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Renee Garrison

Renee Garrison was a newspaper reporter for The Tampa Tribune. During the decade she worked as the architecture critic, she won two communication awards from the American Institute of Architects.

She discovered her love of journalism while writing for her high school newspaper and graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Mass Communications. This book is a sequel to “The Anchor Clankers,” which won a Gold Medal in the Florida Authors and Publishers Association President’s Book Awards and chronicles Renee’s life as the only girl living in a boys’ military boarding school, The Sanford Naval Academy. Both books are considered “auto-fiction,” or autobiographical fiction, which is simply fiction based in your own life experience, but with some loosening of the reins on what “really happened.”

Renee grew up with a father who abused alcohol, yet it wasn’t until after college she realized the impact his drinking had on her. During bookstore and book club visits, many readers of her first book confided they, too, had an alcoholic parent. Like Renee, they shared these traits: 

Do you constantly seek approval and affirmation? Do you fail to recognize your accomplishments? Do you fear criticism? Do you overextend yourself? Do you have a need for perfection? Are you uneasy when your life is going smoothly, continually anticipating problems? 

Renee decided to write about the issue in the hope that it might help others who are struggling. As a teen, she wishes she’d known that while she couldn’t control her parent’s drinking, she could talk about it. And she should have. 

Alcoholism is a family problem, and those who live with an addict need to be heard and helped. 

The Anchor Clankers by Renee Garrison

The Anchor Clankers

ISBN: 9781950075270 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781950075287 (ePub)
ASIN: B08L24RGG1

Fourteen-year-old Suzette LeBlanc moves into the Sanford Naval Academy in Florida when her dad becomes its Commandant. Walking through the school lobby, she feels like something on a specimen slide in biology class. It doesn’t help that she’s nearsighted and refuses to wear her ugly glasses.

Suzette struggles to fit in with the older, more sophisticated midshipmen as well as the girls in the Catholic high school she attends across town. In between the pranks—from a riotous cast of characters—and the prom, she’s invited to join the cheer-leading squad and finds a friend in the squad captain, Debbie. Life looks good until a local girl becomes pregnant and a midshipman is believed to be responsible. That’s when Suzette must turn to her parents to save the school from retribution. Will she be in time? 

Anchored Together by Renee Garrison

Anchored Together

ISBN: 9781950075157 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781950075188 (epub)
ASIN: B08D7RG3LF

Being the only girl in a private boys' boarding school has its advantages: There's not much competition for the cheer-leading squad. (And plenty of opportunities to flirt and fall in love.)

But it has disadvantages, too, especially if your father is an alcoholic.

Sixteen-year-old Suzette LeBlanc moved into the Sanford Naval Academy when her father became the school Commandant. She's gaining confidence, but her father's drinking is on the rise, a fact her mother seems to ignore. She finds strength in her friends and finds love with the battalion commander (a.k.a. senior class president) who also must deal with an alcoholic parent.

They share their pain, their coping strategies, but can they share a future?

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