Title: How to Rob a Bank in Drag
Description: “Mistresses of Disguise Guilty in Bank Heists” 

It just keeps getting weirder. In a true story, the author writes of a brutal childhood interrupted by occasional spurts of Disneyland and ponies. After a fumbled ax attack by her mother, she takes to the streets at 14 years old.She is prey looking for a predator. Predators she finds, as well as the unlikeliest of heroes. There is no “road less traveled.” There is no road. She makes her way through back alleys dark and mesmerizing. 

Occasionally brutal, occasionally flat out funny. 

Finally old enough to legally exist, she builds a resume. Waitress. Camel Handler. Heroin Addict. Bank Robber. Federal Penitentiary Inmate. Mannequin Refinisher. Waitress again. In the end Dogaholic and Digital Artist with a terminal illness. Most of her partners have died. Doctors say she will join them. Soon. Maybe on the way home from the doctor’s office.

She rids her life of everything not precious and ends up surrounded by abandoned old dogs, a cat with PTSD, a very few rock-solid friendships, and some odd decorating ideas. It turns out that the past was necessary to forge something worthy of living for. Written with wry humor, tragedy turns out to be something different than tragic.
Subjects: lgbtq, bank robbery, drag, drag queen, drag king, PTSD, CPTSD, trauma, childhood trauma, abuse, drug addiction, recovery, addiction recovery, drug addiction recovery, abusive relationships, relationships, introspection, digital artist, terminal illness, illness, chronic illness, humor, legal troubles, jail, true crime, crime, criminal justice, rehabilitation, biography, true story, non-fiction, non fiction, financial institution, criminal rehabilitation, rehab, illegal substances, substance use, substance abuse, lgbt, health conditions, addictions, religious abuse, atheism, atheist, agnostic, religious extremism, religious extremist family, family abuse, abusive mother, prison, domestic abuse, domestic violence, LGBTQ biography and memoir, LGBTQ drag
Places: Sacramento, California, USA, Florida, Tampa
People: Dawn Lawson