Tall Pine Turning

** FINALIST ** 2016 Florida Royal Palm Literary Awards CompetitionIt is a story whose roots have grown into the headlines of today . . . Former Army brat Joan Hoover is ecstatic when her father lands a post-military position in the "hometown" she's never had -- the picturesque Southern Georgia hamlet of Mosby. Her hopes for a new life are shattered when she is rejected by her high school classmates, including the boys she labels "The Troop," who taunt Joan relentlessly. After a humiliating classroom incident, a despairing Joan is suddenly -- and inexplicably -- taken under the wing of fellow student and Mosby native RhondaLee Garrett. RhondaLee and her father, respected Mosby businessman Nelson Garrett, unite to help Joan and to smooth her acceptance into the community.Late one evening, not long after the girls' high school graduation, there is a horrible accident on the dark canopy road outside of town known as Tall Pine Turning. In the chaotic aftermath, Joan finds herself facing a formidable decision: Keep quiet about the accident and honor the loyalty that Nelson Garrett and his family have shown her. Or risk losing all that she and her family have attained in their new home. Her decision alters Joan's life forever, binding her even further to RhondaLee in a conspiracy of silence.Though haunted by her guilt, Joan discovers a niche for herself in the community. As the years pass, she becomes a respected journalist, increasingly embraced and honored by her adopted hometown, and known for her dedication to the more tolerant values evolving in the South. Years after that horrendous accident, the discovery of a piece of Mosby's historic -- and controversial -- past becomes the springboard for the possible exposure of the girls' long-held secret, forcing them to make new, more difficult, choices.From the complacent days of the early 1970s until the dawn of a "New South" nearly two decades later, Tall Pine Turning traces the struggle of one young woman to not only deal with her guilt, but to cope with the slowly changing mores of a small Southern town, and ultimately, forcing her to question how much change has actually come about.