These are projects which were developed for clients as a co-writer or ghostwriter. In each case, the client is the lead writer.
GENERAL INTEREST, BIOGRAPHIES, AND SURVIVOR STORIES
MY NAME ISN’T MARIA.
A story of a woman who escaped from oppression in a Communist country into domestic violence and abuse by a half-brother resulting in a child, a trial, a conviction, and eventual triumph in her adopted country, Canada.
The escape from Romania to Canada is like a filmed adventure story, with a six week trek through the mountains, a run from the police and their dogs, a day hiding in the river and losing food supplies, and a voyage to Canada in a container on a ship, before being discovered by sailors and turned over to immigration.
Meanwhile, the violence and abuse started, escalating from occasional beatings to being kept hostage, suffering from regular violence and sexual abuse, and having a child. Finally, after a day of being tied to a chair and beaten, she made her dramatic escape to her apartment manager’s office, followed by an arrest, trial, conviction, and 7 year sentence, covered by the media.
Now, after a year in a safe house and recovery from the trauma, the woman, now living with a boyfriend and working in his store as they raise her child, tells her story.
(Proposal available).
A LAW FOR MY DAUGHTER.
A mother’s story about how she fought for a law for victims in her daughter’s name, after her daughter was killed by her husband after 14 years of abuse.
He couldn’t keep a job, set up schemes to cheat welfare, and moved her from state to state to evade the law. When she was ready to leave with the kids, he brutally killed her and after a dramatic trial, is in prison for life.
The mother struggled to raise her daughter’s kids and battled with the husband, who tried to control the lives of his kids from his cell. This battle led her to seek legislation to keep parents who kill or seriously injure their spouses from exercising parental rights — and the law has recently passed in Georgia, is pending in Texas, and is going national.
It has already gotten local publicity and more is expected as more and more states pass this legislation.
(Proposal and chapter available).
BETRAYAL: A PRISON GUARD’S STORY.
He was a prison guard in upstate New York who thought he had it all – a wife who was the daughter of the Commissioner of Corrections, two kids, a part-time job as a security guard, and the support of members of the prison guard’s union when he fought to improve their conditions.
But he angered a captain with his efforts to help the guards, and when he was injured by a prisoner in a battle over a blanket, the captain turned the incident into a vendetta to bring him down.
The guard almost lost everything and the struggle turned into a lawsuit as he fought to overcome his injury and rebuild his life.
(Completed book sold in limited edition on the Internet and to criminal justice professionals).