Titles
Cover The Coo
Trek Baden is the first in her family to go to college, the prestigious University of Texas at Austin. Everyone gives her advice on how to be successful. Her mother says, "Get your education and you can write your own ticket!" Her crazy aunt says, "Find a rich man!" However, it was her grandmother who, while attending Trek's graduation party and watching all the single mothers and their children running around the house, leans over to her, pats her knee and whispers, "Cover the coo." In other words, don't have sex before marriage.
But Trek doesn't listen.
She maintains the relationship with her boyfriend Ferris from high school and also falls for one of the guys at UT. Unfortunately, she ends up pregnant and is unsure which guy is her baby's father (very "Jerry-Springer-meets-Maury-Povich"). To forsake the shame, she makes plans to terminate her pregnancy...or can she be convinced to keep her baby?
"Cover The Coo" is a page-turner where the tension of Trek's dilemma is felt by the reader who is left in suspense about what will she choose.
Backseats and Bleachers: A High School Love Story
Trek Baden is a 16-year-old stellar student at Willowridge High School and member of the Wings Drill Team whose mother has just approved her to go out on dates. There are two guys that are really into her - a 16-year-old minister/fellow student at Willowridge and a 19-year-old recently paroled felon from her dad's neighborhood. Unfortunately, she chooses to date the felon (Ferris) and begins the downward spiral from "little diva" to desperate/disposable. Although Ferris is genuinely in love with Trek, he has a problem controlling his temper, a reality that will mirror the situation her mother suffered at the hands of her father.
Can bad-patterns be broken? If so, how, and at whose expense? Does love have to hurt?
"Backseats and Bleachers: A High School Love Story" is the third installment of the Trek Baden coming-of-age series and explores the realities of teen-dating violence.
Secret Shame
Trek Baden is now 12-years-old and living in the suburbs of Houston where she believes she will encounter "a better crop of people." Unfortunately, her new best friend and neighbor is Rhodee, a 14-year-old girl who dates 20-year-old Big Mike. Rhodee regularly skips school and smokes weed. She is also carrying a secret: her dad's best friend is molesting her and paying her to keep quiet.
Trek tries to be a positive influence on Rhodee instead of being drawn into her chaos. However, Rhodee's chaos needs more than the love and commitment of her best friend. Her situation must be exposed. But will that do more harm than good?
"Secret Shame" is the second installment of a four-part series of the coming-of-age journey of Trek Baden.
Premature Pleasures
It's the summer. School's out. The kids are home alone, unsupervised. "Premature Pleasures" follows the summer activities of Trek Baden, an impressionable 11-year-old with the body of a 15-year-old who hooks up with three wild teen girls in her inner-city apartment complex in Houston, Texas. Adult male predators, Jell-O shots and poor supervision threaten Trek’s innocence, until a 20-something-year-old woman from a church in the community hosts a Vacation Bible School in the complex followed by a weekly gathering, providing structured activities, mentoring and ministry to Trek and to the other young people in the community. However, change does not come quickly nor easily, despite one’s good intentions.
"Premature Pleasures" explores “the power of influence,” specificially the reality of how one positive person, situation or experience can flip a host of negative influences.
"Premature Pleasures" is the first of the four-part YA-series depicting the coming-of-age journey of Trek Baden.
