Bully and victim.
Tormenter and tormented.
Villain and hero.
Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable.
Particularly Freaky Flynn.
Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.
But then Flynn and Ellie grew up.
And moved on.
Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.
When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who inexplicably find a connection in each other.
And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an unlikely love story unfolds.
But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the further you try to run from yourself the closer you come to who you really are.
5 things you need to know about Flynn (or Ellie)
How about a little of both-
1. Ellie was written as an unlikable character that is ever so slowly redeemed. I never intended that people like her right away and given the reaction readers have to her, I think I succeeded. She's a broken, damaged girl who has been nurtured to become a hateful, abusive human being. People like that keep others at a distance and Ellie is horribly self-destructive. Her reactions aren't rational. They are made with a sense of self-preservation. And she is a survivor at all costs.
2. Writing Flynn's POV was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I knew that I wanted to portray a realistic look at the thought process of someone with high functioning autism (Aspergers). So I had a good author friend who's child has autism read his chapters for authenticity. I then gave the chapters to a former co-worker who is the head of the Special education department at the school where I used to work and who interacts daily with students who have autism. I was paranoid that I wouldn't get it right.
3. I never wanted to show the details of Ellie and Flynn's HEA (happily ever after). I wanted it to be left up in the air. However, I became sort of obsessed with wondering what became of them. Whether they were able to stay together and make a life. So I decided to write a sequel. Chasing the Tide, that will be released on December 16th.
4. The connection between Ellie and Flynn's art was one of my favorite subtexts within the story. This is a girl who never dared to dream and yet through Flynn's sculptures (which she didn't know he made until much later), she opens herself up to possibilities. I wanted to show that fate had a hand in their path from the very beginning.
5. Ellie's interactions with the shelter dog, Murphy, were very important to the story. Ellie was diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder at an early age. Reactive Attachment Disorder, or RAD, basically means that she is unable to connect on an emotional, empathetic level with others. Often times these children/people have to receive intensive residential treatment mostly due to severe behavioral issues as a result of their diagnosis. Ellie's connection with Murphy is vital because often children with RAD will be encouraged to interact with animals to begin a level of empathy. It can be a great therapy. And for Ellie, Murphy is easier to connect with, to empathize with than people. Because his love is unconditional and she needed that. He was her therapy in the book.
He missed me.
After everything I had done to him.
He missed me.
I couldn't respond. I had nothing to say to that. I couldn't reciprocate because I hadn't missed him. I had spent most of the last six years despising him. Blaming him for things that weren't his fault. It had been easier to hate him than to hate myself.
"You stopped talking to me. After my birthday. You never called me again. Mom said to leave you alone. That you weren't my friend. But you were my friend. Because you told me I was and I believed you." His eyes were bright and even though he wouldn't look directly at me, I knew his eyes were wet..
I should tell him the truth. I should shatter his illusions of me before they could grow into something more dangerous.
His mother hadn't told him what I had done. She had saved him from that particular pain. I didn't know whether to be thankful or upset that sh e had done that. Because now here were, six years later, on the cusp of something not yet realized and i struggled.
I wanted to tell him. But I wanted to lie as well. I liked the way he looked at me. To Flynn Hendrick, Ellie McCallum was important. She was wanted. If i told him the truth about that night, I was sure that would all change.
I have only ugly girl cried during my blogging career twice.
Both times were in thanks to the wonderful A. Meredith Walters. I was
introduced to her writing when I read Find
You In The Dark and cried my eyes out. Thank the heavens she had a sequel
to that story as well or I would have lost my mind and sworn off reading her
books ever again.
So, as you may have guessed – Reclaiming The Sand was my second ugly girl cry. But that might
have been in partial due to the fact that it had not been announced that there
would be more to their story. The ending
kind of leave it up to your imagination as to if Ellie and Flynn have their
happily ever after. I was not ok with that. I need undeniable proof that they
make it work!
The synopsis doesn’t lie, you don’t like Ellie very much
when you start getting into the book, but you can’t help but love Flynn. You
kind of want to smack Ellie upside the head and yell ‘what the hell is wrong
with you?’ like 60% of the book. But with Flynn you see this other wise of
Ellie that you actually begin to warm up to.
Anything A. Meredith Walters writes is golden in my eyes. Reclaiming The Sand is no different.
A. Meredith spent ten years as a counselor for at risk teens and children. First working at a Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault program and then later a program for children with severe emotional and mental health issues. Her former clients and their stories continue to influence every aspect of her writing.
When not writing (or being tortured with all manner of beauty products at the hand of her very imaginative and extremely girly daughter), she is eating chocolate, watching reality television that could rot your brain and reading a smutty novel or two.
A. Meredith is represented by Michelle Johnson with the Inklings Literary Agency.
Find A. Meredith Walters:
Like A. Meredith Walters on Facebook
Follow A. Meredith Walters on Twitter @AuthorAMWalters
Become a fan of A. Meredith Walters on Goodreads
Blog: http://ameredithwalters.blogspot.com/
Bully and Victim
Friend and Lover
Past and Future
Ellie McCallum and Flynn Hendrick’s story was as painful as it was devastating. But they were able to find within each other an unlikely yet beautiful love. Despite the obstacles that tried to keep them apart.
And together they rose out of the ashes of their tragic history.
Now years after their life changing reunion Ellie is back in Wellston, having just graduated from college and ready to start her future with the man who taught her how to love. However, returning to a town that held so much bitterness and anger was the last place she wanted to start over.
But for Flynn, who is now an art professor at the community college and firmly rooted in the place that gave them their beginning, she’d do just about anything.
Yet it’s difficult building a life when you’ve only just learned how to live.
And love, no matter how strong, doesn’t always conquer all.
Ellie and Flynn must learn how far they are willing to go to stay together. Or whether the ghosts of the past will consume them both.
Because finding a happily ever after is harder than it seems. Particularly when you’re fighting against the one thing that could destroy you.
Yourself.
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