Writing Projects
This is my Writing Project Page—some long-finished, some very current. Click on a project to see more. Will continue to update.
Mary Emery is a family lawyer whose second marriage has fallen apart and whose eldest son is dead. Can life possibly get worse? She spends her days saving marriages and protecting children—yet could neither save nor protect her own. Mary has recurring nightmares, sees her psychologist more than her best friend, and is in a part-time relationship with a work colleague. She lives with her youngest son, Charlie (Chet). A strong student and athlete, Chet struggles with his own loss, social challenges, gender expression, and his distant mother. One night, Mary feels she is being watched. The following week...
02 Secrets We Share
When Angela’s marriage dissolves and her mother dies, Angela needs her best friend, Kristy, more than ever. Angela holds herself and her family together by a thin thread, craving a better life for her daughters. Angela pressures Toryn, her oldest, grooming her for a soccer scholarship, but the competitive sport sub-culture is unkind. Meanwhile, Angela’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Jeremy, misinvested twelve thousand dollars, her only savings. Angela also feels sure he is lying about a romantic entanglement—with the mother of their daughter’s teammate and rival, no less. What Angela uncovers about her husband and what she finds in her mother’s cedar chest sends her on a reeling tailspin of self-examination and genealogical secrets. Tension escalates when Angela discovers that her mother’s only heirloom, a strand of forty-eight blush pink pearls, was stolen. Angela must garner the strength to confront the sordid secrets of her family and of her own identity. With Kristy by her side, Angela feels she can face almost anything—except perhaps a future inside four prison walls without her daughters.
03 A Family Undone
COLIN HALSTON COLDWELL lives a life that is anything but ordinary, but is now completely unravelling. Shortly after his father’s death, Colin finds evidence that points to poisoning as the cause of his father’s cardiac arrest—poisoning at the hands of his father’s brother, that is. Colin has a fiancée his mother cannot stand, and now a company he must assume a co-CEO role in running, with his father’s murderer.
After ending his engagement to OLIVIA and being punched by his steadfast best friend, SAM, Colin finally gathers the courage to approach the police with his evidence and accusation. He knows he deserved the punch. His comments at their mutual friend’s engagement party crossed the line. Colin knows he is spiralling out of control. After seeing a ghost, grappling with a drinking problem, and enduring decades of his dysfunctional mother, GINA’s influence, it may very well be a therapist and a treatment program Colin needs, not a private investigator.
Meanwhile, Olivia knows two things for sure: she is tired of Gina’s judgment and tired of waiting for Colin. Wanting closure, Olivia schedules a trash-the-dress photo shoot with a high-end photographer, but the day is windy and she is swept downriver in raging rapids. Before Colin’s uncle can be apprehended, Colin loses control of his vehicle, striking a young girl and her mother. Does his drinking finally have serious repercussions, or could Colin’s uncle have tampered with the car, causing the accident?
Five voices come together to tell this Shakespearean tale and answer the question: Is Colin simply a product of privilege, or is he truly a tragic hero of his own making?
Creative Nonfiction: The Online Allure
I have dated and been in and out of relationships for much of my adult life. This is a fact. Online dating, as a forum, is here to stay. Another fact. It is impossible to deny its ease. It is also impossible to do it for years without either becoming jaded or learning a thing or two about oneself and the world we inhabit. Perhaps both. I'd love to write that I have mastered the process of meeting men online, but that would be seriously misleading.
We are all familiar with that thrill after completing a good workout, winning an award, or impressing someone. That rush of pleasure is thanks to dopamine, and it is present in droves in the online dating world, just as it permeates any social media platform. I fear that I did become briefly addicted to, or reliant on, the rush that accompanied online dating. I fear also, on a broader scale, that we have become a society more interested in scrolling than in making conversation or donning earbuds rather than making eye contact. Of liking people online instead of in person.
My love-hate relationship with online dating began shortly after the dissolution of my marriage. I was 33. The year was...
