Finding Your Voice

Hi everybody,

I am giving you a sneak peak of my book that I am working on. I hope you like it.

General Description:

I’m working on a book and it is called “Finding Your Voice.” Abby Fisher has Cerebral Palsy, but that’s not holding her back from what she wants. She never thinks about that time she was raped on the Handi-bus as a teenager, until she meets Noah Rodriguez. Abby met him online, and they fall in love really fast. After a couple of months into the relationship, Abby expresses what happened to her as a teenager and this scares Noah and pushes him away. Abby then breaks up with him and is faced with finding her voice after what happened to her and becomes an activist. Abby also begins taking on her lifelong goal of walking on her own. To do this, Abby goes to the gym everyday for a couple of hours. That was before Abby noticed a pain in her legs that she hadn’t felt before. After a week of tests, Abby finds out she has cancer. Abby lets Noah know and sees that he isn’t a bad person after all – and decides that she will let him back into her life so they can get through this together.

General Plot Summary

·      Introducing Abby

·      Abby meets Noah

·      Abby breaks up with Noah

·      Abby pursues advocacy and walking

·      Abby is diagnosed and struggles with her past and present

·      Abby and Noah reunite and Noah helps Abby recover and eventually walk

Noah and Abby’s Relationship Conflict

·      In the beginning, Noah and Abby are getting to know each other and everything is good

·      After awhile, Abby starts to feel ashamed that she has a secret to tell Noah, and feels like that – along with her disability – will scare him away – her shame contributes to Abby pushing Noah away

·      Abby is left to deal with her past on her own afterwards – she pursues advocacy for people with disabilities and works towards walking on her own

·      After months of training at the gym, Abby notices a pain in her leg and gets some tests done. Abby is then told that she has bone cancer in her leg and will need to go though chemotherapy to treat it.

·      Once Abby is diagnosed, Abby realizes that Noah was actually a good guy and wants Noah back into her life. She is faced with learning to trust Noah and rebuild her life with his help (***do they end up together?)

Main Characters’ Biography and Personality

Noah Rodriguez is a 40-year-old Australian man who has lived in Los Angeles, California since he was 21. He comes from a rich family and played soccer in high school and university. His wife (who he met in university) died of cancer 10 years ago, and he is now ready to share his life with someone new. Noah’s personality is ambitious, outgoing, busy, humourous, has a bit of a temper, idealistic, driven, intelligent, arrogant, greedy, impatient (e.g., “don’t get in my way, I need it all”), honest, anal, confident.

Abby Fisher is a 27-year-old Caucasian woman living in Vancouver Canada. Abby was born with Cerebral Palsy. Her mom is from Alberta and her dad from BC. She is a very independent young woman and activist who wants to show others that she won’t let her disability define her. Although Abby is strong, she struggles sometimes with the idea that no man would love her for who she is, disability and all. However, Abby wants a family one day, just like her brothers and sisters. Abby is scheduled and spontaneous. She writes at night. She’s a people person but she likes her own time too. Nice, helpful, outgoing, has a sense of humor, she doesn’t like asking for help which annoys people, she tells it like it is (blunt/frank). Abby is more realistic than Noah, carefree, confident, honest, driven, stands up for herself, stubborn, doesn’t eat right (only on Sunday dinners).

Main Characters Physical Features

Noah:

Blue eyes. Light blond hair. Eyes are most defining facial structure; the way he looks at Abby. Nice facial structure. Rugged. Oval face. Little beard. Really short haircut and he always does his hair nicely. He has a lot of tattoos on his body

Abby:

            Hazel eyes that change colour. Short blond pixie cut. Her smile lights up the room and is her defining feature. Oval face and high cheekbones She wears casual clothing (is not very girly) on most days, but she’ll dress up once in awhile. Wears a bit of jewelry

Main Characters’ Jobs/Hobbies/Recreation

Noah:

           

Job: Physiotherapist - Noah is a physiotherapist and loves his job. He continues to better himself at work and climb the job ladder. He travels a lot for work, and is an assistant coach for a soccer team on the side.

Education: Bachelor’s in sports management and kinesiology and Master’s of physiotherapy.

Recreation:  Noah is sports-minded. He is on a rugby team and works out everyday; he runs in the morning and goes to the gym in his free time. Family life is also very important to him. Noah helps his family out a lot and is always very busy.

Abby:

Job: Abby is a ski instructor at the Special Olympics, and travels around promoting the Special Olympics. She is also a blogger and writer for a sports magazine. She has written a novel about her life story, and has an advice column on her blog.

Education: BA in Business/Marketing

Recreation: Abby likes to hang out with family and friends in her spare time, and has family suppers every Sunday night. Abby also likes her own time too. She’s very busy. Abby also skis in the special Olympics in her free time and wins a lot of medals. All her life, people have told her she can’t do anything, and so she’s trying to prove that she can.

Abby also does fundraising marathons that she started herself – started them when she was a teenager – every summer.

***************

Minor/secondary characters, how they affect the story?

Lisa works for the CPA of BC. She is Abby’s ski partner, and one of her best friends. She helps Abby out a lot, especially with her fundraisers.

Janna is Abby’s best friend. She is Lisa’s boss, but they are all best friends.

Scott is Abby’s neighbor. He helps Abby out a lot with Scooter.