DeLaine Reynolds receives a mysterious letter on a hot spring day that could change everything about her life as she’s grown accustomed to. No longer a young girl, she is settling into her middle age and not seeing much on the horizon when she received the thick, creamy cardstock envelope that will rock everything in her world.

After raising her son as a single mother, she thinks life is now about comfort and ease with no big decisions left to make. She putters around her home all alone when a wayward son enters her life and proves she still has life left to live and decisions to make.

DeLaine finds herself alone once again after the love of her life, Mike Bohannon asks for a divorce. Broken with no job and no car, she finds herself in McKinney, Texas at her daddy and new stepmother’s house, once again dependent on her parents. She must find what it takes to continue on without the love of her life. Will she find love again or will she continue with none to call her own?

Seventeen-year-old DeLaine Reynolds’ world has come crashing down just weeks before she begins her senior year of high school. Gone are her dreams of forever with Kevin Strong, the boy she’s loved since she was 13 years old. He was her savior when she lived in Wichita Falls, Texas. Kevin was her stepbrother Geoffrey’s best friend, and he came into her life after a killer tornado destroyed the life she knew. Together they’d been to hell and back. Just as DeLaine thought they would finally get to be together for good, she received word from her best friend, Bailey that Kevin will never be hers. The girl he’s been dating is pregnant. Now Kevin is stuck marrying, Jackie. And DeLaine is now stuck for good in Corpus Christi, Texas with her alcoholic mother. Certain that she will never love another, the teenager is taken by surprise when Mike Bohannon comes into her life and turns everything around. He is the perfect combination of Kevin and Jax, her boyfriend from junior high. She has been blessed to find Mike after having her heart destroyed. In him she is confident she finally has her forever…or does she?

The continuing sage of DeLaine Reynolds finds her maturing in ways she never dreamed possible. After promising Kevin to distance herself from her life in Wichita Falls to have an opportunity in her new hometown of Corpus Christi, she embarks on throwing herself into a regular life at school. She knows she cannot keep living in two opposite worlds, so she joints the theater arts club at school and finds she is a natural actress. Also, on her list of things to do she finally gets a real high school boyfriend and realizes that even with someone who adores her, she still can’t deny her feelings for Kevin. When life seems to finally be good for DeLaine, she finds she is just as conflicted about it as she has ever been. After a date goes violently wrong with someone she trusts, DeLaine decides the only life she wants is in Wichita Falls. Her last summer of her childhood, she goes back to her beloved hometown to her best friend, Bailey and the love of her life, Kevin only to realize that she no longer belongs there either. Her heart ends up shattered once she returns to begin her senior year of high school and she is left wondering how she can continue to pick up the pieces time after time.

DeLaine’s life looks much different than she ever could’ve imagined it would after the tornado on April 10, 1979, in her former hometown of Wichita Falls, Texas. Instead of going to Samson High School as she and her best friend, Bailey Rains envisioned they would after going to 7th grade there, while their beloved Milam Junior High was rebuilt, she now goes to high school almost 500 miles away with people she barely knows.

Instead of being with the boy she loves the most, Kevin Strong or rodeos and campfires with Bailey, Levi and Jax, DeLaine is now part of the party crowd of potheads and rebels at her new school, Woodway High. Trying to survive living with her mercurial, alcoholic mother, DeLaine finds her release getting high or drunk every weekend while she lives in Corpus Christi, but longs for her summers in Wichita Falls where she can be the girl she used to be.

DeLaine’s life takes more twists and turns as she survives even more heartbreak in her first two years of high school. What changes are ahead? Who will remain in her life that she has learned to love since the tornado changed so much of her existence? Who will be taken from her and change her and others she loves forever?

“Please Don’t Go” follows DeLaine into 8th grade. She is embarking on an intense and surprising journey through the junior high jungle. Now an upper classman of the newly minted and rebuilt Milam Junior High, she along with her best friend, Bailey Rains encounter many new, wonderful and sometimes heartbreaking lessons in life.

DeLaine’s new life seems to begin almost the minute she walks into the doors of her school! Unbelievably, she is no longer invisible, or it seems a peasant in the school’s social hierarchy! DeLaine is finding that being part of the popular crowd is attainable to someone like her. She can’t believe her luck and how different her days as an 8th grader compare to her miserable days as a 6th grader. With her unusual year being a 7th grader at Samson High School over, she is free to explore in a completely different group of friends than what she has ever known.

Her new group of friends include Jax Garrett as an upstanding member in their midst. DeLaine’s crush from 6th grade seems to confound her as much as Kevin Strong. Freshman, Kevin is no longer in the same school with DeLaine and she feels his absence even with the attention she’s receiving from cute cowboy, Jax.

Her home life continues to be a roller coaster ride of insanity with occasional peeks of hope, sprinkled throughout. Her stepmother, Clarice, seems to be happy with the caliber of friends DeLaine now has which makes life a bit more bearable. She had hopes that since she would no longer be in the high school, her stepbrother Geoffrey would calm down as much as his mother has towards her, but he continues to run hot and cold no matter what she does in regard to his best friend, Kevin Strong.

DeLaine’s life takes an unexpected twist halfway through her school year and she learns what true heartbreak is after receiving devastating news! How will she survive the huge changes coming into her life?

Too Much Heaven

Too Much Heaven is the third installment in the series about young DeLaine Reynolds.  DeLaine is continuing in her quest to overcome the horrific events of April 10, 1979 in Wichita Falls, TX.  Her family has finally moved into their new home that was rebuilt after the tornado devastated their entire existence by annihilating their home!  What will be in store for DeLaine in the last half of the school year as she finishes 7th grade inside of the local high school.  Will she finally have the chance to be with Kevin or will Geoff’s jealousy continue to ruin her chances at finding true love?  Will her step-mother continue to be somewhat civil or is it all just a ruse to placate DeLaine’s dad?  Read this latest installment to find out!

The Next Volume In DeLaine’s journey is now available!  

DeLaine is in 7^th grade at Samson High. She is 12 and on the verge of turning 13; a milestone. Learning about the changes she’s feeling in her body and mind, DeLaine realizes that physical feelings don’t always mean true love, as she thought when she was younger. Nevertheless, she develops feelings for Kevin Strong, her psychopathic stepbrother’s best friend and “King” of 8th grade. If he wasn’t untouchable for one reason- Geoffrey’s jealousy- then he is untouchable for his difference in age and status. Kevin doesn’t share her thoughts about their relationship being taboo. DeLaine is obliged to push Kevin away to minimize the abuse she will endure if her stepbrother ever knows her true feelings for his best friend. She has a budding friendship with one of the popular girls, Bailey Rains, and is surprised when Bailey shows nothing but warmth and kindness to a “complete zero” like her. DeLaine’s self-esteem gradually begins to develop as she spends more time with Bailey. Just when her life seems to be on an even keel, her stepmother comes home from the mental hospital. DeLaine’s new defiance allows her a different way to deal with the abuse she constantly receives from her step-monsters as she navigates adolescence.

The first book in the series is Dust in the Wind and occurs just after the tornado of Terrible Tuesday, April 10th, 1979 in Wichita Falls, TX. The journey of DeLaine Reynolds continues as she navigates the first half of 7th grade at Samson High

   Dust In The Wind

VOLUME 1:  The DeLaine Reynolds Journey

Based on the harrowing true events of 1979, 12 year-old DeLaine Reynolds is launched into adolescence by a horrific tornado that rips through her hometown. Already struggling with the increasing pressure from her abusive step-mother and step-brother, the little “rattle-trap trailer” she calls home begins to feel smaller and smaller after the storm passes. The advent of the 7th grade and high school only worsens her feelings of abandonment as she faces social hierarchy, bullying and the hint of first love.

Dust In The Wind is a vivid portrayal of the angst of growing up. As DeLaine navigates the treacherous waters of adolescence she finds islands of solace in Kevin, his warm family life, and standing up for herself. Both inspirational and entirely realistic, the author paints their attitudes and youth culture in a compassionate light – DeLaine and the supporting cast are characters easily empathized with. The first book in the continuing series following DeLaine, this is a must read for both young people and adults alike.

      

SaDonna Rogers-Author 

SaDonna traveled the US with her parents who had a band until she started first grade in Wichita Falls, TX. She wanted to become a writer at an early age and showed talent in this field throughout her school years. She wrote stories for her school newspapers from junior high through high school. Married shortly after graduating from high school in 1985, SaDonna put her dreams of a writing career to rest until 2012 when she decided to write the story her best friend suggested when she was 14 in 1980. SaDonna wanted to write a story to inspire people of all ages to find their voice. Divorced since 1991, she lives in Goliad, TX. Her son is in the US Army; she has two grandchildren . An advocate of pet rescue, SaDonna owns several dogs and cats, all of whom found their way to her home in the country.