* Co-dependence
* Enabling
What do they mean to you?
For my sister and me, it meant detachment from our mother. She could never tell us she loved us. She had trouble even touching us. It was almost as if she were afraid the emotions would rip something open in her, and tear apart the numbness around her heart.
The following passage of Shadow Heart is more from the night that changed my sister’s life forever.
“Where have you ...
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At seventeen, Nicky confides in cheer team mentor Alexandra Flowers and Tara Summers about her family’s dysfunction and also her fears and doubts about her body. Her hips, breasts, and stomach are more developed than her peers, she is getting looks from older men, and she’s uncomfortable in her own skin and with others. She sits in the bleachers talking with the two women.
“My dad’s an alcoholic, Alex,” I confided while she waited with me in ...
Continue Reading →So to recap Chapter 1 of Shadow Heart, the first novel in the Broken Bottles Series.
What are the challenges of our heroine, Nicky Young?
The story opens up as we hear her voice, at some age, talking about a time when she was eight years old and witnessed her father’s rage toward Jenise, her sister, just because they wouldn’t eat the cold creamed corn their father served them.
We also hear Nicky open her story by talking about her little prayer, the ...
Continue Reading →AS CHAPTER ONE ENDS, NICKY YOUNG, OUR YOUNG HEROINE, HAS JUST OBSERVED ANOTHER VIOLENT OUTRAGE BY HER FATHER, AND THIS TIME, HER SISTER TOOK THE BRUNT OF IT. NICKY IS STARTING TO FORM OPINIONS ABOUT MEN, HER PARENTS, FRIENDSHIPS, AND UNDERSTANDS IN ORDER TO SURVIVE, SHE’D BETTER SHUT DOWN AND KEEP HER HEART CLOSED.
From my hiding place I watch everything. My father whips my sister again. She is helpless and cannot escape. She’s somersaulting, stumbling, and falling as the belt ...
Continue Reading →IN PREVIOUS POSTS, NICKY AND JENISE, SISTERS TRYING TO SURVIVE IN AN ALCOHOLIC FAMILY, ARE LEFT ALONE WITH THEIR FATHER WHILE THEIR MOTHER IS AT WORK. THEIR FATHER IS COMING UNGLUED AS HE STRUGGLES TO MAINTAIN EVEN THOUGH HIS BODY CRAVES HIS LIQUID CANDY, HIS WHISKEY.
THE GIRLS FACE THE WRATH OF HIS BELT, AND NICKY WATCHES, ALL THE WHILE TAKING APART AND ANALYZING THE PUNISHMENT, EVEN AS A LITTLE GIRL OF EIGHT, KNOWING SOMETHING IS WRONG ...
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