Running in Place

WINNER SOUTHWEST WRITERS CONTEST 2024

Corie Cooper wishes only to be in one place long enough to finish high school. Her mother, Erin, has other priorities as they traverse small New Hampshire towns in the 1980s.

Erin keeps her secrets close, from the next move to her daughter's true parentage. While Erin's escape might be changing her address, Corie's is the steady rhythm of her running shoes hitting dirt, pavement, or snow.

Wary of her mother's judgment and more disillusioned with every new location, Corie discovers the secret to traveling light.

Never unpack.

When a cancer diagnosis demands locating her mentally ill brother, Corie must exorcise ghosts from a childhood spent in perpetual transition, realizing survival is sometimes only momentum and with acceptance, comes true peace.