Welcome to my website.
In a previous update, I shared I’d been on a bit of a writing hiatus, derailed by a career in commercial real estate. Curious if I could still tap into the creative part of my brain, I enrolled in The University of Iowa’s online class, How Writers Write Fiction. I found the process of mining my imagination and the writing that sprung from it deeply satisfying.
I’ve always considered myself a short story writer. So I was caught off guard midway through a subsequent University of Iowa class to discover what I was working on needed a much larger container to hold it. Writing is the act of discovery, over and over again, and so I set off on what became a long journey of discovery. With a lot of hard work, more time than I’d like to admit, and the feedback and encouragement from some terrific writing friends, I wrote a 56,000 word novel.
THE COLOR OF SEA GLASS follows fifteen-year-old Emma in the aftermath of a car crash. Set in a rural college town, the novel opens shortly after the crash with Emma in the driver’s seat of her best friend Megan’s BMW, her other best friend Ashley moaning beside her. Emma soon realizes it’s not only the BMW that’s upside down. The accident has uprooted her entire world. When her father, the formerly famous writer she hasn’t heard from in six years, shows up at the hospital and her mother, the esteemed novelist who prioritizes her writing over everything, starts showing an interest in her, Emma retreats into silence. Relying on memory and online searches for answers, these resources ultimately fail her when she gets to the big questions, the incomprehensible ones.
A coming-of-age story, THE COLOR OF SEA GLASS is told from Emma’s perspective in a narrative voice that is insightful, witty, and wise beyond her years. Similarly themed, voice-driven novels include Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, Playworld by Adam Ross, and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
Thank you for visiting my website. I’ve included links to some of my fiction and non-fiction in the Portfolio.