Challenge (Depending on the Morning Sun - collections, #2) / Depending on the Morning Sun - collections (ePub)

Here are nine new linked short stories about the trials and tribulations of the Reese-family from the dusty U.S. border-city of Yuma …

In a sweltering hot Los Angeles we find unemployed former addict, Carrie Reese, who is there to investigate if her businessman-turned-evangelist stepfather, Marcus Chen, really wants to favor her for a 100.000 dollar grant to 'change her life'. The upshot is that Carrie may be forced to promote Marcus' New Age 'Church Universal', which she has always been very apprehensive of-or is it the man behind the Church who she can't stand?

Meanwhile, Carrie's mother, Deborah, is faced with some unpleasant consequences of pushing her husband to put Carrie ahead of everyone else in the grant application process, and has to decide if she still wants to pursue her daughter's happiness above all-whether Carrie wants it or not.

CEO Marcus Chen himself is being targeted by his own IT company's board because his Church is getting hit hard in the press with sexual harassment accusations against instructors on his many spiritual self-improvement courses. Also Marcus is deeply conflicted about his relationship with his Carrie, wanting most of all to pay her back for all the times she has taken her anger about her own life-failures out on him.

Elsewhere in L.A., Carrie's nine-year-old daughter, Emma, visits her best friend, Marie, who was the victim of abuse at their old school. Emma is desperately searching for a way for things to be the way they were, but is not sure what it takes.

And back in Yuma, Carrie's husband, Jon, is thinking it was easier to be a soldier in Iraq than to take care of their autistic son alone all weekend. Then he gets a call that everything has gone to hell in L.A. much quicker than anyone ever thought it would …

This collection includes an exclusive story, "High Road", which rounds off the sequence in a dramatic and emotional finale.

About Depending on the Morning Sun:

Set in the U.S. South-West in 2015 and onward, these collections of linked short stories bring to life both the painful and beautiful experiences of a family where the youngest son is diagnosed with autism:

Carrie Sawyer Reese (born Caroline McDonnell 1979) - searching artist, recovered cocaine addict, special needs mom-in-training ...

Jonathan Reese (b. 1975) - Arizona state trooper, fighting crime and Iraq war PTSD - and fighting to keep his family together ...

Emma Reese (b. 2006) - intelligent and moody daughter of Carrie and Jon, always looking out for others but not so much for herself ...

Michael Reese (b. late 2008) - Emma's autistic little brother who can hardly speak but sometimes sees wonders that everyone else misses ...

The Depending on the Morning Sun stories are about life and how to make the best of it, no matter the odds.

For fans of books like The Garden of Last Days (Andre Dubus III), Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout) and the classic road-movie Paris-Texas.