One day, my awesome critique partner and I were walking (to keep our bottoms ends from spreading) and talking about writing (because, duh). I was struggling to come up with an analogy for all of my many first-draft pantser problems and my amazing CP said this:

“It’s like a maze.”

And I said, “Yes! It’s exactly like a maze.” 

The Impossible Knife of Memory
by Laurie Halse Anderson 


For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.

Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over?