About

My contemporary fantasy novel, Death is A Star, is now available in print and as an eBook!

Available where all fine books are sold!

At Smashwords

At Amazon.com

My ghost story ‘With Family’ is still up at Spinetinglers.  Look under July 2011   http://spinetinglers.co.uk/ViewStories.aspx

Getting my NaNoWriMo groove on

I’m a writer.  I currently have the good fortune to be able to spend my mornings writing before toddling off to the day job in the afternoon.  For alas, I’m not yet able to support myself in the manner to which I’m accustomed (roof over head, food in fridge) by writing alone.  That is the ultimate goal, however, hence the blog.  I was dubious at first, but I’ve quickly found that I actually enjoy these little forays into nonfiction. It gives other parts of my brain a workout and gives me a reason to think about reality nearly every week. Mostly I avoid reality. When not writing, I read. When not reading, I grab the camera and look for pretty or weird or pretty weird things to photograph.  When not doing those things I watch old movies and TV shows that my friends have recommended via Netflix because I don’t do cable.  I live mostly in a world of stories, mine, yours, theirs, and even, dare I say it, God’s.  For what is this strange reality but a show put on for us by the Great Creator?

I’ve written eleven novels, and even finished a few.  One, Death is a Star, was released in February 2013 by IFD Publishing. I’m currently marketing another and toiling tirelessly to get two more to that point of perfection. Meanwhile, I’ve had several short stories published. A few are still available, like the one at Spinetinglers posted above.  Here’s a list of the rest, with links where available to the market if not the story itself:

Common Ground,  Broken Promises

Windigo, Dead on Demand

A Taste of Steel, Imagination Fully Dilated II

Honor Thy Father, Writers’ Digest Years Best Fiction 2003

No Place Like Home, Ghosts at the Coast

The Nest, Dark Discoveries

Tea for Two, MOTA 9

Piece By Piece, Driftwood

With Family, Spinetinglers

Awards:

Rupert Hughes Award, Maui Writers Conference 2001

2^nd Place, Writers’ Digest 2003 Short Story Award, Genre Fiction

1^st Place, La Belle Lettres, Short Story Contest

1^st Place, Journey Writers’ Conference, Novel

Finalist, PNWA Novel

4^th Place, Whidbey Island Conference Short Fiction Award

Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future 2011

Semi-Finalist, Writers of the Future 2013

Miscellany:  I have a dog, Lazlo, and four cats (who prefer not to have their identities revealed online. Cats are funny that way).   I work as a bookkeeper for a nonprofit economic development firm.  My favorite job so far has been the five years I spent as administrative asssistant at a Victorian House Museum.  A certain Victorian house now appears in several of my novels.  I currently belong to three critique groups.  My favorite thing in the world is spending time with other writers and gushing geekily about how much fun writing is (but don’t tell the others, they think we’re suffering for our art).  If you enjoy this blog, check out the blog I started with some writing buddies of mine at Shadow Spinners.

The Novels:

Death Is A Star ~ 89,000 words, 320 pages ~ A contemporary fantasy featuring time traveling Assyrian sisters, a circus in hiding, an unleashed Demon seeking self-actualization, and heroic elephants.

The good sister, Theda, wants only to get home to Nineveh. The bad sister, Irene, thinks hooking up with the demon and his unlimited power might be the way to go.  Theda must come to grips with her own role in this black magic mix-up and risk her bond with home, family, her beloved elephants and life itself in order to stop a great evil from being unleashed upon an unsuspecting modern world.

The Dark Side of Dreaming ~ 140,000 words, 600 pages ~ A contemporary fantasy that spans continents and worlds.  Imagine a world where certain people can make Dreams into reality, a world teetering on the brink of annihilation but where the majority of people are in denial, a world where the best hope for salvation has been outlawed.

Zoe Tidwell is that rare breed, a Dreamer.  She has the power to make Dreams into reality, but she lives in a time and place where Dreaming is against the law and Dreamers themselves are repressed in childhood, and hunted by the federal government if they dare to Dream as adults.  Zoe has accepted that Dreaming is just too dangerous to toy with.

But now, with a mysterious new Dream threatening to destabilize Reality in her home town of Heron Spit, Oregon, Zoe is forced to take sides between an incompetent blue-eyed shaman who needs her to use her power, and a pair of no-nonsense government agents sent to track down and eliminate Dreams and Dreamers alike.