Taming the Fire Within

Meet Max Houston, an Air Force brat who is left at his grandfather's farm for the summer. Furious over being abandoned, Max throws monumental teenage temper tantrums, which anger his parents and grandparents. When Max discovers Granddad's duffel bag from Vietnam, he unzips the bag and drags it to the porch, where his grandfather sits. Granddad, who has rarelyspoken of his experiences in Vietnam, and Max, who is insatiably curious, begin to talk. Max's tantrums decrease as the bond between the two Houston males is sealed. This coming-of-age story appeals to the young adult reader who can relate to anger, the possibility of disasters and their consequences, and, if he or she is fortunate, to the love of parents and grandparents.

If you ask Mrs. Hunter about her bucket list, she'll tell you it would fill a roll of bulletin board paper. If you ask her what she loves doing best, she'll say: watching people. It was through watching the students she taught over a period of thirty-nine years that she discovered she loved teaching and learning from her students of all ages, especially middle and high school students. They understood each other. Max, Jeff, and Julie, the young characters in Taming the Fire Within, emerged from her relationships with students between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. When she isn't writing, Mrs. Hunter is a gym rat. She also loves riding behind her husband on his Harley Davidson in the Smoky Mountains where they live. She's a voracious reader, and loves tending to her plants and trying on (and buying) clothes in the shop where she works. She and her husband share custody of a great black Lab with a family from the farm down the road. She also loves visiting their four grown children, and their five grandchildren. This is her first novel