Exit Velocity A Novel

Rowan Pickett is desperate to put her life back together — which is why she goes looking for Titus Longshaw, leader of a group which seeks to unite Black, White, and Latino workers. Titus can help her get a job.

Rowan's search for work keeps getting interrupted by Jake Terranova, an arrogant podcaster from Boston who insists on interviewing her about . . . a parrot. A parrot he suspects is from another planet. And by pro-fascist Zeb Snoddy, whom she has feared since she was a teen.

She gets the job she so desperately needs, and this helps her regain the confidence and courage to demand social justice — at rallies and in her workplace. She once again becomes active in organizations to end violence against women.

The job, though, is not easy, and comes with relentless problems. Fast-paced working conditions and a foreman who has it in for her are just the start. But Rowan can handle tough situations.

Until, one dark night, as she and her best friend Keisha are walking home, Zeb Snoddy is waiting for them.

Barbara Gregorich intended to write "Exit Velocity" back in the 1960s but got swept up in the staggering social-justice events of the times: the war in Vietnam, Black Liberation, and the struggle for Equality for Women.

By the time the sixties settled, Gregorich was teaching college English courses. From there, she went on to become a typesetter, then a postal letter carrier, a writer-producer of educational filmstrips, and, finally, a novelist. "She's on First" was published in 1987.

From the time she was eleven years old, she wanted to be either a writer or a professional baseball player. Or, perhaps, both. The major leagues were closed to women — but that didn't mean Gregorich couldn't write about women playing hardball. After her novel came the highly acclaimed nonfiction work, "Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball."

And then, finally, the road of writing and the road of social justice converged. In 2021 she published "The F Words", a YA novel about teen rights and "Exit Velocity" in 2024.