by 
A Mentor and Her Muse
by Susan Sage
Know More
Under the guise of mentor and muse, a frustrated writer and her ambitious teenage protégé take an illicit summer road trip fraught with racial and sexual tension. Although Tae’s mother has nothing against Maggie, she is less than thrilled when Maggie proposed to take her daughter on a summer road trip. Permission is never explicitly granted, but shortly after school is out for the summer, Maggie and Tae head for the Southeast. Life with ‘Uncle’ Tyler proves far different than the lives they’d before…
Is Maggie a social deviant or simply a free spirit who absconds with a willing fifteen-year-old for a summer on the road? Is her desire for a protégé strictly for selfish reasons? Will Taezha’s presence alone be enough to keep the creative flame alive in Maggie? Is it even possible, in today’s world, for a middle-aged adult to have an innocent relationship with a young person to whom they are unrelated? After her boss criticizes her for being overly-involved with Taezha, Maggie speculates: “Isn’t being involved with others—in over our heads—what life should be all about?” Is Maggie a morally bankrupt narcissist or ethical in a way most are not in today’s world?
Maggie Barnett, a once nearly famous novelist, works in the media center of a school in Flint, Michigan. In her search for the ‘right’ student to mentor, she decides on Taezha Riverton. Taezha couldn’t be more perfect – not only as her understudy, but as companion on a road-trip to the Southeast. Others disapprove, not only because of their age differences, but because Maggie’s white and Taezha, black. Their separate worlds collide and neither female will ever again be the same. Complexities soon arise on their mad-cap road trip. The fact of their being of different races adds to the daily tensions. Racism becomes apparent in all its nuanced and insidious guises.
Hot on their trail is Sulie Rowen, psychic and private investigator, who claims to know everything about Maggie. For several weeks Maggie and ‘Tae’ retreat to a remote cabin. Maggie turns it into a writer’s boot camp and Taezha questions the merits of becoming a writer. Awaiting their arrival is Tyler, Taezha’s supposed uncle. His true identity will further rock Taezha’s world. Back in Michigan, Taezha’s supposed mother and Maggie’s sister are anxious for their return. Several threads entwine, begin to fray, but new ones form, allowing Maggie and Taezha to rethink earlier choices.
“I found this psychological novel hard to put down – Sage has really mastered page-turning tension.” –Amazon Reviewer
A Word from the Author
My novel isn’t a crime novel or thriller, but there’s very much a crime involved…You, the reader, get to be the judge…Braided into my novel are Maggie’s journal entries from present and past. It’s told from the viewpoints of three characters: Maggie, Taezha, and ‘Uncle’ Tyler.
Maggie thinks she’s rescuing Tae from a difficult life, but winds up complicating it. You can’t really be a rescuer if you need rescuing, right? In many ways this is a book about white privilege: Maggie’s white and has inherited a good deal of money. Tae is bi-racial and lives with her mother and several sisters in Flint.
This story of an unlikely friendship was inspired by a girl I met at a school in Flint, Michigan. She was just starting to write stories and poems and was completely geeked about her love of writing. I was the educational coordinator of a program. Tough job and I didn’t have much energy left after getting home at night, but my conversations with her about writing inspired me to not only keep writing, but to write this novel. I also wrote this novel because I believe in the importance of connecting with those from cultures other than my own. Is there any doubt that the racial divide wouldn’t be such a large one if our communities were more inclusive?
(Susan Sage, September 2019)