A New Novel

"Don't ever hitchhike! Promise me! How many million times had my mom drilled that into me? If I don't end up sliced and diced and buried in a shallow grave, she is gonna kill me."

Accepting a ride across the Mojave Desert, at night, from a fake-o youth minister wearing a stained, maroon polyester leisure suit, eating "alien jerky", and listening to the Eagles, was Wiley's first big mistake. Well, ok, her second...or maybe third?

Wiley Bishop, fourteen years old, too tall, too independent, and a smart-ass to boot, was supposed to meet her wayward, survival expert/treasure-hunting dad in the Mojave Desert for some spring break trekking and rock climbing, a cool and very unique environment that they both love exploring. Unfortunately Dad has disappeared while on the trail of lost conquistadors and their plundered gold. Only Wiley seems to care. Her volleyball coach, perfect mom says he's just pouting since their divorce. That his mottos are "Be a moving target" and "Time is just a social construct!" But he wouldn't do that to his only daughter, would he? Ditch her on her spring break?

Fearing her dad is dying somewhere in the desert with a broken leg or pinned under an abandoned mine cave-in, Wiley concocts a desperate plan, tells her mom a Big Fat Lie, and sets off to find her father, risking life and limb, getting lost in the beautiful but also dangerous Mojave, and encountering an array of helpful (and not so helpful) colorful desert inhabitants including: a crusty hermit with a temper and a secret, a motherly road-kill chef, a bronc-riding BFF with major rizz, a local historian with a taste for bad taxidermy, a nasty motorcycle gang, and a herd of free-ranging feral donkeys.

Relying on her wit, grit, climbing skills, wilderness know-how, and an instinct for trouble and BS, Wiley follows a trail of Dad's secret notebooks, ancient Native American petroglyphs, and dubious frontier treasure maps through the heart of the Mojave, including the "Olde West" boomtown of Oatman, Arizona, Historic Highway 66, and the rugged beauty of the surrounding wilderness areas that are under imminent danger from climate change and human greed.

The plucky, young adventurer eventually finds more than she ever imagined or bargained for, including a belief in herself and the family she thought she'd never have.

Pluck is a story of love, the fight to preserve nature, desert survival, and one girl's desperate attempt to reunite her broken family...oh, and maybe find a freaking lost conquistador gold mine in the process!

(Currently in process of agent/publisher search)