Born to shanty Irish on one side and Park Avenue privilege on the other, Laura navigates a turbulent childhood filled with the alcohol-fueled abuse of her volatile father and her mother’s excessive drinking. As the middle child of three girls, she assigns herself the role of her mother’s protector, who dies when Laura is thirteen, leaving her heartbroken and adrift.

Insecure, anxious, and fearful, she tries drugs, random sex, and a sequence of lovers. Along the way she becomes a successful painter and has a bad first marriage. Nothing however seems to assuage her emptiness and her sense of loss. Eventually, she marries a caring man and has a loving daughter. It is only at the end of her life and by way of an unusual and unexpected turn of events that she is finally able to make peace with herself, to let go of the feeling that she never really grieved, and said goodbye to her beloved mother, and to appreciate that though we work at love and acceptance, sometimes the most wonderful experiences in our lives come in unanticipated and unsought ways.

Annie O’Neill Stein has an engaging voice— quirky, funny, full of original observations and expressions, as she adroitly explores the mysteries of the human heart.

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About the Author

Native New Yorker Annie O'Neill Stein moved to Los Angeles in the early 80s as an actress during the great migration of NY actors to LA. After many small parts in TV series, from Miami Vice to Charlie’s Angels, she decided to follow her true passion, writing.

She found her mentors in Eve LaSalle Caram and Kerry Madden at UCLA and studied with them for several years. Being accepted to Sewanee Writer’s Conference to study with Alice McDermott planted the seed for Exit Wounds, her first novel.

Annie O'Neill Stein has written for magazines such as More, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Distinction, Folks, and was a regular contributor to the Huffington Post for several years. Some of the things she's proudest of are leading creative writing workshops with foster teens for five years, editing and publishing Beauty From Ashes, short stories, and poetry written by foster youth.

She lived in LA with her husband and has two grown daughters, although she loved to pretend that she lives in the French countryside. She's a huge advocate of kindness. Kindness, gratitude, and the belief that we’re all on this planet to help each other. Annie O’Neill Stein passed away on July 30, 2022, and is survived by her husband, Jeffrey Stein, and two daughters.