Kimberly Collins
Writer, photographer, storyteller, dreamer—creating worlds with the magic of words
Simple Choices
My debut novel is available pretty much anywhere books are sold. You can click on the "buy" button below or hop on over to the "Where to Buy Stuff" tab.
"There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell."
—Proverbs 14:12
Simple Choices is a fictionalized story about a young, single mother from Matewan, West Virginia, who chose a life that led her down a path of chaos and destruction. Truth be told, this could be the story of any young woman in Mingo County—past or present.
In Simple Choices, the lives of two best friends, Darlene and Mickey, become irrevocably intertwined as they try to cope with a world of grim horizons in the hills and hollers of southern West Virginia. Their descent into a world of partying, drugs, sex, and crime—centered on Ray, a man and manipulator they both love, and his drug-dealing lifestyle—will keep you on the edge of your seat. Most shocking of all: the stunning act that brings this bad trip to its desperate conclusion really happened.
They were small, simple choices. Seemingly insignificant yes-or-no decisions. Each one leading her one small step further from where she was supposed to be, from where she truly wanted to be. Step by simple step. Piled together, the choices were one huge mountain of chaos and noise. But one at a time, who could tell any difference from the moment just before she made the choice, to the quiet moment just after?
Simple choices.
Darlene was bored, lonely, and had been carrying around a mountain of disappointment and shame and anxiety for years; she just wanted to escape for a little while. She was tired of the way her life was. Tired of who she had become. Some days the anxiety of living her life just gnawed at her from the inside like a parasite. She just needed some relief from being Darlene.
Yeah, having Mickey come visit sure seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
If it were only that simple.