Mandy Smith is a writer, gardener, and animal lover who resides in Portland, OR with her husband and Labradoodle. She advocates for victims of child abuse, sexual assault, and domestic abuse on her WordPress blog Healing Beyond Survival.

She was a finalist in She Writes Press’s 2014 Memoir Discovery Contest. Secrets in Big Sky Country is her first book.

Beginning at age three, Mandy Smith’s stepfather—the man she calls “Daddy”—begins to molest her. When she finally breaks the family’s code of silence at age fourteen, she is shunned—an abandonment that leads her down a dark path. Smith wants acceptance, but she only finds more abuse.

When Smith finds herself pregnant as the result of a brutal rape, the deep love she feels for her unborn baby surprises her. She is in the midst of making plans for their new life together when her parents perform one final act of deception—a betrayal that sends Smith into a four-decades-long abyss of depression, eating disorders and PTSD.

Raw and intense, Secrets in Big Sky Country offers a disturbing portrait of the repercussions of familial sexual abuse—and an inspiring model for how survivors can rise above their shame and secrets and find a place of healing.