Against The Wind: Jane-Claire's Personal Salvation

by Dawn C. Crouch

A Devastating Hurricane. A Traumatized Teen.
She made it through the Storm... But what about the Aftermath?

Fifteen-year-old aspiring filmmaker Jane-Claire Stevens believes her tight-knit beach community can weather anything.

Little does she Know... Disaster is Indiscriminate.

The Record-Breaking Hurricane Raging her way Wipes her Beloved Home off the Map.

Jane-Claire is Adrift.
Her Family’s Plans Obliterated. Her own Future Blank.

The Family is Forced to Separate. Her Physician Dad remains behind for his patients, and she Evacuates with her Mom and Older Brother to Start from Scratch in an Unwelcoming City. Then Jane-Claire Discovers that her Best Friend is Struggling in the Dead Zone. She sets out to Help her.

But Before Jane-Claire can Save anyone, she must first learn to Trust and Accept the Healing Kindness of Strangers or Risk Losing herself in the Wreckage.

“Le Bas International has masterminded some of aviation’s more historic achievements. In the world of past disaster, no two relief events are ordinary following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The company choreographed the largest civilian airlift since World War II. Seven thousand was only the beginning. Literally a drop in an ocean. . . During the humanitarian mission, Le Bas International transformed problems of scarce supplies, limited resources, bureaucratic regulations, and basic security into rescue opportunity.

Based on a true story, AGAINST THE WIND – JANE-CLAIRE’S PERSONAL SALVATION is about the personal devastation of disaster. A strong subject for a young adult catastrophe thriller, the novel is full of touching, sharply observed moments and is a tribute to survivors everywhere.”
Tracey Deakin
Founder/Partner Le Bas International
Huntington Beach, California

“Dawn Crouch has a passion for writing... And the most compelling stories are those based on life experiences.”
Scott Turner
Editor/Publisher
Socorro, New Mexico

Genres: Fiction

232 pages, Paperback

Published December 13, 2019

About the author

I’m from New Orleans, where ghosts and devils are part of everyday life, so it is only natural to write fiction and nonfiction based on true stories. Most little girls dream of growing up to be a ballet dancer. However, I have always wanted to be a writer, and I am the author of five nonfiction and three fiction books so far…

But I received my early ballet training from Lelia Haller, one of the first Americans to dance in the Paris Opera, before continuing with Houston Ballet under James Clouser and Nicholas Polejenko. I am grateful to have studied with Danilova, Balanchine, Martha Graham, Eric Hawkins, David Howard, and other legendary teachers. I’ve taught at ballet schools throughout the southeast for over forty years.

The Garage Ballet Series is a collaborative mother-daughter effort. My two daughters, Dominique Crisler and Caroline Ruder, assisted with classes and danced through college level at Northern Illinois University and the University of South Carolina. They now advise and edit my nonfiction ballet books.

Garage Ballet aims to mentor students, teachers, and parents through easy-to-understand explanations of ballet techniques and training. I passionately believe the study of ballet yields life skills of proven value for every student, from PreBallet to Preprofessional to Adult. Ballet does Help Everything! Writing included!

I am the mother of two sons as well and have been married to the same Emergency physician through it all. So conversation at my dinner table may range from culinary comparisons to debates on different interpretations of the same role in a ballet performance to pure medical macabre.

But I remember... Life can change in an instant. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina obliterated our home and belongings in the space of a single Monday morning.

I was blown with my two youngest, still at home from Gulfport, MS, to Huntsville, AL. At the same time, my husband, one of nine ER docs in the only Emergency Department operating within a ninety-mile radius, stayed behind. We survived the storm, but the separation and arduous task of rebuilding almost did us in. Lesson learned. Things can always be worse!

My first novel, Against The Wind, a YA coming-of-age catastrophe thriller, is based on our encounter with the storm.

I began work on The Last Plague long before Covid, but the eerie undertone of the prescient tale resonates with the pandemic. The novel is a sci-fi dystopian glance into a near future where medicine runs amok with bioengineered clones, weaponized viruses, and a forbidden love story.

Dead Children’s Playground takes its title from a hidden playground in Huntsville and a Rocket City urban legend. Huntsville is a beautiful and strange place where in the early 60s, rural Appalachia collided with Nazi Germany.

My writing will always be peppered with stories from my convoluted, crazy, and unique life as a daughter, wife, mother, dancer, teacher... person.

Please visit dawncrouch.com for fiction updates and Garageballet.com for new releases, titles, and helpful videos.

Reviews

[Joseph Sciuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Occasionally, you get a splendid surprise, and Dawn C. Crouch's novel, "Against The Wind: Jane-Claire's Personal Salvation," was such a surprise. In fact, it is a precious little gem. It possesses all the ingredients that make a book special, and one that I could not put down. First and foremost, it possesses the most important ingredient that I look for in any book, great characters, and no character is more wonderful than Jane-Claire. She is a fifteen year old teenager. She keeps a journal, and is an aspiring filmmaker whose video camera chronicles the life around her and the life she imagines. She is the personification of so many teenagers, I have known having lived in Los Angeles for most of my life and at one time dreaming of being a filmmaker. The real beauty of this wonderful character is the reader never doubts that she is a teenager, even as the world comes tumbling down upon her family, herself, friends, and the beach side community she lives in. It is the same with her brother Lerue, a senior in high school, who is a superb athlete and is applying for scholarships to colleges more at the urging of his parents because like a teenager he has no problem putting things off. Their mother, father, and friends are also vividly portrayed.

The story starts off with the impending approach of a devastating hurricane, and the reader is almost led to believe that, like in so many predictable movies and books that the story is going to center around the heroic attempts of the family trying to survive such a disaster, but guess again. The hurricane strikes and it is devastating in every way possible, wiping out the community they live in and killing many citizens and injuring many others. This all takes place at the beginning of the book, and it is the aftermath of such devastation and witnessing a family that seemed to have everything suddenly struggling to survive both emotionally and physically... Depending on the help of strangers for shelter and food and the desperate attempt to keep the family together as it seems to be breaking about.

Ms. Crouch's writing is clear and lucid, and there is no doubt in this reader's mind that the author lived through such a devastating hurricane and suffered the aftermath. Her descriptions are poignant, the characters are real, and there is never a moment in this gem of a book that I felt that the emotions being displayed were anything but real. I highly recommend.

[Russell Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived in Houston, near the Gulf Coast, for over forty years. I went through countless hurricane threats, several tropical storms, and one large hurricane. Luckily, I was far enough inland not to experience any major problems. But the fear and apprehension were always there. Dawn C Crouch, in her young adult novel Against the Wind, has put those feeling into words. Her story of a teenage girl and her family and their riding out a huge storm plus its aftermath is vividly told. Crouch, who herself went through a storm, is adept at description, for as her characters ride out the storm, we see all the dangers, fears, and devastation a storm that huge can cause. But just getting through the physical storm, Crouch points out, is not the biggest problem. It is what the experience can do to individuals and families. Her protagonist Jane-Claire is a fairly happy-go-lucky teen, not particularly interested in school and obsessed with her desire to be a filmmaker. She seems to have only one friend, other than a brother, and that young woman, a violinist in the school orchestra, gets lost to JC during the aftermath of it all. The story is not only a tale of the path back to normalcy and family unity, but it is a tale about friendship, loyalty, and how disaster impacts us all. Crouch’s novel is an achievement that teens should learn from as they enjoy the story. For me, however, the story and its message were over before the final “Epilogue.” I understood those last five pages emphasized the message that Jane-Claire “made it through,” but I personally felt that we got the message without that emphasis. Sometimes a sense that life is returning to normal is more powerful than the actual showing of it. But that’s minor criticism because the book is exciting, insightful, heart-warming, and timely indeed—what with 2020 having thirty or so named storms in the Atlantic, many of which tore through the very Gulf areas where Crouch set her story.

[Halyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I love about this book is that it's an epic panoramic story about how a humanity face and cope with a natural disaster. We know that they happens, until we are not involved, we don't realize how strong and deep they are.
Dawn C. Crouch had done brilliant choice having as a protagonist a teenager. It's so true to the reality. We know about the danger of natural disasters but we are like teenager not ready not expert to survive them.
The current situation with Covid-19 confirms that idea. Each of us live the pandemic in personal way maybe like teenagers: scared, rebellious, hopeful, adventurous, emotional.
There is no a tutorial how to survive because every time it is different. But the books like "Against The Wind" puts your spirit in fire to be ready for everything what comes.
I'm so glad, I have read this book right now, it helped me to understand many things that go around me.
My wish, "Against The Wind" gets a large audience and Dawn C. Crouch surprises us, the readers, with others unforgettable stories.

[A. Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing story. The writing is excellent with a flow like you would expect in a fantasy novel, except everything feels very real. And it probably (no, definitely) is based on a true story, so you can really get immersed in the story. The characters and emotions are the most amazing part of the book. Highly recommend.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast read, well written characters. I enjoyed this book from the beginning. How one family deals with the after effects of a hurricane. Trying to pick up the pieces and move on while trying to decide to rebuild what was or move forward into what could be. Jean-Claire grows up quickly watching her life fall apart in a matter of mins. How quickly the devastation of a hurricane hits and the path of complete destruction that is left behind. Jean struggles with her family, her dedication to her best friend. So much to deal with and how she persevered through it all. I've never been through one personally but I have dealt with tragedies no one should. Enjoyed this one and planning to keep and would read more from this author. I won this book in a goodreads giveaway, thank you!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graciously received a free copy through firstreads.

This book is a good reminder of when a crisis strikes, we fail the children involved.

I would have liked more about how this disaster affected her life years later, but overall a good read.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I was grading this for a freshman writing class, I would say, "Nice first draft. Needs editing. Check for continuity. Dialog is flat or stilted in places."