Shawn Marie Graybeal-Sellers

It’s Here. It’s Finally Here.

I’ve had stories in my head my whole life. Anywhere But Here has been one of them for about ten years.

It didn’t start at the beginning. The part I wrote first was somewhere in the middle — Michelle coming home to Albuquerque to find her missing friend Sylvia, and the stretch of the story that takes her to Gallup when the search comes up empty there. That section existed for years, waiting for the rest of the story to catch up to it.

The prologue existed too, in a way — as a handful of flashbacks scattered across early drafts. But it wasn’t until Christmas break that I sat down and wrote it as a true prologue, and something about doing that unlocked everything else. The full shape of the story finally became clear.

The rest came out over the last few months — fast, and with a lot of feeling. Michelle’s arc from beginning to end, the mystery at the center of it, the decade of motion and distance and the pull of home that never quite lets go.

Michelle, Sylvia, Bobby, the Calderons — they have lives that extend well beyond what made it onto the page. I know their backstories, their contradictions, the small details that never found their way into the book but shaped everything that did. That’s how I know they’re real. That’s how I know this story was worth the ten years it took to find its ending.

Anywhere But Here is set in Albuquerque’s North Valley, a place I love deeply — the cottonwoods, the acequias, the mountains at dusk. It’s a story about chosen family, survival, and the long road back to the place that always knew your name.

It’s available now on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and ebook.

I’m so glad it’s finally out in the world. I hope it finds the readers it’s meant for.