Jayden Allen Mindendorf is an eleven year boy with a reputation for being a bully. He enters fifth grade with a promise and warning. He has a chance to make a new beginning, but is told that this is his last chance. Jay's life has been a mess as long as he can remember. His father being sent to jail, his mother struggling to make ends meet, his family's constant moving, and his problems at school all seem to work against him. He has been bullied his whole life until he meets up with the Foster Road Friends in fourth grade. This "gang" of bullies takes his life in a direction that he doesn't really like, but, as he says, "At least they're not bullying me " Will Jay be able to get his life under control with the help of Mrs. Roberts and some new friends? Or will Mr. Shaw and Chris Burnham interfere with his promise to his mother that he will behave this year?

Readers from across the United States voted on a topic for the author to use for National Novel Writing Month. There was one overwhelming choice. The resulting novel is The Leap. In The Leap, Rev. Adam Freeman, the minister of a large conservative church, finds that his life is in turmoil. The foundation upon which he has built his marriage, his church, in fact his whole life, is beginning to show cracks. And then a long lost love, rediscovered at a college reunion, threatens to destroy all three. The former lovers struggle with their growing feelings towards each other as they try to remain faithful to their spouses. The conflict between what they know to be right and what they want to be right leads them into dangerous territories - in more ways than one.

Some called him retarded. He was called developmentally delayed, high functioning autistic, mentally disturbed. Even as a young boy, Billy comes to realize that he has a power, the power, which he must struggle to control. As he grows up his therapists try to get a handle on what really makes Billy Bryce tick, but he knows only two things for sure: he wants to be normal and he wants to be able to control the power. He blames himself and "the power" for all the bad things in his life, even as he struggles to make sense of the world around him. But try as he might, he will always be, as his grandma often said, "Not your average Joe."