Courage to endure.
Courage to survive.
Courage to overcome.
Tenacious 14-year-old Ashley Asher claws her way back to normalcy after enduring six years of an unimaginable Hell. Uprooted from her negligent and selfish mother, Ashley finds solace in the safety of her father's home. Building a relationship with her stepmother, she's finally able to open up and confront the past that haunts her.
With the help of her stepmom, therapist, and a group of troubled adolescents, Ashley battles her demons, struggling to find the normal teenage life she's always wanted. Can Ashley find the strength and courage to overcome the horrors of her past while fighting for the future she so deserves?
Hope in Patience continues the story. . .
Hope to heal.
Hope to grow.
Hope to evolve.
Still shattered from the horrific events of her childhood years, 15-year-old Ashley Asher is barely holding it together. Battling her vicious and vile mother who still sees her as the villain and not the victim, Ashley's stuck in a cycle of self-injury and self-hatred as a result--despite the many people who trying to pull her out of it.
Adolescence is hard, but throw in a new school, a new family, and a father she hardly knows, Ashley's need for self-destruction and pain intensifies. Her new therapist, Dr. Matt, may be unconventional with bizarre antics, but he'll do whatever it takes to pull Ashley out of the doldrums. Ashley just wants a crack at normalcy. But can her counselor and the friends and family who love her teach her that "crazy is the new normal" and that nobody has it easy?
Truth in Patience concludes the story. . .
Truth in the past.
Truth in reality.
Truth for tomorrow.
Finally adjusting to life in small town Texas, Ashley Asher sees a glimmer of what happiness really is. Even her new relationship with the attentive Joshua Brandt shows promise of a first romance. But Ashley's fear of intimacy after years of unspeakable abuse may cause friction and distance in their relationship.
Determined to prove to her that she's healing, Dr. Matt, her beloved therapist, shows her that "life is messy." And he doesn't know how messy it is about to get. When her mother decides that Ashley belongs back in their hometown with her, Ashley is forced into another family feud that she isn't prepared for. Refusing to leave behind the new life she created in Texas, Ashley and her mother go head-to-head. But can Ashley finally find the courage and strength to battle her demons when her mother might be the biggest demon of all?
PURCHASE LINKS: AMAZON BARNES & NOBLE
Although
The Patience Trilogy: Courage in Patience, Hope in Patience, and Truth in Patience are novels, I am very open about my personal connection to the storyline. Thus, I am often asked "Which parts are true?" ... "Did _______ really happen?"
Well, you sweet readers, you, I've decided to spill a little. Here, then, are the Top Eleven Real Life Secrets Behind The Patience Trilogy!
(Drumroll, Maestro?)
11. Ashley Nicole Asher's name came from an inauspicious beginning: I was pregnant with my second child and we were considering naming her "Ashley Nicole." A family member heard it and blurted out, "Hey! You could call her Ash-Hole!" Now, y'all don't go callin' anyone with the name Ashley Nicole "Ash-Hole," mmkay?
You'll see that nickname in Courage in Patience, too: it's what Ashley's stepfather, Charlie, who is her perpetrator, calls her.
10. Like Ashley, I am a transplant from the Dallas metro area to East Texas. My husband's business took off when he was working out of a shop on the edge of East Texas, about an hour southeast of Dallas, and we moved onto family land in a town near his shop in 2003. We built a house in the woods. It's not a log cabin, though, like David Asher's house is.
9. I used to have ducks and turkeys in a pen up the hill from my yard, and when I wrote Courage in Patience, their sounds were like background noise since I wrote a lot of it on my front porch.
8. At one time, there was a store in our town that is similar to Dixie Pride that is a plot point in Truth in Patience, and they sold the same sorts of t-shirts and racist propaganda that Jeff Foster's dad sells in the book.
7. I used to have an outside cat named Orange Kitty, and the evil gray cat, Loki, in The Patience Books is actually based on my daughter's cat. Like the fictional Loki, the real life one does, indeed, hate all things except himself. Sadly, Orange Kitty passed away last summer. She was over ten years old.
6. The principal of Patience High School, Mr. Walden, has hunting and fishing trophies in his office, and a pair of hip waders draped over a chair in his office. That character was inspired by two people: a high school principal I used to know, and a superintendent I witnessed at a Back-to-School staff development day who spoke to us while wearing rubber boots like those on fishing waders-- and a suit. I kid you not. He wore those boots with a pinstripe suit.
5. When working in a small East Texas town several years ago, I had a student who wrote about hunting a coyote, making a rug out of its skin, and cooking it. Unlike Travis Hager in Hope in Patience, however, my student did not make a hat out of the coyote's head...that I know of.
4. Like Uncle Frank and Steven living on the other side of the family land, I have in-laws who live up the hill from my house. When Ashley goes through the gate to see her mother at Asher Automotive in Courage in Patience, I envisioned my green gate at the top of our hill by the turkey & duck pen. In the summer, huge grasshoppers really do spring up out nowhere when I walk through the field to my in-law's house.
3. Ashley Asher is very much me as I was going through recovery, although I never scratched or cut myself like she does. Her stepmom, Beverly, a high school English teacher, is very much who I am as a teacher.
2. Ashley's dad, David, is a heavy equipment mechanic. My husband, Daniel, is a heavy equipment mechanic, although his shop is not in a big red barn in our pasture. Physical appearance-wise, "David" is based on my husband. However, real-life Daniel has never had a drinking problem, and we have been married since we were 18 and 19. He's never abandoned a child, but he totally would have beat the snot out of Charlie Baker if given half a chance.
1. Dr. Matt is real, y'all. Although my "Dr. Matt" is older and dressed a little differently than Ashley's "Dr. Matt," the interior of his office, where he counsels Ashley, is pretty much spot-on to the real thing. The waiting room, the building itself, and location, however, are very different. My therapist was still practicing at the time I wrote the books, and he made me disguise him and his office better than I initially did. ONE thing I can tell you that is the same, appearance-wise, is that laser-like blue-eyed stare that can see inside people's minds. The real "Dr. Matt" retired around the time I completed my journey to recovery. Although I jokingly say that I broke him, I didn't. His retirement was planned way before I darkened his door. And, just like Ashley's Dr. Matt, my Dr. Matt was and is AWESOME.
In addition to writing Young Adult Contemporary Fiction, Beth Fehlbaum is a secondary English-Language Arts teacher who frequently draws on her experience as an educator to write her books. She has a B.A. in English, Minor in Secondary Education, and an M.Ed. in Reading.
Beth is a featured author on the 2015-2016 Spirit of Texas Reading List- High School. She is the author of the Kirkus Starred Reviewed Big Fat Disaster (Merit Press/F+W Media, March 2014) and The Patience Trilogy: Courage, Hope, and Truth (Steady On Books, 2016).
Beth is a member of the RAINN (Rape , Abuse, Incest National Network) Speakers’ Bureau. She has a following in the young adult literature world and also among survivors of sexual abuse because of her work with victims’ advocacy groups. She has been the keynote speaker at the National Crime Victims’ Week Commemoration Ceremony at the Hall of State in Dallas, Texas and a presenter for Greater Texas Community Partners, where she addressed a group of social workers and foster children on the subject of “Hope.”
Beth is a survivor of a traumatic childhood, like Ashley in The Patience Trilogy, and the day-to-day manager of an eating disorder much like Colby’s in Big Fat Disaster. These life experiences give her a unique perspective, and she writes her characters’ stories in a way meant to inspire hope.
Beth lives with her family in the woods of East Texas.
GIVEAWAYS! GIVEAWAYS! GIVEAWAYS!
2 GRAND PRIZE WINNERS:
Each win autographed copies of all three books in The Patience Trilogy
Plus a $50 Amazon Gift Card
5 WINNERS:
Each win autographed copies of Courage in Patience
Winner names drawn 4/19, 4/24, 4/27, 4/30, 5/3
(US ONLY)
April 19 - May 3, 2016
blog tour services provided by
I enjoyed reading the guest post and learning more about this book trilogy. Also, I really like the book covers! These books sound like such fun, exciting, interesting, and intriguing reads! Totally can't wait to read these books!
ReplyDeleteAsh-hole! Leave it to someone to find a nickname to ruin an otherwise pretty name. I'm wondering if Beth ended up naming her real child Ashley Nicole or kept it for her book baby.
ReplyDeleteI ended up naming my real-life child "Alissa Michelle"-- I suppose I should have included that. Glad you enjoyed gettin' the scoopage! Thank you, Middylou, for hosting me! And, Ally, I hope you'll check out THE PATIENCE TRILOGY!
ReplyDeleteAsh-Hole killed me as well. I enjoyed the list. I always like to be able to get into an author's head and try to visualize what they were thinking at the time!
ReplyDelete