Bi-racial, fourteen-year-old Rainbeau Harley wants nothing more than to maintain her freedom from neglectful parents and achieve her dream to become a tattoo artist. She works more diligently in her uncle's tattoo shop than she does at school. When eighth grade ends, her mother's manfriend makes her feel unsafe in the round wooden yurt she calls home. Rainbeau agrees to a road trip across the country with her mother to avoid his advances. On the journey, she learns to improvise, adapt, and overcome to survive a soaking in the Mississippi, to avoid a peeping Tom and a tatted cat lady, and to confront an Oyster and things hairy with giant teeth. Rainbeau must relinquish her dreams and her freedom in order to attain what she truly desires - a real family. Readers who enjoy the works of Sharon Creech and Jane Smiley will appreciate the first book in this series by Cerredwyn Horrigan. "The dialogue-rich story creates multidimensional characters that come to life on the page. In addition, Horrigan's coming-of-age novel has a fast-paced plot that brims with life lessons. An intimate, emotional journey through the hardships of one girl's adolescence." - Kirkus Reviews
About the Author: Cerredwyn grew up in the horse and art worlds. In college, she studied psychology, English, biology, anthropology, and theatre and almost didn't get her degree when she angered the administration. She managed to graduate and continued her studies in Eastern religions, advanced mathematics, textiles, and psychopharmacology. The eclectic course selection confused her professors and she did not complete her master's. While living in Vienna, she wrote a document on cocaine for the United Nations and waltzed at a masked ball at the Hofburg Palace. In Oregon, she worked as a journalist for local and national magazines. Her favorite assignment was interviewing New Age gurus. She also enjoyed her time as a mounted security officer and coloring flash in a tattoo shop. Her current life consists of spending time with her beloved husband and awesome daughter. She can be found leading a Girl Scout troop, substitute teaching, and occasionally bellydancing. She also trains her dressage horse, sings in a choir, and reads avidly. As an entrepreneur, she edits numerous books, meets with designers, chooses marketing plans, signs contracts, does school visits and book signings, and of course, writes. She has written numerous picture books, a middle-grade novel, and is currently working on the second Rainbeau Harley book. Only in hindsight have the disparate elements of her life begun to make sense.