Katrina is thirteen, an orphan, grieving and alone. But she is more than that. She’s intelligent, beautiful, wealthy, and intrigued by the dangers of street life. Shrug’s a giant of a man with a voice of thunder and eyes of granite. He has tattoos, a leather jacket with The Traz gang patch, and a motorbike. When he asks Katrina if she wants a ride, she makes a decision that will change her life forever. Katrina quickly discovers the violent and horrifying side of life on The Traz compound. But there is no way for her to escape until she meets Chad—an undercover cop with rich brown eyes, a gentle chuckle, and a plan to get Katrina safely out of the clutches of the gang. However, there’s a problem…somebody is keeping dangerous secrets from them both. THE TRAZ is as daring, raw, and spirited as the young heroine. It’s exhilarating entertainment but it also contains a vital message for those on the cusp of maturity and for the adults who guide them. THE TRAZ is released with a Teaching Guide to give youngsters, parents, educators, law enforcers, and other community leaders an opportunity to discuss and explore the darkness that at-risk teens are both facing and fleeing.
Dear Readers:
Thank you for reading my books.
I hope you all fell in love with The Traz characters, as I did--despite their faults. The Traz is the first novel in a series about the ongoing lives of these characters. I called the series BackTracker--as that is the name Katrina gives to an influential computer programme she develops. BackTracker symbolizes both the power Katrina comes to wield and the way her future intertwines with her past.
The BackTracker characters came to me during a very low and lonely time in my life and began telling me their stories. For months they bore the brunt of my sadness and anger and I, in return, shouldered theirs. Together, connected via words and the keyboard, we found our voices. We learned from one another. We discovered that we were strong despite our weaknesses. But best of all, we came to forgive ourselves and those we love.
It was not until much later that I decided I wanted other readers to meet Katrina, Shrug, Chad, and Sergeant Kindle. For years thereafter I worked at polishing my writing--elevating the BackTracker stories from a personal therapeutic experience to one that would touch many.
This series initially started with Katrina being rescued from the biker gang. However, as I worked on the novels, I became more and more curious about Katrina's year with The Traz. I wondered why Shrug, Katrina, and Chad persistently antagonized each other, why they laid blame yet felt guilt, why they struggled so hard to love. Most of all, I needed to uncover the terrible secrets about life in the compound so I could begin to understand why they were choosing the lives that they were.
It took me months to convince the characters to tell me about that year they met, but once they did, once they laid out their experiences for me (as painful as they were), once they cried with me and surrendered their souls to the truth, only then did the beautiful but heart-wrenching novel THE TRAZ emerge.
To this day, the characters are very shy about going public, especially Shrug. I think he still feels guilt and embarrassment over his questionable decisions and actions. Katrina does, too, but I doubt she'll ever admit that. Sergeant Kindle, with his kindly blue eyes, has the wisdom they need--that we all need--to deal with our regrets and continue on with courage.
I hope you learn to forgive these characters and come to love them. Let them not only entertain you but also teach you about the human heart, the human spirit, and the human experience.
Courage to you all,
Eileen Schuh
Canadian Author
Eileen Schuh lives with her husband in the remote northern boreal forests of Alberta, Canada. Drawing inspiration from the wilderness, she creates entire universes populated with fascinating characters doing intriguing things.
Schuh recently retired from a life of careers that varied from nurse to journalist to editor to business woman. She remains active in her adopted community of St. Paul and basks in the love and loyalty of an entire flotilla of family, friends and fans--virtual, imaginary, and real ones.
Schuh is also the author of SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT.
THE TRAZ is her first published book in The BackTracker series. She's excited about the upcoming release of FATAL ERROR, the second in the series.
She invites you to visit her online:
Blog: http://eileenschuh.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.eileenschuh.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=609330070
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/eileenschuh
