Pink

Fresh out of a relationship, Shawnna Green is heartbroken, lost, and almost penniless. She decides to start over in New Orleans to find a new sense of self, despite her ex hampering her progress. With the help of her best friend, Veda, she finds employment at Stumpy’s Sex Emporium where she deals with customers that range from the strange to the hilarious. At the same time, Shawnna discovers that women, sex, and dating, are not what they used to be, but neither is she. In finding herself, she uncovers a part she didn’t know existed, and that’s not always a good thing. Can Shawnna pick herself up, reach out, and connect with the people around her? A smoldering look at the things we hide from ourselves. For eight years, Grae Jordan has been trapped in a purgatory of her own making. She has spiralled from the privileged life into which she was born to the lowest stratum of society. Grae guards her heart with a protective wall as hard as granite, adorns her body with tattoos and metal, and eschews dating the women she once enjoyed. A rash of convictions for petty crimes distances her even further from her old life. But when she rescues and cares for a skinny street kid named Marcus, her armour cracks, and the world she has long held at bay begins to beckon. When Grae is arrested for defending herself and Marcus against a vicious attack from homophobic co-workers, it appears to be just one more despair in her hard-luck life. But this time her birth family and an assortment of new friends rally to her side and begin to chip away at her stony exterior. The prospect of redemption, and even love, is tantalizingly within reach when misfortune strikes again. Will Grae run in the face of adversity, as shes done for eight bleak years? Or will the love of family, friends, and one special woman prove that her fate is not written in stone? Length: 110,000 words