Barefoot

Opal is seven in 1963 when her mother is killed in a freak accident in Texas. Her father leaves her to be raised by her grandmother in the backwoods, mountain community of Pine Creek in northern California. Barefoot is a story of family, secrets, hard times, and forgiveness.

Lizann Bassham is from French Gulch, a small town in Northern California where her grandparents owned a bar and restaurant. She has a B.A. in Psychology from San Francisco State University, a M.Div. from Pacific School of Religion, and worked with junior and senior high adolescents for over twenty years. She has written curriculum for adolescents on issues around healthy relationships and teen dating violence. She had the opportunity to workshop parts of both Barefoot and her second novel, One of Another, at the Iowa writer’s summer workshop in 2004. She is also a playwright and musician. Once, quite by accident, she won a salsa dance contest at a bar in East L.A.