BLUE WATER,
a year in the ocean.
Available Now
Short Story
peeling away superficial labels pertaining to mental health, substance abuse, and trauma cycles, BLUE WATER, a year in the ocean. is told through my seventeen-year-old lens as I navigated a complex first love, friendships, and family strife.
Long Story
It’s 2009, and my home life has quietly fallen apart. I’m clinging to the scraps I have left––school and friends. Waves of severe depression and anxiety threaten to pull me under, but as a star student, I remain determinedly driven, convinced college is my bridge to a better life.
When I spark the attention of bad-boy Kolton Farrow, I find myself consumed by our whiplash romance, and things turn from dismal to desperate. I finish junior year of high school with honors, AP credits, and a cumulative 4.1 GPA, but three months later, I begin senior year days shy of a stint in juvenile hall. I manage to maintain my grades but continue to lose myself.
After college, I gain traction in my young marketing career, and with each passing year, I distance myself further and further from the disasters of that pivotal summer. The one thing I can’t shake? Kolton. How is it that eight years later, we’re still locked in the same toxic cycle we were at seventeen? And when the tension between external accolades and internal chaos festers to a head, which aspect of self wins?
PRAISE FOR BLUE WATER:
An Award Winner of:
San Diego State University’s 2019 Writer's Conference Choice Award
89th Annual Writer's Digest Competition
"Ms. Lembeck is able to make readers feel her feelings. This is very difficult to do." - Betsy Amster [Literary Agent]
“The prose is akin to poetry.” - Ken Sherman [Literary Agent]
“When you read some books, you feel like you're watching the characters from above or from a short distance away, but with Blue Water, I felt like I was in the story with ‘Jordan’, like a front row seat. The writing feels alive.” - Norah A. [Reader]
”So insanely well written. I can’t even put into words how good it is…no f*cking joke. Last line of the juvie part, ‘yeah, we can get Taco Bell’ GUDUOADHFOEJRBOOEERNBGG THATS MY BRAIN RIGHT NOW. You just want to fight for the main character. Like come on ‘Jordan’ you GOT this! I could NOT put it down.” - Sam E. [Reader]
"This book made my head buzz in the way that good writing does––like some literary high. It was all-consuming, visceral. Every scene pulled me inside of it. 'Candied darkness' = come on. I wish I'd written that. I mean, I REALLY wish I'd written that. Perfect description for the amazing, complex emotions. The sweet and dark. Absolutely perfect. The whole thing feels like a meditation to me, an exploration of what it means to love somebody, a collection of moments and a philosophy at the same time." - Cameron H. [Reader]
