisted world and still come out on top?

Excerpt:

“What do you mean she’s gone, John?”

Who was gone? Tammy wondered.

Her mother became angry. “She can’t just disappear, John! Someone must know where she is!”

Glued to the railings, Tammy was dying to know who and what they were talking about.

Then her mother began to cry hysterically while she held the phone tight and screamed into it, “She’s still a child, John. She’s just seventeen. You should never have put her in that home! She isn’t an object you can just discard because she’s in your way. She’s your daughter!” 

Tammy remembered how her heart sank to the floor when she suddenly realized they were talking about Donna. Her sister had run away and was now missing. She wanted to race down the stairs and snatch the phone from her mother’s hands and ask her father WHY? Why had he put her in that awful place?

Donna had written a letter to Tammy and Jenny, telling them how much she hated being in the home. How no one wanted her anymore and she was going to run away. Frightened by what she had read, Tammy showed the letter to their mother. As upset as she was by both the letter and the fact that Donna had written to her sisters and not her, Rose never believed Donna would actually run away. “I’m sure she’ll be okay. She just needs time to adjust. It’s all new to her. We have to trust your father’s judgment. He said this would be good for her. I have to believe that. She is a very troubled young girl and needs help,” her mother had told her. But she had run away, and now no one knew where she was.

10 Things Most People Don’t Know About Me

Oh this should be fun. Ha! How much do I want to reveal?

1- My father is the late science fiction writer James P. Hogan. He was and continues to be my inspiration when it comes to writing and appreciating the enjoyment of books. From as early as I can remember I watched him work until the early hours of the morning on his first novel “Inherit the Stars” while holding down a full-time job to support his family. He had the drive and desire to become a full time author and succeeded in his dream with over thirty-six books in print.

2- I was born in England and moved to the United States in 1982 at the young age of eighteen. I currently reside in a small mountain community in Southern California.

3- For ten years I was a commercial fisherwoman, fishing for lobsters off the coast of Southern California. I have such fond memories of this time of my life. It was adventurous, exciting and exhilarating. It was also at times stressful and intense but when you pull up a trap plugged full of lobsters, well it just made everything worthwhile.

4- I was a log-sawing champion for five years. Every year our little town has what we call “Fiesta Days.” A day where the town comes together for the morning parade and fun at the park. A carnival is in town and booths are plentiful to buy products and crafts from local merchants. Other events include competitions such as the log-sawing contests which I won five years in a row.

5- My husband and I built our house with our own bare hands. Once the original house was torn down it took us three years to build the new one. Every part of it we did ourselves. Would I do it again? No. It’s rewarding and completely custom to our tastes. But on my god! The stress factor was off the charts. In my opinion, a person should only build one house in their lifetime.

6 - I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer almost five years ago. It honestly gave me a totally different outlook on life and made me aware that if you want to do something in life, just go do it. Don’t put it off because tomorrow may never come.  I’m happy to say I’ve been cancer free for three years.

7- Other than reading and writing I love to kayak on the nearby lake and ride ATV’s on our local mountain trails. We are fifteen minutes away from Pyramid Lake which is where I often take my kayak when I am in a writing slump. Kayaking helps replenish my mind and just regroup myself and riding the ATV helps to burn off steam and stress.

8 - My husband and I have been married for twenty-five years. I couldn’t imagine my life without him. We have a son who is thirty and two precious grandsons that just melt my heart.

9 - My mother suffers from vascular dementia and it saddens me that she no longer recognizes me as her youngest daughter. This is the toughest thing I have to come to terms with every day and it’s a tough one to wrap my head around.

10 -  I am finally teaching myself how to play the guitar. Something I’ve wanted to do for such a long time and my husband finally gave me the shove by buying me a guitar for Mother’s Day.

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Author Bio and Links:

Tina Hogan Grant was born in England and grew up in a small town on the Yorkshire Moors. She is the youngest daughter of science fiction author, James P. Hogan. After moving to California, she became a commercial lobster fisherwoman, fishing off the coast of Southern California for ten years with her husband Gordon.

For fourteen years, she’d had a notion of writing her debut novel “Reckless Beginnings”. But it wasn’t until the sudden death of her father in 2010 and a battle with breast cancer a year later that she made the decision to get it done. Seven years later, she finally completed it. She is now working on a sequel titled,  “Better Endings.”

She currently resides with her husband in the small mountain community of Frazier Park in Southern California. Together they enjoy anything that involves the outdoors, fishing, hiking, kayaking and riding quads.

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