Ashley St. Helens doesn’t belong in her own home anymore. Constantly belittled by her perfectionist stepmom and stepsisters, she finds refuge in cleaning and dreams of the day she can break free and go to college. Her life really takes a Cinderella turn when her estranged gay “fairy” godfather appears. Harry empowers her to find her voice and embark on a journey of self-expression as her high school days come to an end.
On prom night, Harry reveals the secrets of Ashley’s family, and she gets a drag queen makeover—with just the right shoes. Transforming from shy misfit to a beauty worthy of sharing the spotlight with the boy she’s loved since second grade, she realizes that self-discovery and creating meaningful relationships are her right and responsibility. But when her stepmother interferes with prom politics and comedic drama erupts, Ashley realizes she can’t expose her secret identity. Running barefoot through the creek path under a benevolent moon, Ashley loses a shoe but gains something far more valuable – the strength to choose her own path and stand on her own two enormous feet in the face of adversity. Brimming with heart and nostalgia, "The Souls of Her Feet" tackles universal themes of growing up, transformation, self-discovery and self-creation. It’s a funny, empowering contemporary fairy tale that reminds us of the importance of embracing our uniqueness.
Uplift Press offers fiction, parenting, psychology, memoir, and children's books that inspire, educate, and uplift readers who want to celebrate their best lives.
The year I was born was a bit like this one. There were protests in the national news and police beatings horrified the country. That was the year the Civil Rights Act was born.
Half a century later the next wave is crashing. But even as we are finally tearing down the icons of racism and closing the loopholes of privilege, human rights are under attack all over the world.
Underneath his makeup, my closeted gay fairy godfather character is a civil rights lawyer. This makes him even more of a hero to me!
#pride #blm #justice #civilrights #humanrights
Book Excerpt
The Souls of Her Feet
As he worked, we talked and talked. He told me about his work. He’d had a brilliant legal career that went from being a habeas corpus petition specialist for a prestigious civil rights non-profit to directing a controversial innocence project for post-conviction relief, with all sorts of interesting human rights work in between. (Which, of course, made no sense to me in my heightened emotional state; all I understood that night was the “lawyer” part.) He talked about mom, and about dad. I told him all about school, and caught him up on some of our friends he used to know. Oh my GOD, it was great just to have someone to talk to like that... and to laugh! We joked about how he was my Harry godfather, my fairy godmother and—he pulled the collar of his dress aside a little to prove it—my hairy godmother, as well.
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