The Patience Trilogy by Beth Fehlbaum

Courage to endure.

Courage to survive.
Courage to overcome.


Description:

Courage in Patience
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:

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:

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?

GUEST POST

Creating a series

The metamorphosis of the first book in The Patience Trilogy, Courage in Patience, is unlike books that are plotted from the start to be part of a series. You see, Courage in Patience was originally written as a therapeutic assignment. I had no idea there would be a Hope in Patience or a Truth in Patience, because I was not even certain that I could write the first book. 

I was in a dark, frightened place when I began trying to do as my therapist suggested when he said, “You’re a talented writer. Why don’t you try writing a novel?” 

Easier said than done: it took me about four months to stop the spin cycle in my mind: my thoughts could get no further than tear-soaked pondering of, “How could my mom turn her back on me when her husband abused me throughout my childhood? She knows that he sexually abused me: why doesn’t that matter?” 

I was getting nowhere fast. 

But when I allowed my mind to wander beyond myself: “What if I had gotten out of my childhood home at age 14, when I made an outcry? What would it be like for a girl that age to be removed from her mom and stepdad and placed with a father she’s never known?” We had recently moved from the Dallas area to rural East Texas, so my imaginary teen girl did the same when she was uprooted and dropped into a new world. 

I knew how I was feeling—but I became interested in what this girl—Ashley Nicole Asher- would do. 

That’s how Courage in Patience came into being. After it was finished, my therapist—who I knew never bullshitted me—suggested that I try having it published because he felt it could help a lot of people. So, I found an agent, and the rest is history. 

So…why are there two follow-up books, Hope in Patience and Truth in Patience? Quite frankly, Hope and Truth exist because I was not through with healing when I finished Courage, and I knew at the end of Hope that Ashley had still not dealt with her mom. I wrote The Patience Trilogy as I healed mentally and emotionally over the six year period that I was in therapy to recover from childhood sexual abuse. 

And that, dear friends, is why there are three Patience books.

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About the author:

In addition to writing Young Adult Contemporary Fiction, Beth Fehlbaum is a high school 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 for the Kirkus Starred Reviewed Big Fat Disaster (Merit Press/F+W Media, March 2014) and The Patience Trilogy: Courage (1), Hope (2), and Truth (3) (Steady On Books, April 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 in-demand as a panelist, having presented/appeared at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference, the American Library Association’s annual conference, YALSA, and N.C.T.E./ALAN, and she is a member of The Author’s Guild.

She 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.

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