My So-Called Ruined Life

**An introspective page–turner."
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Tate McCoy has not spoken to her alcoholic mother in two years when her mom is murdered.** If this were not enough to endure at age sixteen, Tate has to face the fact that her father is the prime suspect. Convinced of his innocence, and of her own resilience, she sets out to prove her life is not ruined. Amid this life-shattering tragedy, Tate takes up swimming and finds solace in her best friend Kale, volunteer work, the great outdoors, and a new crush. But after discovering a horrible secret, Tate questions everything she thought she knew about her parents.

Melanie Bishop writes fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays, and has taught all of these subjects for the past twenty–one years at Prescott College in Arizona where she is founding editor of Alligator Juniper, Prescott's award–winning national literary magazine. Bishop divides her time between Prescott, Arizona, and Carmel, California.