VICTORY STUMBLES

VICTORY STUMBLES is an upper middle grade, contemporary fiction, 52,000-word novel about grief-stricken, twelve-year-old Sarah who must choose between obeying her alcoholic father and keeping the dog she loves.

Before Mom died, laughter filled Sarah’s and her parents’ lives and bedwetting was her only worry. But now, Sarah is more likely to come home to Dad passed out on the couch. Sarah tries to hide the turmoil in her family from her best friend, LEAH, but it is hard to fake-smile when her dad’s depression and grief spin Sarah into a daily mess as she struggles to help Dad manage the very loss she needs to face. Worse yet, Dad increasingly uses alcohol to blunt his pain which blurs his sadness with anger and frustration.

Forced to obey Dad but refusing to abandon her dog, Coda, Sarah takes Coda next door to CHESTER, the grandfatherly neighbor who raises Huskies for amateur sled dog racing. Although Mom loved Chester like a father, Dad blames him for Mom’s death and has refused to let Sarah speak to him. At first Sarah just intends to stop by to feed Coda daily, but when Chester invites her to help with the dogs, she can’t resist the opportunity to be with Coda, even if it means spending time with Chester’s grandson, PATRICK, who frustrates her interactions with Chester and the dogs.

Sarah longs for Dad’s sobriety and hopes the dad she knew before Mom died will return to her. As the second anniversary of Mom’s death approaches, Dad loses his job. He must not find out Sarah supports her dog’s keep, learning amateur sled dog racing. Threading lies to protect Coda and Dad, Sarah must untangle the truth about Mom’s death before what’s left of her family unravels completely.

VICTORY STUMBLES won the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Michigan Chapter’s Non-PAL mentorship writing contest August 2018; I spent 2019 and most of 2020 revising the manuscript per Kelly Barson’s mentoring. Also, in October 2021, Suzie Townsend, Vice President of New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc., selected VICTORY STUMBLES as one of two full manuscripts she reviewed for the Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Novel and Retreat Whole Novel Critique. Suzie’s feedback informed the next revision of the manuscript. As Katherine Paterson stated, “I love revision. Where else can spilled milk be turned into ice cream.”

Check out Patrick’s story in the stand-alone companion title, ZERO’S HERO.