Showing results by author "Nancy Wood" in All Categories

Private Investigator Shelby McDougall is out for revenge. Repeated miscarriages have caused Shelby's marriage to disintegrate. Financial ruin lies ahead. A cheek swab sent to an online ancestry service turns up a surprise child: Shelby’s genetic offspring - found in the misty ether of the internet. The only way Shelby can hang on to her shredding sanity is to take things into her own hands and, once and for all, locate and apprehend Helen Brannon - the woman responsible for hijacking her fertility...and her future. As Shelby closes in on her target, the stakes get higher and higher.

Shelby McDougall’s past is behind her. Almost. It’s been five and a half years since Shelby put her infant twins up for adoption, and she’s finally on track. Back in Santa Cruz, California, she’s sharing an apartment with her brother, Dexter, and in her second year of criminal justice studies. She’s landed her dream job as an intern to local PI Kathleen Bennett. And her stone-cold love life is heating up. Then, a late-night phone call puts Shelby’s perfectly ordered life into a tailspin.

Surrogate mother Shelby McDougall just fell for the biggest con of all: a scam that risks her life...and the lives of her unborn twins. Twenty-three-year-old Shelby McDougall is facing a mountain of student debt and a memory she’d just as soon forget. An ad in Rolling Stone for a surrogate mother offers her a way to erase the loans and right her karmic place in the cosmos. Within a month, she’s signed a contract, relocated to Santa Cruz, California, and started fertility treatments.

When 10-year-old Tyler signs up for a Saturday afternoon treasure hunt sponsored by the city’s Parks department, he discovers much more than he bargained for. His beloved Granny had begged him to register. She said he’d meet new kids, see some new places in Santa Cruz, and spend an afternoon outside, away from the computer. Tyler agreed, believing that when the day came, he’d be back with his mom.

Seventeen skilled and diverse writers, united by their experience of chronic post-infectious illness, offer their thoughts on everything from gaslighting and grieving to birds and baking. Funny, poignant, desperate or reflective: this collection has it all. Dip into it occasionally or read it from cover-to-cover - whatever you choose you’ll find it rewarding.