Lane is a character I have spent a lot of time creating, I have detailed her, tried to steer clear of making her a sterioe type based on psychological actions and reactions. While I have not left the supporting characters out, I am afraid other than the background and a few details, I have not developed them nearly enough. Lane - the book follows her from the age of 11 to the age of 25, (yes I do fast foreward). She starts off in a childrens home after being taken away from her mother She doesn't try to fit in with the other people in her ward, she spends most of her time reading or working on classwork. She goes through three fostor homes, the first is a family who lived near her when she lived with her mom. Rebecca ends up in court as her advocate and recommends to the judge that parental right be terminated, the others before her had done the opposite, claimed that they have talked to the mother, investigated the living situation and she was willing to stay on her meds and cooperate fully with the CAaP services, child advocate and protection services. She had promised that four or five times and always with the same result. She would stay on her meds for two or three weeks, maybe a month but she would go off them as soon as she felt the coast was clear and pick up a bottle, a pipe or a needle and go back to her old ways But Rebecca had not done that, she had spent months taking pictures of the house, the traffice coming in and out next door where Lornas boyfriend or whatever he was, stayed most of his time. Had anybody known the connection and searched the duplex next door, they would have known that dope was being cooked and in exchange for them, Lorna would bag it and weigh it for the guys to sale. A couple weeks after Lane was decleared a ward of the court and parental rights were terminated, Rebecca picked Lane up and was told that she had just got temp custody of her and trying to get foster care and after that, she could apply for permenant custody but that would never happen. Rebecca was married to a brash, arrogant, rude man who didn't want the girl there and didn't care whose feelings got hurt and who didn't like what he said. Most of the remarks were hurled at or toward Lane. At one point he looked at Rebecca and said 'what is it still doing here?' and without missing a beat turned to her and said 'you are nothing, but just trash and I should where you belong. 'I don't want you in my house infecting my family or my things with your diseases and your germs infecting me, my property or my children.' She decided it was best if she just went back to the group home but that wouldn't be until after the roads cleared from the late January storm that dumped two-four inches of ice in some areas and less than a week later, brought a foot of snow in, passed through but decided to backtrack and brought 3-5 inches of ice and snow mixed together. It was past Valintines Day before Rebecca tempted fate and trecked 60 miles to the CPS building where her friend was a manager. She at least wanted to leave her in the best possible hands if her only choice was to leave her. "You know, your husband is a real asshole?" "Lane!" "Well,,, you have agree with me, I mean he said you were in his property." "No he didn't." "Yes he did." "Where was I?" "Sitting right there, I mean he said it in an indirect way. "That night we were sitting at the table and he said how I was trash, he said he didn't want me to infect him, his property or his children. "Never said family. He never said wife and children." "And you can tell where you guys fall in his priority list." "How." "By what he said, what order he used. He said himself, his home and property and his children." Well, he was pissed off at me for what I did. "He hasn't spoken to me in weeks. "I'm pretty sure he just did that to make me feel worthless." "He can certainly do that very well. It's sad that off all things, that is one of his talents." "You know it's not your fault, right? "I never would have done this but things are going to get nasty. "I decided after the way he treated you,,, that I can't be married to him anymore, not somebody so heartless and uncaring. "I can't believe I never noticed it before." She has one lady come in who works at the new youth home and is going to school to become a social worker,,,, she thinks. She wasn't so sure now. She ends up becoming a child advocate and opening up a foster home for girls,,, a very unorthadox foster home but she Jaylene gets sick she is forced to shut it down just 9 1/2 months later, Lane stays until right after her 12th birthday which was 5 weeks after the others. But she wasn't sent to another group home, but to a man named Clint,,, Jaylene seemed to trust him a great deal. Once living with him, she cleans the house and balances the checkbook for him. Since he had suffered a TBI in Iraq, which caused PTSS she had just done it for him. When she found out that he was supposed to be doing pt and ot at home, to help the brain learn to function again she got him doing them for at least an hour a day. It is basically about a woman,,,, the few and carefully chosen people she has let into her universe and how uncertain life, in general, can become and how fast it can become uncertain,,,, and how even faster it can complelty unravel and how she handles the downs,,, which are a constant. It is also about corruption, power drunkeness, greed and revenge among the people who are supposed to stand for law and order and a church leader who uses it and religon to manipulate and control the followers. It's also about her marrying the wrong man and finding too late. There will be a book two, havent' figured it out though.