Mark P Walsma

Before the Magic Mark P Walsma

It's 1973, and fourteen-year-old Mindy Murphy is standing at the threshold of womanhood when she is uprooted from a comfortable suburban life and academically rewarding high school. She is thrust into the uncertainty of a small, middle-Tennessee town where cultural adaptation is immediately demanding. As she assimilates into her new community, the power of teen hormones is working its magic to create a blossoming princess that becomes a focal point of male attention. But local social norms expose her to experiences and pressures before she is mature enough to manage them. The challenges stab at her moral fabric and prompt her to question the role of friends, parents, religion, education, and romance in her life. It is a sweeping coming of age journey that walks her down roads paved not only with friends and curious boys but evolving mental illness, drugs, alcohol, burdensome cultural expectations, and pre-marital sex. The path requires her to come to a better understanding of love and the power of her own sexuality. The life lessons she learns along the way are timeless but may be more important for teens, young adults and young parents of today than ever before.