Back to Blue

About the Book

When Rainie McClaws learns of her daughter Madison’s losing her leg in a freak shooting accident, she mutters disgustedly, “Half-black and now only one leg? She doesn’t stand a f——in’ chance, does she?” The year is 1995, and Madison is barely eleven years old. In between her latest waitressing job and/or running from her latest loser boyfriend, Rainie frequently brings her children back to the little farm belonging to her mother in Blue, Colorado. And it is at Blue that Madison finds respite and validation of her self-worth. Gramma Moon—a hippie, herbal-medicine concoctor, and well-known egg decorator—becomes Madison’s savior throughout her turbulent life. Madison proves through determination and courage—and pure spunk—that she will make that chance happen for herself. She learns to embrace her dual ethnicity as she survives her disability and racial mistreatment and bullying. She overcomes her transient, wretchedly dysfunctional life with her mother. Along the way, she falls in love with Lucas Grant, former CNN correspondent and subsequent spy-thriller author. And eventually, despite her many challenges, Madison discovers her own destiny.

About the Author

Hinton is a retired public school English teacher. Growing up, she attended eleven different schools as her traveling-salesman father moved the family from California to Arizona to Utah. She graduated from a small high school in Fort Thomas, Arizona, and went on to graduate from Arizona State University. She has been a counselor for students traveling abroad, accompanying groups of teenagers through nineteen different countries. She was also a volleyball coach for over twenty years. Presently, she tutors English to homeschooled children and helps dropout students either reenter high school or get their GEDs. She lives with her husband, James (third generation Arizona cattle rancher, teacher, and coach) in the little Northern Arizona town of Show Low.