Princess of Las Pulgas

Publication Date: Fall 2010

We have a beginning.
Last night I pleaded with Death, but he turned a bony back to me, pushed Hope into the corridor and shut the door.

So what’s it about?
Carlie Edmund has everything: a loving family, good friends, a perfect home and wealth and status; then in her junior year of high school all of that changes. How will Carlie take on the challenges of living in a different world, a world where she doesn't "fit" and where nothing is as it should be?

"C. Lee McKenzie paints beautiful pictures with words in a story about losing everything and finding it again in places you least expected. From the first page you'll be drawn into the poignant world of Carlie, The Princess of Las Pulgas, falling in love with her as she deals with the loss of her dad and then almost everything she thinks is important. A must read for lovers of finely crafted contemporary fiction."
- J.E. MacLeod, author of Waiting To Score

Sliding on the Edge

Publication date: April '09
WestSide Books
Evelyn Fazio
Ask about the Teacher's Guide

Something's wrong.

It’s not a heart-grabbing noise like when somebody jiggles the doorknob to see if it’s locked.
It’s not a bitter smell like the electrical short we had last month, when all the breakers popped. No. It’s something in the air, something like a ghost making its way through the room. And it can’t be Monster, not after last night.

Shawna Stone is sixteen going on twenty-five.
Already deeply scarred, she has learned to survive with a tough attitude and a thin blade. Her journey is destined to be short. Sliding on the Edge enters the world of a desperate teen and her disillusioned grandmother, each with secrets that stir mutual distrust. As these two unlikely companions struggle to co-exist we are reminded that the human spirit has the capacity to overcome even the deepest suffering.

Now available at Amazon and B &N

Reviews: ****Book Pixie, Amazon, B&N****

Working Title: The Thief

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Hutchinson McQueen is trapped between an abusive mother and an absentee father. Shackled by poor vision and poor reading skills, he squeaks through classes with his talent for eavesdropping and memorizing what he hears. After another suspension from school and suffering through one of his mother’s violent attacks, he escapes to a friend’s house that turns out to be a meth lab. The lab is raided and Hutch lands in juvenile detention. When the court sentences him to six months in a new juvenile program, he meets a teacher with Alzheimer’s who will change his life and hers.