A toddler in an emotionally explosive and unstable family has her leg amputated. In spite of significant hurdles, she powers through to become a successful career woman and equally successful single parent.
Wendy Sura Thomson is a 5-star author of Summon the Tiger, The Third Order, The Man from Burnt Island, and Postcards from the Future (as a contributing author.) She has several more works underway. She lives in Michigan with her beloved Setters and covets sipping coffee outdoors first thing in the morning, rain or shine., listening to the waterfall and the birds and watching [often with amusement] the pups explore.
Nineteen years old, and I boarded the freighter my father bought in Amsterdam and headed out, the last noncommercial ship to leave the Detroit River before the icebreakers got ready for the season.
This was an adventure filled to the brim with mishaps. Ambitious, but ultimately a failed dream that ended up unfulfilled. My poor dad: trying in vain to resolve undiagnosed PTSD.
Book Excerpt
Summon the Tiger
My dad had run out of outfitting time, so when we cast off we were pretty much the last ship to leave the Detroit River. The great plans for a two-story house in the rear hatch were quite incomplete: there was an open stairway, the beginnings of a full kitchen, and not a whole lot else. We stowed a Rolls Royce and the Mustang convertible in the front hold, along with all the furniture. We were left using the original crew quarters far aft. This craft, built in the 1930’s, was very much a ship that could have been used in a King Kong movie. The crew quarters were all varnished wood, with the bunks very narrow and protected with a raised edge so it would be difficult to be dumped out in heavy seas. My mother and sister had glued colorful fabric on some of the walls, and the stateroom Jimmy and I shared was decorated in an orange and pink paisley fabric. Jimmy took the top bunk. There was only standing room between the bunks and the door – I became quite able to slip a long flannel nightgown over my head and get completed dressed within it.
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