Enjoy the first three chapters free -

Stunned by their parents' murder, terrified of the killers, and afraid of being separated, six-year-old Nicky and nine-year-old Pete Piedmont flee to a mountain cave outside Chattanooga, Tennessee where they hide for three years. They live like wild animals with the older ruling the younger. The 154 page novel begins with lonely Nicky spotting a boy camping with his parents. The mountain boy sneaks away from his bossy brother to join them. His fierce desire to belong to a family clashes with his dislike of rules. The humorous Mountain Boy in the City shows Nicky's misadventures along the jagged trail to becoming a responsible young teenager. His blackest moment is when he rides his spotted horse at night to find his brother. And the old Appaloosa is too injured to ever be ridden again. Can he give Reggie to Bebe who "Weely lufs the potted hoase?"

The brothers survive with difficulty by watching how the animals live. Nicky's fierce desire to belong to a family clashes with his inability to conform to society's rules. Mountain Boy In the City shows Nicky's coming of age.

A number of years ago I adopted and raised two children, ages five and nine, who had been tossed back and forth for three years between foster homes and their own troubled family. While bringing up the younger of these boys, I learned the reasons for his gross immaturity and craving to immediately bond to other people. At the same time my husband and I ran an Appaloosa breeding and show farm in Chattanooga that we later moved to upstate New York. Our experiences together during my adoptive son's early years inspired this story.

I entered the writing field after I raised my family. Since then I have had poems published in The Anthology of South Florida Poets and human interest articles published in the PWA Coalition of Palm Beach County's newsletter On a Positive Note. I have worked as a publication editor for The South Florida Poetry Revue. I have been a staff writer for Seabreeze Magazine. And I have co-edited the trustee handbook for the William Bingham Foundation of which I was a trustee until I split off to form my own foundation, The Molly Bee Fund.

I belong to Florida Freelance Writer's Association, The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and National Writers' Association. I have a BA in English from FAU where I took a number of writing workshops.

Sincerely,

Mary E. Gale