Writing

As stated in my About Page, I love writing. I’ve been writing stories ever since I can remember, and got serious about my work in my twenties. I’ve had several short stories published in both commercial and literary journals. Around 2006, I switched my focus to novels. I primarily write adult fiction with fantasy elements, ranging from traditional fantasy to literary magical realism. From time to time, I also dabble in women’s fiction and young adult fantasy. I’ve yet to publish a novel, and since 2014, that dream has been put on hold, possibly permanently. I ceased to write fiction altogether in 2016, due to ongoing trauma issues. Perhaps one day I’ll get back to it, but it’s unlikely this page will change any time soon.

At present, I have seven novels in various stages of completion. Below are short synopses and a few details about each. Additionally, my writer-brain feeds me lots of ideas and semi-complete manuscripts to keep on the burner for later. Just as there’ll never be enough time to read All The Books, there’ll never be enough time to write All The Books. But I try.

My novels:

Summer Rain
Emma has been in love with Peter for a decade. She knows it’s not real love – they’ve only met once – but the lucid dreams she seems to share with him have tried to convince her otherwise. Her therapist diagnoses her with erotomania, the state of believing a person she hardly knows is in love with her and communicating in a way that only she can understand. Emma fights against the delusion, even after Peter reenters her life and declares that they actually are sharing dreams.

Genre: adult literary magical realism
Similar to: The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
Currently: finished
Additional: the creative process behind Summer Rain

Maldralith
Mage doesn’t know that she is the last living vessel of the goddess Maldraise, meant to lead her people into divinity. When war ripped through her childhood, she buried the knowledge and her memories in a family heirloom, and has since been raised in the opposing religious culture, enslaved by those who formerly worshiped her. Now, with the world on the brink of a new war, Maldraise leads Mage back to her memories and charges her, contrary to all she’s been taught, to unite the two sides of this religious conflict.

Genre: adult fantasy
Similar to: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Currently: second draft complete, needs revisions/third draft
Additional: playlist

The Hanged Man
Eloise is drawn to Nicholas Nightingale, a street magician who claims to be the other half of her soul. He binds them together by stealing a piece of her soul, leaving a sliver of his own in its place. At first, Eloise believes this is her happily ever after. Then she meets another magician, Neal, who reveals the darker side of this fairy tale. The closer the two halves get, the more they will damage each other, until eventually, the connection will destroy them both. Eloise and Nick have already begun this process, and now, Eloise must fight to sever the tie between them before she loses her soul completely.

Genre: adult contemporary fantasy
Similar to: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Currently: fourth draft completed, potentially needs a fifth draft

Winter’s Son
When Poe Winterson’s mother hangs herself, Poe is sent to live with her grandmother in the childhood home she hardly remembers. Eight years of nomadic life have obliterated memories of before. She barely recognizes her former best friend, Blake Hansley, and doesn’t recall the dilapidated piano abandoned in the woods where they used to play. She has no idea that this piano acts as a gateway to another world, a world of Nightmares that have haunted her dreams for years. Suddenly, nothing about the fabric of Poe’s life can be trusted – not her upbringing, not her memories, not the details of her mother’s death. She wants to run, to disappear back into the real world and never step foot near that piano again. The Nightmares have taken Blake, however, and Poe refuses to let them destroy any more lives in their hunt for her.

Genre: young adult fantasy
Similar to: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Currently: first draft complete, needs further drafting

Gargoyle Island
Mallory Dane inherits a tropical island luxury home off the coast of Honduras, but when she arrives to claim it, she runs afoul of an immortal priest and a gargoyle-come-to-life. She quickly discovers their secret: once chained to the island, a resident can never escape. Never one to accept her chains quietly, Mallory sets about unraveling the numerological magic that has trapped her family line on Gargoyle Island for a century.

Genre: adult contemporary fantasy
Similar to: City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
Currently: first draft complete, needs further drafting

Phantom
After a decade away, Sam Milam returns to her hometown when her father suffers a major heart attack. Once there, she must face estranged friends and family, memories of lost love and a devastating miscarriage, and the contempt of former fellow church members of the faith she left behind long ago. Sam finds an unexpected ally in Oliver Deboe, a family friend who helps her to understand that despite feeling as if her life got frozen in time at age twenty, she does have a chance to be happy again someday.

Genre: women’s fiction
Similar to: The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
Currently: finished
Additional: the creative process behind Phantom

MatchMakers Incorporated
Nina believes wholeheartedly in the lesson she’s been taught since infancy: Everyone has a perfect Match. When the government assigns her a husband, however, he isn’t the person she’s hoped for, and her storybook world is shattered. Unable to keep her passions in check, Nina defies the government’s assignment and enters into an illegal affair. Soon, she must choose between becoming an exile to stay with the man she loves and obeying the rules to keep her place in society.

Genre: adult traditional dystopia
Similar to: The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
Currently: submission-ready, shelved due to marketing issues, considering a re-design and redraft

Percolating
– Breathless (working title)
– The Gods Among Us (working title)
– The Regret List
– Old Lang Syne (working title)
– The Red Queen (working title)
– The Island (working title)
– Shadow Souls
– Goblin Market
– Matryoshka
– The Wrong Kind of Mother

Last updated: 10/29/21