by Laurie Boris
A Little About Laurie
Laurie Boris is a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and former graphic designer. She is the award-winning author of four novels: The Joke’s on Me, Drawing Breath, Don’t Tell Anyone, and Sliding Past Vertical. When not playing with the universe of imaginary people in her head, she enjoys baseball, cooking, reading, and helping aspiring novelists as a contributing author and associate editor of Indies Unlimited. She lives in New York’s lovely Hudson Valley with her husband, Paul Blumstein, a commercial illustrator and web designer.
Connect with me online:
Website: http://laurieboris.com
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/laurieboris
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laurie.boris.author
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LaurieBoris
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4824645.Laurie_Boris
Laurie’s Other Novels
Don’t Tell Anyone (Available from Amazon at http://amzn.to/15URqF0)
A family accidentally learns that their matriarch, Estelle, not only has breast cancer but also intended to take it to her grave. Now that the secret is out, Estelle decides to ask Liza, the daughter-in-law she once called a godless hippie raised by wolves, to kill her. A horrified Liza refuses but keeps the request from her husband and his brother. As the three adult children urge Estelle to consider treatment, their complicated weave of family secrets and lies begins to unravel. Can they hold their own lives together long enough to help Estelle with hers?
Drawing Breath (Available from Amazon at http://amzn.to/1b5uRm4)
Art teacher Daniel Benedetto has cystic fibrosis. At thirty-four, he's already outlived his doctor's “expiration date,” but that doesn't stop him from giving all he can to his students and his work. When he takes on Caitlin, his landlady's daughter, as a private student, the budding teen painter watches in torment as other people, especially women, treat Daniel like a freak because of his condition. To Caitlin, Daniel is not a disease, not someone to pity or take care of but someone to care for, a friend, and her first real crush. Convinced one of those women is about to hurt him, Caitlin makes one very bad decision. (Drawing Breath placed as a finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.)
The Joke’s on Me (Available from Amazon at http://amzn.to/128314q)
When a mudslide plummets her hopes, her home, and her entire collection of impractical footwear into the Pacific, former actress and stand-up comic Frankie Goldberg takes the only possession she has left – a cherry red Corvette convertible – and drives east to her family’s bed and breakfast in Woodstock, New York. This begins a journey into the family she left behind, the family she joked about in her act. But the joke’s on Frankie. While she was doing impressions of her slightly menopausal Jewish mother and her sister the serial divorcee, her family was slowly leaving her. And maybe that joke is just too new to be funny. Travel along with fearless Frankie as she puzzles through the eternal dilemma of coming back home to find that nothing is where you left it. (The Joke’s on Me placed as a finalist in the 2012 Beach Books Festival.)
Laurie’s Other Books
First Chapters (Contributing Author)
Indies Unlimited: Author’s Snarkopaedia Volume 1 (Contributing Author)
Indies Unlimited: Tutorials and Tools for Prospering in a Digital World (Contributing Author)
Indies Unlimited: 2012 Flash Fiction Anthology (Contributing Author)
Acknowledgments
Although I love to write, crafting novels is not always fun or easy. Many writers sit alone for hours, pounding out words, giving up weekends and leisure time, just because we’re so passionate about our work.
Because of these lovely people, I feel less alone in this weird venture. Thank you, first, to the fine men and women of the former-but-not-forgotten Starseed Writers Collective: Bryan Cook, Beth Kon, Kristine Logan, Margaret Pell, and Connie Gaind. Thank you to my fearless first reader, Tom De Poto, who will always have the key to the executive washroom. I am grateful for the counsel of Jay Prabhu, Beth Rose, Donna Dillon, Jen Daniele, Al Kunz, Rich Meyer, Kai Wilson, KS Brooks, Cathy Speight, LB Clark, Erin McGowan, Melissa Bowersock, David Antrobus, Crystal Martin, and Rasana Atreya. For their support, generosity, and laughter, I’d like to thank my huge Facebook family, my beloved DBs, and my fellow Indies Unlimited minions. May your gruel bowls always be full. Thank you to my blended, extended family for always being on my team, in spirit if not always in person. And last but never least, I want to thank my husband, who even after twenty years of wedded bliss has still not run away screaming. For this, he should get some kind of medal.
Table of Contents
PART 1: Boston, July-August 1987
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
PART 2: Syracuse, August-October 1987
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
PART 3: Syracuse, November 1987-May 1988
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Thank You for Reading!
A Little about Laurie
Laurie’s Other Books
Acknowledgments