rick cooper editing & design

Marcea of the Dust finds our heroine, Marcea, walking a fine moral line between the emotional trauma of her childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her father and her response to other young women, whom she stumbles across accidentally in the sex trade of Mexico. Marcea’s actions challenge the lives of those around her, especially those of Collo and Drayson, her loving, fearless stepparents. Seeking refuge with nine young female victims of the sex trade, she turns to her stepparents’ organic farm, worked in conjunction with a Gerson Therapy-like healing clinic, where big-name Americans go to receive alternative healing treatments for cancer. Teaching the young victims how to handle a firearm properly, Marcea empowers them to fight back against those who trampled their self-esteem, innocence, and beauty. Ultimately, the women find their true power in their love for each other, with the boundary-setting aid of their firearms. I believe that, with one in four women experiencing sexual abuse, and many of those at the hands of someone they trusted or wished to trust, many women and men will easily walk in the boots of my heroine. Marcea takes place in a small, rural town in northeastern Mexico in the 1970s. It is approximately 56,000 words long, and will grab readers and educate them while also forcing them to confront issues of shame and awkwardness central to the child sex trade.