 The story of a young rock-and-roll singer who leaves home to escape a mentally ill mother, "Riding with the Queen" was not fictionalized memoir, according to Shortridge, but rather a new story using her experiences with both.In 2005, she employed similar technique for her second published novel, "Eating Heaven", again by NAL, the story of a disenfranchised food writer who comes to term with life by caring for a dying uncle.In her 2008 novel, "Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe", NAL, a perfectionist middle-aged woman flees her home and life after discovering her husband has been less than perfect.