"Could it be that sometimes it is easier to hold someone tighter and tighter just because there is so much pain in the distance? Up close, skin to skin, within an inch of your life, you concentrate on that, warm and wet and the scratch of his beard rubbing your cheek raw."

Carol Snyder has written two stage plays, Marginalized which is about the last days of a marriage and, Getting Out examines the damage done by multinational companies in the third world. Carol has finished a Middle grade novel called Summer’s Light and is now editing a second Middle Grade novel with the working title: No Way Ida Rae. This novel is set in America’s heartland, rural Illinois.

After missing too much school, 11 year old Ida Rae declares fifth grade a do over. New School, new start and she figures if she can just stay out of trouble, find some friends she can still save the planet and make it to 6th grade. Wrong. When her hometown starts a put us back on the map contest, Ida Rae sees her chance. Her nemesis Charlotte, the school principal and half the town have other plans.