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Set in rural Georgia in the 1960s-70s, BREAKING TWIG is a coming-of-age novel about Becky (Twig) Cooper, a young woman trying to survive the physical and emotional abuse of her mother, Helen, a beautiful, calculating woman who can, with a mere look, send the meanest cur in Sugardale, Georgia running for its life. Not even Twig's vivid imagination, keen wit, and dark sense of humor is enough to help her survive the escalating assaults of Helen and a new stepbrother, but help comes from an unexpected source--Frank, her stepfather. Sometimes, having one person who loves and believes in you is all a girl needs to keep hope alive. Over the next eight years, Becky's tumultuous struggle to prevail-becoming neither a "pick" (victim) nor a "picker" (abuser)-finds her bouncing back and forth between Helen's abuse and Frank's tenderness as she fights to win this desperate battle of souls. On Halloween night, she and Helen argue and all lies are stripped away. Now, Becky must make a fateful decision-one that can give her the freedom she craves or destroy forever the new life and love she has finally found.Often raw and irreverent and sprinkled with all the Southern flavoring found in a good bowl of chicken and dumplings, BREAKING TWIG, is about finding love where we least expect it, destroying lives with easy lies, and realizing each of us determine our own truth.