Indebted

Description

The story:

Indebted is a story of redemption and hope that begins in the backwoods of western North Carolina in the late 1960’s. Alice Cummings, raised by an abusive, alcoholic father, longs to leave her home and have a real family of her own, a desire that contributes to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. But when she returns home with her baby, her father makes good on an earlier threat and sells the infant boy. Driven to find her son, she sets out to leave, find the baby, and start a new life together. Her plans go awry from the start when she witnesses a murder outside her home, and injures herself as she attempts to retrieve her suitcase from the shed. She escapes with the help of a neighbor, and circumstances force her to move on, unaware that his kindness will bring retribution by her father and the murderer.

Myra Mitchell is the mega-bestselling author known as the “Diva of Disaster.” Yet, calamity is about to befall her this time, as her hard-partying lifestyle catches up with her. After passing out, she wakes up in the hospital ICU to learn she has little time left, unless she gets a liver transplant. The Catch-22: she must remain alcohol-free for six months to qualify, but she might not live that long. It’s a race against time to write her last book. With an assistant imposed upon her by her agent, she sets her sights on the story of her favorite cartoonist, Betsy Weston. Betsy appeared out of nowhere in Asheville, North Carolina in 1969, arose to develop the wildly popular cartoon strip – Sweetie … and George, made millions, and at the summit of her success, disappeared from the face of the earth. Myra puts everything on the line to uncover the rest of that story.

Author’s Note: This story started as an idea for a short story contest, but as soon as I submitted it, I realized that the short story format did not suit this idea. I fleshed it out into this novel, which has become my second-best seller. My wife will also admit without hesitation that this is her favorite book of mine.