Ruth Talbot is battling so many demons, she doesn't know where to not-look first. As the fifty-something marketing director of a New York City cosmetics firm, she's engaged in a fiery power struggle with her new boss. Meanwhile, the successful corporate executive she is on the outside is feuding with the idealistic Peace Corps volunteer she used to be, still there inside. As if that weren't enough, her body is betraying her with hot flashes and her husband clobbers her with a plea that they both retire. Retire? She's not that old. Is she? She has a stroke-of-genius idea for a product that could generate huge profits for her company, vanquish her boss, and position her to retire on a high note of success. She soon realizes that the new project may win her a victory in the office showdown, but won't provide the inner-outer handshake she craves. Winning the wrong game isn't going to be enough; she'll have to turn her life upside down so she no longer feels like she's living it inside out. "You're going to love Ruth Talbot, who is engaged in a fiery power struggle with her new boss, and has a younger co-worker yearning for her job and willing to do almost anything to undermine her." TheThreeTomatoes.com "About Face deals not with the village experience, but with what happens years later, after one returns to the "real world" and pursues a career that may or may not be affected by "the other world."..... [Howard] is an intrepid, perfectionist writer, who, I sense, thinks about every word she puts to paper." PeaceCorpsWorldwide Ruth Talbot is battling so many demons, she doesn't know where to not-look first. As the 50-something marketing director of a New York City cosmetics firm, she's engaged in a fiery power struggle with her new boss. Meanwhile, the successful corporate executive she is on the outside is feuding with the idealistic Peace Corps volunteer she used to be, still there inside. As if that weren't enough, her body is betraying her with hot flashes and her husband clobbers her with a plea that they both retire. Retire? She's not that old. Is she? She has a stroke-of-genius idea for a product that could generate huge profits for her company, vanquish her boss, and position her to retire on a high note of success. She soon realizes that the new project may win her a victory in the office showdown, but won't provide the inner-outer handshake she craves. Winning the wrong game isn't going to be enough; she'll have to turn her life upside down so she no longer feels like she's living it inside out. Carole Howard is a world traveler and a former corporate consultant. Writing is her third career, so she knows full well the difficulties of change and its resulting need for reinvention. On the page she draws from both the urban and village lives she's experienced; in particular, it is her deep friendships and family relationships that lend spice and humor to novels that women relate to, no matter which stage of life they face. She lives with her husband in New York State's Hudson Valley, with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren right down the road. When not writing and reading, she's playing the violin, gardening, knitting, or practicing yoga.