Excerpt: Lower Wildgate

Susan Simons was the kind of girl who woke up everyday and thought that her actions would matter in the grand scheme of things. Her mother had never taught her otherwise, and none of the other adults in town thought it wise to interfere with Mrs. Simons parenting skills. As such, Susan never learned that in towns like Lower Wildgate your actions very rarely matter to anyone but yourself. If you screwed up your career, your parents wouldn’t even be able to save you because no one was well off in Lower Wildgate.