Rounding Third blurs the line between cliches like "Be your best self" and hard truths of exclusion. Good will and humor create success--but whose?
Rounding Third is the story of Marisol, a young Latina newcomer to a small community who struggles to find her niche as a volunteer softball coach and paid art teacher.
During the three years of the story, she acquires a series of intangible successes that ease the gradual destruction of a more tangible but elusive success.
The consequences of “thinking like a woman,” as one character accuses, in a community that professes coziness while subtly excluding the wrong people, force Marisol to adjust her goals and dreams. Though she sees herself as an insider, she is continuously pushed back by those who persist in viewing her as an outsider.
Her unique coaching style works for the team goofballs, seasoned players, and newcomers, but it annoys some of the community stalwarts—the real insiders.
Navigating a world that seems to be filled with allies or enemies challenges Marisol to preserve her sense of self-worth within a community of people whose complexities resist such dichotomization.
This is a portion of the complete (102K) novel.