STAND FOR SOMETHING -Or- THE BLOOD NEVER FORGETS

A violent attack can strike anyone at any time, anywhere without clear cause or reason. The third book in our Dani Series begins on a beautiful day in June when Dani has every reason to be happy and not a clue her family's lives are about to be wrecked. The aftermath of the event is traumatic, of course, but trauma is insidious like an illness that spreads in complex ways; but unlike an illness, trauma digs in for the long haul even as the shock fades; it might even fool us and pretend to be gone altogether, when it is only hiding and waiting to strike again unexpectedly like the violence that caused it.

As usually happens, victims of violence are left to pick up the pieces and go on with their lives; and that's really the story Dani has written. The picking up part and the going on. There is a morning after, a new day; and that's sometimes where the best part of life can begin. But first, one has to survive the pain of the memories.

"Shouldn't I be trying to forget?" asks Dani.

"No," says her Grandpa. "It is a mistake to forget...You cannot snuff out your most powerful memories. Trying to is futile...you can't move on without them and you can't fight them. They always win. What you need to do is keep them alive, give them a portal and a way for them to come and go through that portal, and when they come they will speak to you and give you strength. So it is very important to listen to your memories. That is what the good medicine is. On one side is the memory-speaking one, on the other is you the listening one."

At some level, we could say this story, this very book, is the memory speaking, and you the reader are the listener, for, as Dani's story reveals, the trauma belongs to all of us. 

The story, as told by Dani herself as a third-person observer, threads her narrative tightly through her own character, a technique that creates urgency and tension and, for the reader, a personal sense of experience.