Unpublished Projects
A Most Remarkable Girl
To support herself and her sick father in Depression-era New York, Penny Pardes seizes a risky but lucrative opportunity to sell illegal books. She embarks on an adventure that takes her from Manhattan's Book Row to Coney Island, Times Square, and Harlem and includes obscenity trials, freak shows, burlesque striptease, a murder charge, and the reappearance of a long-lost love.
Bounding from skid row to the penthouse, from rent parties to exclusive clubs, A MOST REMARKABLE GIRL teems with diverse, distinctive characters and details. A fast-paced comedy and a heartbreaking love story, it is above all the journey of a seemingly unremarkable person who overcomes her fear of what makes her remarkable.
(Historical Fiction)
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Manuscript and Proposal Package Available Upon Request
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Fruit of the Dust
Adam, the world’s first man, is dying. Upon learning that the oil from the Tree of Life could save him, his son Seth journeys across the wilderness to seek the Garden of Eden. Meanwhile, Adam broods over his and Eve’s banishment from paradise and the loss of their first children, their daughter Azura struggles with her emergence into womanhood, and Eve tries to hold their family together. On his quest to save his father, Seth faces a series of natural dangers while discovering the painful family secret of Cain and Abel and learning about life and death. Multiple narrators provide a diversity of perspectives.
The stories of Adam and Eve and of Cain and Abel are widely known. The Book of Genesis mentions Seth as the third son, but says little about him and nothing of his other siblings. Drawing on ancient non-canonical texts and reserves of imagination, FRUIT OF THE DUST envisions these archetypal characters living in a newly created world burgeoning with promise. Through the powerful, lyrical prose of six distinctive voices, it addresses universal themes of family, mortality, and regeneration.
I devised the multi-narrator approach days before my daughter was born and began handwriting fragments in pocket notebooks. I then typed these fragments, cut them out, and arranged them on a corkboard to assemble the first draft, which I refined through intensive editing across numerous drafts. FRUIT OF THE DUST merges an epic quest with an intimate family portrait, breathing new life into familiar (and not-so-familiar) characters and exploring the joys, sorrows, hopes and regrets of these early dreamers and seekers.
(Literary Fiction)
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Manuscript Available Upon Request
Dogwood Hollow
Absinthe, a dark-humored sixteen-year-old rebel, harbors a secret crush on Pastor Gilbert, the idealistic intern seminarian at her church. But when she goes away to a summer Bible camp in the hopes of impressing Gilbert, her repressed mother Beverly forms a friendship with the young seminarian that quickly becomes romantic. Absinthe’s return leads to fireworks and a bittersweet finale.
(Literary Fiction)
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First Chapter Published as "The Intern" by Adelaide Literary Magazine
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Manuscript Available Upon Request
The Molly-Poppet
Molly, an orphaned rag-maid, becomes the molly-poppet—or living doll—for young Lady Astasia, the daughter of a duke who rules a massive, mazelike castle. As Molly’s relationship to Astasia evolves from toy to friend, she must also face the unexpected introduction of Skye the Auto-Mate, an eerily humanoid mechanical companion who threatens not only her friendship with Astasia but also her life.
(YA Fantasy)
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Manuscript Available Upon Request