Stray

Lila Baxter, 17, is abandoned at a gas station in a small town when her father, who was taking her to live with her grandmother, had a lapse in sobriety. Lila is left alone, unsure of where she is, with no money, and no cell phone. Gas station cashier Vance Larson, 18, offers to help the unwanted girl. And how does Lila repay him? By unwittingly unhinging Vance's whole life. Fixing the trouble she’s caused is next to impossible. And will any of it matter when her father returns?

Joni Johnson is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada. Upon completing High School in Las Vegas she traveled to Provo, Utah and attended Utah Valley State College for five semesters before returning home to share in the responsibility of in-home caregiver, along with three of her ten siblings, for her ailing mother. Joni, who had worked as a dental assistant in high school, returned to that profession during this period. She also met and soon fell in love with an intelligent and hardworking young man, but before they married, she felt missionary work was her first priority. She left home and fiancé for an LDS mission in Orlando, Florida for eighteen months. Upon returning home she married her fiancé, resumed work in the dental field and as in-home caregiver, and began teaching piano. Over the next eight years the couple welcomed four children into their home, but also endured the loss of her mother. During this time Joni began to write as a personal creative outlet. Joni and her family now reside in Idaho where she teaches a few select piano students, home schools her four children, and writes during the long, dark winter months watching the snow drift over endless farmland.