To the Beach: Cut Ties and Run

This is the author's life written in a fictional version and told by Shelly, the author avatar. Shelly guides readers through a challenging childhood and early years growing up in rural Ohio while being bullied by her older sister and ignored by her parents. She then shares the adventures of how her first (and very short) marriage and its abusive ending. There is an angel-guided recovery from addiction, then the action of cutting ties and running away...to Florida.

Life in Florida is non-stop from Shelly's arrival, which materializes after a short and impromptu vacation. Not long after she arrives, her new roommate/lover steals her car and almost kills someone, her boss gives her his business (along with all of the problems that go along with it), and the FBI seizes her meager assets. As if that weren't enough, Shelly falls in love with a jewel thief who shows her a side of life she never could have imagined before the FBI returns on his behalf.

Shelly tumbles down the mountain of life like a slow rolling boulder picking up lessons as she goes. These lessons continue with another marriage, divorce, and fresh start in the Florida Keys where she learns the true meaning of alcoholism and narcissism.