Brenda Youngerman

With eyes cast downward, careful not to catch anyone's glance, Nancy slid through the crowd unnoticed. She had gotten quite good over the years at blending in because she realized that calling attention to herself only got her into trouble. If she wanted to get anything accomplished, she had to go silently. This was her big chance to get away, her only chance to break free. Her heart was beating rapidly, pounding in her ears; she was sure that the sound was loud enough for those around her to hear. Sweat was dripping from every pore of her body, and her clothes were sticking to her skin-she was not even sure if she were hot or cold, not aware of the actual temperature, not really aware of anything, just the need to flee, the need to break away, the need for air and freedom.

Every parent's nightmare is to lose their child in a custody battle.
I believe that when a situation is so extreme as to make a person go into hiding all aspects of that life are not completely thought out in advance. Writing Public Lies allowed me to take a reader along for a ride as we played out that fantasy - a mother actually takes her children and creates a brand new life for herself and her children. She never expected her son to want to see his father, and her worst nightmare of her abusive ex-husband hunting her down all but came true.
The responses I received from this book completely overwhelmed me. I had letters from people asking me for advice on how to get their children back.
Apparently my 'fiction' was so realistic the readers thought I had actually lived the story myself.

As my children grew up, so did I. I had not intended to be a single parent....well I guess I had not really gotten married with the intention of getting divorced either. But sometimes life doesn't work out the way you plan it. I found myself the parent of 3 teenagers and what I really found more astonishing than anything else was how many other teenagers there were around us whose parents really didn't listen (or at least that's what I heard!)

It seemed to me that the new tattoo and piercing phase a lot of them were going through was really just their way of trying to get attention. Albeit negative attention, they were still trying to get attention. So, I got this crazy idea to write a book about teenagers who hid their parents abuses. What I ended up with was a totally different book....

Hidden Truths.

I had just written the outline when my daughter came home from school and told me her English teacher made this comment: "Some parents should never have had children." She looked straight at her, and continued, "Like you." To put it mildly I was mad.....raging....angry. I immediately requested a meeting with this teacher and when we were seated in the same room she actually stood up and said to me, "I don't have time for this," and walked away.

So, Hidden Truths took a bit of a turn towards teachers who don't seem to care about the students they are teaching.....

And with Hidden Truths I decided that I wanted to do a bit of research as a writer so I changed the location to Indiana. What I was not expecting was the reaction I received from all the radio interviews I had. Most of the people that read the book thought is was non-fiction. I made the whole thing up! I was well on my way to becoming a real author!

As a child, I would always want to bring home the stray dogs. As an adult, I would always allow the kids who had gotten in trouble at home to spend the night at our house. I had wanted to get involved in some sort of program volunteering for assisting with homeless for a number of years and the opportunity arose in October, 2008 - right after Hidden Truths came out. I was introduced to the Brothers of the Missionaries of Charity in downtown Los Angeles. My life has not been the same since then.

What started out as research for a book has turned into a part of my life that I don't see myself giving up anytime soon. I look forward to Saturday mornings and seeing the people who have come to mean so much to me. The best part about this is that Saturdays are broken into two distinctly different portions. The first half is the preparation and there is a core group of us. Of course we do get different volunteers that come and go. And then there is the second half which is the distribution. We have our regular routes and although we have our 'regulars' on our routes there are times when some of them go 'missing' which is a bit distressing. With the homeless population being what it is, you can never say for certain why someone is missing. And then when they reappear it is as if they were never gone.

I never did tell anyone that I was there trying to get information for a novel. Of course they all know it now....but the book has been out for quite a while!

It's not easy growing up in a large family ---
It's not easy growing up when you're not noticed ---
It's not easy growing up --- period!
When Sorrowed Souls was finished and being edited there was an extra person that just didn't belong - and she ended up getting her own book!
The strangest part about Samantha is that she is really the every person that everyone knows - the kid that goes unnoticed, the little sister that we all have, or were, the student that sits in the back of the class and never says a word, you know who I'm talking about.

AND then you have Tim - he grew up in the 'normal' family . . . and they have so much in common.....

Restored Hope is all about what we all want .... Hope....Love....Laughter....Someone to hold hands with at the end of the day, or maybe the whole point of Restored Hope is that no matter what happens there is always something better right around the corner....

AND maybe that is what Fiction with a Purpose is all about.....No matter how bad, or how small, or how tired, or how battered, NO ONE is alone.

I LOVE Reader's feedback.....

That being said.....I had received an email a couple of years ago asking me if I had ever considered writing a book about adoption and finding a child. I then wrote back and we exchanged emails and when I tried to reconnect I received nothing in return. THAT was the basis for Disrupted Lives; however, me being me, and Fiction with a Purpose being larger than anything I ever expected it to be, Disrupted Lives became much bigger than adoption and locating a child.