Gail is offering a special treat today – a kindle copy of her book Stopped Cold, and she’ll tell us the story behind the story for Stopped Cold. Read the article then scroll down to the comment section to enter the drawing.

The Story Behind the Story

There’s a huge difference in telling someone to “be the best” and “do your best.” Unfortunately,  many youngsters are driven to be the best. The desire may originate from parents, siblings, peer pressure or within. Unfortunately, it encourages many to equate being number one to their worth as human beings.

As a college student then later as a young Mom, I knew of children, teens and young adults affected in a devastating way because they didn’t always excel. The results ranged from heartache in children over not winning a competition or excelling academically to suicide attempts and suicide in young adults. I’m not sure if these sad situations crossed my path more than they did that of others or not, but the more pain I witnessed, the more I thought God had given each of them a gift or gifts to use for Him, and they didn’t need to be #1. The theme rattled around in my head for years until finally I decided to put it in a book.

People compete in everything from baking pies to quilting and dog shows, but when I think of competition, the first thing that comes to mind is sports, so I made the heroine and her brother athletes. Sean, who suffers a stroke from taking a steroid, plays football, and the heroine, Margaret’s, a competitive swimmer.I also wanted the novel to be a fun read, so I added a mystery and a couple of odd-ball characters.

The book required quite a bit of research on drugs, police procedures and laws concerning drugs as well as swimming times and regulations. I read about drugs in library books and online and interviewed a drug enforcement officer and a detective. As a teen my daughter was a U.S. swimmer, so I had access to heat sheets and winning times, and had worked as a team Mom in every capacity from a timer to a summer league swim team coordinator. However, that was a long time ago, so I also consulted a current U.S. swim team coach and the man in charge of our country recreation department.

 

About Stopped Cold

Things aren’t what they seem in peaceful Mistville, North Carolina.

Margaret McWhorter enjoys a laid-back Freshman year in high school swimming and hanging out with friends—until the day her brother, Sean, suffers a stroke from taking steroids. Now he’s lying unconscious in a hospital.

Anger sets a fire for retribution inside her, and Margaret vows to make the criminals pay. Even the cop on the case can’t stop her from investigating. Looking for justice, she convinces two friends, Jimmy and Emily to join her in a quest that takes them through a twisted, drug-filled sub-culture they discover deep in the woods behind the school. Time and again they walk a treacherous path, and come face-to-face with danger.

All the while Margaret really wants to cure Sean, heal the hate inside, and open her heart to love.

 

 

Can’t wait to read it? Find Stopped Cold here Amazon 

 

 

About Gail:

Award-winning author Gail Pallotta’s a wife, mom, swimmer and bargain shopper who loves God, beach sunsets and getting together with friends and family. She’s a former regional writer of the year for American Christian Writers Association, a 2013 Grace Awards finalist and a 2017 Reader’s Favorite Book Award winner. She’s published six books, poems, short stories and two-hundred articles. Some of her articles appear in anthologies while two are in museums. To learn more about Gail and her books visit her website at https://gailpallotta.com.

 

Before you go, don’t forget to leave Gail a comment and say which book you’d like to enter the drawing for Stopped Cold.