In this era of war, disease, and natural disaster, we cannot help but struggle against a sense of impotency. Bystanders to God and the powers around us, we watch with dread as they go about their business. Yet somehow, we continue about our own business, determined to pursue our own paths, our own futures. Authoring Amelia, explores a young woman's determination to wrestle from the powers of nature and authority the right to wield the pen that writes her story. It follows her internal struggles to make peace with a senseless past, battle a formidable present, and confront an ambiguous future. Who is authoring her life when the pen so often slips or is so willfully taken? Amelia seeks to answer this question and many others as she journeys through the pages of Authoring Amelia. In her first act of authorship, she seizes the opportunity to escape her Honduran exile and sets out on a Western adventure. What she discovers is that fresh air and wide open spaces can no more deny a tragic past than the dry earth of the plains can deny the momentum of the Yellowstone River. Though the promise of love and the scent of vindication beckon her forward, newly discovered memories and disturbing revelations draw her back...back to her Minnesotan home to unravel the mystery behind a past family tragedy and the current disappearance of her father. Now she must defy the unyielding hand of fate and demand from it the right to define her own existence. But how can Amelia maintain her grip on such a slippery pen?