Stealing Scenes and Making Cuts

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My partner Nancy is narrating audiobooks under the name Summer Jo Swaine. These are three excellent stories with young female protagonists:

Making the Cut

Making the Cut is the flagship show on the FoodieTV network, giving recent high school graduates a chance to win a scholarship to a prestigious culinary school. Midori is from San Francisco, and grew up in a family that owns a restaurant. All she ever wanted to do was cook, but in Japanese culture, women are relegated to hostess and management roles. Nicole is from Denver, the child of a broken home who’s been forced to grow up way too soon. She’s been poor her entire life, and that prize package is impossibly valuable to her. These two girls become friends despite their cultural differences, and together with six more challengers, will be competing in front of the cameras. With a $10,000 prize and that incredible scholarship at stake, can their friendship survive the rigors of reality television?

The Scene Stealers

Steal big.

The Crew: Olivia, the Director; Anjanae, the Artist; Pancho, the Techie; Kennedy, the Actress; Jerome, the Money Man; Vajra, the Thug.

The Target: A painting of Anjanae’s deceased mother, stolen from her and presented for sale by a professional artist.

The Job: Steal it back and don’t get caught, because high school is hard enough without facing hard time.

The Guitarist

High school reporter Sherri “Bax” Baxter is content being an outsider, with a reputation as a nosy busybody among the students of Jericho High. Instead of friendships, she focuses on objective journalistic integrity, because it will get her out of the dead-end Texas oil town and into a prestigious journalism school, and she’s pretty sure she’s found her big story.

A new girl, Molly, has come to town with a mysterious sideways grin, a bolero hat, a well-loved guitar case, and the musical talent of legendary blues man Stevie Ray Vaughan. Two of the school’s rival rock groups need her for the upcoming Battle of the Bands, but Molly has a plan to cherry-pick the best musicians out of each band to form her own super group. Both bands engage in an increasingly dangerous rivalry ranging from theft and vandalism to assault and kidnapping.

Who better to tag along with Molly and get every juicy tidbit than the intrepid school snoop? She might even make a few friends along the way.

By Michael Swaine