History: The House That Ivy Built: Book 5 was begun in 2002 and is still being written. It is currently on the back burner because the THTIB series needs so much work in order to be publishable, so I decided to work on other more publishable works before trying to begin the monumental task of choosing a good place to start with this story. Nevertheless, Book 5 contains some of my best writing about some of my most beloved characters: people who have been with me since 1996.

About THTIB 5: The fifth book in my series continues the life of my main character Ivy. In this book, Ivy is dabbling in some side projects: taking home-based education at her own pace, dealing with the issues surrounding a friend's wedding, and waffling as usual about whether she wants to embrace her identity as an extraordinary person or whether she wants to hide certain aspects of herself to be accepted by normal society. But one of the main plots is Ivy's support group Handprints; these folks add a new member to their group of people with unusual abilities trying to feel at ease in society, and because Ivy and her group help stop a crime, she begins to see purpose in her powers and starts to wonder if their group ought to pursue that cheesy superhero path she'd always hated hearing about before. As usual, Ivy's struggle for purpose and identity is the main point of this book.

• Excerpt 1 shows a rather ordinary morning at Ivy's house. You can meet some of her roommates, get exposed to how Ivy uses her telekinetic abilities and interacts with other people, and learn about some serious issues in the group's future. Overall it's a good excerpt to see how I write dialogue.

• Excerpt 2 allows readers to sit in on a rescue plan meeting with Handprints, and then it delivers the action all the way through the mission execution. Ivy's outlook is transformed in this powerful episode.

• Excerpt 3 involves Ivy engaging in one of her favorite activities: wind art. She is disturbed to find her roommate Zeke has made a recording of her "performance," but when she actually sees what her winds look like from the outside by watching the recording, she finds it enlightening.