Emma Jean Cooper, nicknamed "Emma Jean Two" by her father, was born in 1966, in the small town of Crooked River, Arkansas, where poverty and prejudice were rampant. Emma Jean grew up with plenty of both, to the extent that her father was active in the Ku Klux Klan and exposed his daughter at an early age to the group's clandestine activities. Her mother, who had been raised in a dysfunctional, abusive situation, was unable to cope with the death of her first daughter, also named Emma Jean, and so transferred that daughter's identity to Emma Jean Two, claiming she was the reincarnation of her dead sister. Emma Jean's childhood was so traumatic and she experienced such extreme parental abuse and rejection that she spent much of her time daydreaming of a better life somewhere-anywhere-away from her family. Ironically it is an African-American classmate named Sadie Garret, a preacher's daughter, who finally gives eighteen-year-old Emma Jean Cooper, daughter of an active Ku Klux Klan member, the courage she needs to escape her racist, abusive environment. Literally running for her life, Emma Jean hitchhikes to California in search of something better than the destructive existence she has so far endured. The experiences of the next few years are beyond anything Emma Jean could ever have imagined, and ultimately serve only to turn her back toward home to confront the evil she thought she had escaped. Back in Crooked River, Emma Jean takes refuge with her former classmate Sadie and, eventually, in an African-American church, where she begins to learn the secret to overcoming her past and establishing her own identity for a positive future. Though loosely based on a compilation of trueaccounts, Emma Jean Reborn is purely a work of fiction.

It is said that writing is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. I absolutely agree, and I'm sure most successful writers would echo my sentiments: Inspiration is the easy part. Over the years I have spoken with and taught beginning writers from all around the world, in all sorts of settings. I have helped them review, edit, and rewrite their work, and I have found one common thread among those would-be writers who eventually become published authors: They are willing to devote themselves to the not-so-easy part of writing-the 90 percent perspiration. As I worked with these many writers I discovered what I consider to be the simplest and most practical writing method available-the train-of-thought method. This excellent, well known writing method did not originate with me, but it seems no one had ever taken the time to put the method in book form. I therefore decided to do so myself. This is not a book about proper grammar or punctuation, or how best to choose the voice or set the scene for your great American novel. There are already countless books covering those subjects, if that's what you're looking for. But if you want to know how best to take your thoughts and dreams and put them into a clear, compelling, readable manuscript, then this is the book for you. Having personally seen the train-of-thought writing method help so many new writers learn to organize, write, and polish their ideas into successful manuscripts, I offer this book to those who would do the same. May it direct and encourage you as you enter into the 90 percent perspiration phase of your writing career-the serious phase through which true writers are formed.