Novels

Novels are my first love in fiction. There's nothing quite like curling up in a comfy chair, under a nest of quilts in bed, or on a blanket in the park on a warm afternoon with a really good book--except perhaps having written that really good book.

Click on a title to read an excerpt. (Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed.)

Figure Eight (Coming soon!)

Sara Gibson has never been smart enough, rich enough or pretty enough to compete with Meg Carmichael. Maybe it's because her mom attempted suicide when Sara was nine and ended up in the psychiatric hospital, leaving Sara and her little brother to be raised by their slightly eccentric grandparents. Maybe it's because she prefers painting to nail polish and spiral perms. Either way, ten years after high school and now an up-and-coming artist, Sara still struggles with feelings of inadequacy. Then her beloved grandfather dies and Sara flies back home to the small town on Vancouver Island where she grew up, a place she'd rather forget ever existed, to attend the funeral. There she must face the ex-boyfriend whose heart she broke when she left town all those years ago, the mother who abandoned her, and, of course, Meg Carmichael.

Garden of the Heart (Coming soon!)

Struggling with feelings that she's an unfit parent after the loss of her infant daughter, Rose, Eve Williams is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Then, after a careless driver hits her car, nearly crushing the back seat where Rose's twin sister, Lily, is riding, Eve crumbles. No longer able to cope, she checks herself into the local psychiatric hospital. Left alone to be raised by her father, Lily struggles to come to grips with her mother abandoning her and her father's overbearing new girlfriend. While Eve struggles to let go of one daughter so she can become the mother the other needs.

Dogwood Summer

Lydia Fowler, school secretary and frazzled housewife, longs for the “happily ever after” so often promised in the romance novels she reads. Still, she clings to her unsatisfying life, believing things can only get better. Then, one summer, everything is upheaved when her self-absorbed mother unexpectedly descends upon her, her sister becomes entangled in an illicit affair, and an unplanned pregnancy alienates her from her husband. As her world spins into turmoil, Lydia is forced to take control of her future, or risk losing everything.

Short Fiction

Novels may be my first love, but short stories are hardly their poor cousins. I really enjoy the short format. Not only can I complete a short story in a few days, or even an afternoon, but the format allows for more experimentation of form, style and expression.

Currently, these are the stories I have in print (click on a title to read it):

Listen to the Rain Write Away Magazine, Fall 2003; Penwomanship (forthcoming!)
Is This Seat Taken? Gator Springs Gazette, Summer 2005
The Bear Hunter Flashquake, Summer 2005
Caring for Lily Literary Mama, February 2007
Boxes of Dust Canadian Stories (forthcoming!)
The Perfect Ring cahoots (forthcoming Spring 2007!)