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Just eleven when abducted by a known meth-addicted sex offender, Jaycee Dugard endured eighteen years of deepest horror.  By thirteen she was pregnant.  At fourteen, without medical care, she gave birth to what would be the first of her two daughters by this monster of a man. She had but a fifth grader's education, and yet, in an environment Diane Sawyer properly calls "degranged," Jaycee homeschooled her little girls—teaching them what she knew, protecting them from a brand of evil that seems, frankly, impossible.

Our own troubles are no troubles when we read of stories like Jaycee's, now being published by Simon & Schuster as a A Stolen Life.  Her kidnapping haunted me years ago, when it first made headlines, and her rescue deeply played into my imagination as I wrote about Sophie's struggle to break free in You Are My Only.  I have spent some of this early morning watching the video clips from Diane Sawyer's  two-hour interview with Jaycee, which will air this evening, and I have been so deeply moved by the beauty of this young woman. Jaycee Dugard is a survivor, she says, and not a victim.  She looks for what is good.  She is a mother raising girls of whom she is deeply, rightly protective.

Dignity and grace.  Dugard newly defines these words.

Today ABC News introduced an interactive ABC Video Bookstore in the Apple App Store, producing eBooks and enhanced eBooks that draw from the news organization’s extensive archives.

Follow this link to see the free iPad app. The store opens with two titles: A Modern Fairy Tale: William, Kate and Three Generations of Royal Love (sample page embedded below) by Jane Green and The Amanda Knox Story: A Murder in Perugia by ABC News. The titles will sell for $7.99 through the app and for $5.99 as text and photo eBooks for eReaders without video support.

ABC News president and author Ben Sherwood explained in the release:  “Working with our colleagues at Hyperion, we are uniquely positioned to give readers access to history in a vibrant eBook form – from political campaigns and human drama to the triumphs and tragedies that grip the world.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper has landed a book deal with Little, Brown and Company to write Enemy In the Wire about a major battle in Afghanistan.

Geoff Shandler acquired the book from Christy Fletcher at Fletcher and Company. In 2001, Tapper (pictured, via)  published Down and Dirty with Little, Brown.

Here’s more about the book, from the release:  “[It] will tell the investigative and inspiring story of the 54 US soldiers who were attacked by and ultimately (after more than 18 hours of fighting) prevailed over 300-400 Taliban at Combat Outpost Keating in northeast Afghanistan.  Tapper will detail the battle and the soldiers’ heroism and valiant service under fire and tell their stories, those of their loved ones, and those of the eight US troops killed that day. He will also investigate the unusual and compromising geography of the camp — tucked in a vulnerable valley surrounded by three heavily forested mountains near the Pakistan border, and explore the history of the camp within the context of the larger mission in Afghanistan.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.