Linden Way Cover Reveal

Posted on June 10, 2022 ·

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Summer has a way of blurring days until time loses all meaning. In June especially I am happy to let the days slip by unaccounted for and unmarked on the calendar. That’s why, when I sat down this morning to blog and noted the date on the post, I did a double take. And then I broke into a smile.

June 10 was the day, eight years ago, when The Fourth Wall was officially published. Since then I’ve had the honor of appearing in other books as an essayist and short story-teller, and those books have kept my debut company on my bookshelf, but until now The Fourth Wall has been the lone novel.

That changes next month with the release of The House on Linden Way. It’s been a very different journey: Linden Way is self-published while The Fourth Wall was published traditionally, although since the latter was released through a small press I guess you could say I’ve been indie all along.

In a future post I’ll go into the differences, but for now I want to tell you what’s the same: the tremendous sense of accomplishment in seeing your creative vision through. Kudos to all of you out there doing this very thing.

Here’s the cover for Linden Way, designed by Kitten at Deranged Doctor Design. When I post again in July, it will be with a link to order. That is, if I don’t get lost in the hazy days of June.

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New Story in Fractured Lit and Other Writerly News

Posted on April 30, 2022 ·

Image by Ulrike Leone from Pixabay

Summer Break is weeks away, and although I’m going to miss my students, I can’t wait to have more time for writer-me. Until then I am in full teacher mode, but I wanted to pop in and share a few writerly links from March and April in case you missed them!

In March, one of my dream publications, Fractured Lit, published a little vignette called “Windows.” This piece was originally published in Hunger Mountain (print only) in 2017. I was so happy it found a new home online.

In April, a newish magazine called Five Minute Lit accepted a micro I’d written last summer. The piece will appear in August, but you should check out the site now! Everything they publish is exactly one hundred words.

In May, my short story “Gravity” will appear in an anthology celebrating twenty years of Mothers Who Write, a fabulous workshop I’ve participated in several times. The launch takes place at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix on Saturday, May 7, from 11-1.

Finally, this story reviewer on Instagram took me by surprise last month by tagging me in a review of “Windows.” It made me smile on a day when I really needed it and reminded me why it’s important to share the work we love.

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Celebrating Ten Years as a Published Writer

Posted on March 19, 2022 ·

Photo by Audrey Fretz on Unsplash

This month marks the ten-year anniversary of my first published piece, “Flight.” I will never, ever forget when Literary Mama accepted that story—I was over the moon. It was the writerly breakthrough I needed and kicked off a ten-year streak of publishing my fiction and essays in some truly wonderful magazines.

A decade is a long time, and although many of the magazines I’ve appeared in are still going strong (including Literary Mama!), several have folded. In the last year alone I’ve taken down seven links that led to defunct websites.

The good news is my stories belong to me, and there’s more than one way to make them available to you. One of my goals for 2022 was to add audio of me reading these orphaned pieces on my website. And then I thought, well, why not video too? So here they are!

I started with the four prose poems I lost when Mothers Always Write shut down a few months ago. Next, I hope to tackle the short stories that disappeared with YA Review Net, including the award-winning “The Lost Girls” and the Pushcart Prize nominated “We Never Get to Talk Anymore.”

If you’re looking for something new, the final video features an unpublished essay called “Enchanted.”

Thanks for reading/listening/watching!

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The Story of My Heart

Posted on February 14, 2022 ·

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Every author has that one novel–the one cherished above all others, the one that makes her think, If I never write anything else, that’s okay, because I wrote this. I’ve written eight books, and while each is special in its own way, the fourth one is the book of my heart.

The House on Linden Way began as a short story in the summer of 2017. I was waiting for a car repair and began sketching out an idea for a haunted house story. The house would be the main character’s childhood home, which she was revisiting for the first time in many years. When her young daughter vanishes inside, the mother tries searching for her but keeps getting trapped in memories. I soon realized I had a book on my hands, and when it was finished nearly two years later I wrote the following query:

While passing through her hometown a decade after she left, Amber Blake impulsively revisits her old house on Linden Way. She only means to stay a moment, to show her three-year-old daughter Bee the place where she grew up. But when the kindly new owners invite them inside, Amber cannot resist.

Soon Bee is missing, the owners have disappeared, and Amber finds herself in a houseful of ghosts. Time takes on new meaning as she loses herself in living memories and a past that does not wish to be forgotten.

As Amber fights the powerful lure of a childhood she’d long left behind, her tenuous hold on the real world slips further from her grasp. Is it merely nostalgia she’s battling, or something far more menacing? Who haunts the house on Linden Way, and where are they hiding her child?

When I began Linden Way, I didn’t know yet who or what was haunting the house. Like many of my stories, I’d imagined something sinister and evil and ended up with something more complex. What I did know was that I wanted to write a story about the trappings of nostalgia and the lifelong imprint of our childhood homes.

The book is personal because it includes so many things that are important to me, including the power of sibling bonds, the bittersweet memories of growing up, and the fierce strength of motherhood. It is unequivocally the book of my heart, and I’m thrilled to begin publishing it today on Kindle Vella. Read the first chapter here, and follow the story as new chapters will publish every Tuesday and Thursday from now until June. Enjoy!

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New Year, New Dreams

Posted on January 22, 2022 ·

Image by Mohamed Hassan on Pixabay

I have always been intrigued by the concept of giving something up for the new year. Writing it down on a slip of paper and then burning it. So often we focus on what we want to gain instead of the things we need to lose.

When I looked back on 2021 in an effort to list my tangible writing accomplishments, I found some good ones: editing my middle grade novel, drafting five short pieces over the summer, making progress on my fairy tale WIP, self-publishing a book and a short story on Kindle Vella, and traditionally publishing a piece of creative nonfiction which would go on to earn nominations for Best of the Net, the Pushcart Prize, and Best American Essays.

This all feels amazing, but perhaps the most important thing I achieved last year was deciding what I wanted as a novelist and choosing a path that fit that goal. Then I wrote down my old path and lit a match.

What I’m leaving behind in 2021 is the pursuit of traditional book publishing. Ever since Kindle Vella was announced last spring, I’ve felt such passion for the possibilities of publishing my own work. At first I’d planned on only releasing commercial fiction, but I’ve enjoyed the process so much I’ve now embraced it completely.

Last month I pulled The House on Linden Way from the final publishing house where it was under consideration and used earnings from my cozy mystery to commission a book cover; Linden Way will be released on Vella this spring and then in ebook and print in July. I am so excited to share this news! When I made the decision it felt as though a weight had lifted, like I had space to breathe life into new ideas about my writing and publishing goals.

I used to dream about seeing my books on bookshelves and holding author events and making a living as a novelist. These dreams feel dated now. I love being a teacher and not having to rely on income from writing; I’ve participated in author events and mostly felt stressed out and uncomfortable; and while it was thrilling to see The Fourth Wall on shelves, the truth is that the shelf-life of a book is very short unless you sell a gazillion copies, and that leads me to the number one reason why traditional publishing is probably not a good fit for me: everything revolves around sales, which is to say that everything revolves around money, and the pressure is immense—the pressure to perform, the pressure to earn out your advance, the pressure to sell, sell, sell. And that’s not what I want.

What I want from my books is the personal value that comes from writing them and putting them out into the world. I want to focus on the joy of being a creator, because that’s such an amazing thing. The fulfillment for me is imagining a story, bringing it to life, crafting the best version that I possibly can, and then letting it go. The rest is icing.

This is my year of rediscovering the total creative freedom that comes from detaching your work from external validation or numbers. It feels like a new beginning. I have so many ideas for stories and I can’t wait to write them and try new things and maybe fail but learn and grow and get better and just keep going. I want to stay passionate. I want to have fun. I want to create and let that be enough. These are the things that dreams are made of.

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The Best Books I Read in 2021

Posted on December 31, 2021 ·

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

For the last seven years I’ve posted an end-of-year book survey, courtesy of Jamie Miller at The Perpetual Page Turner. It doesn’t look as if she’ll be hosting one for 2021, so my list will look a little different; however, the essentials are here! As before, rereads don’t qualify for these categories, but they still deserve some love, so I wrote about them in another post. Enjoy!

Books Read: 52
Rereads: 11
Top Genre: Horror

Best Book of 2021

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

Jonathan Franzen’s latest family saga is a sprawling, ambitious work exploring the intricate relationships within an American family in crisis. Russ Hildebrandt, a middle-aged pastor struggling with his faith and an unhappy marriage, is on the verge of an affair; his wife Marion is at her own crossroads, one that is revealed throughout the novel in a slowly unfolding secret past; and their four children are also in various stages of personal upheaval. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds—endlessly entertaining and brilliantly crafted. Each member of the Hildebrandt family has a point of view, and Franzen writes them all with characteristic depth, empathy, and humor. An instant classic.

Favorite Book of 2021

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s classic collection of science fiction stories was undoubtedly my favorite book of 2021. I loved the framing device of having the Illustrated Man’s animated tattoos tell the tales, some haunting, some horrific, all infused with Bradbury’s dark poetic prose. One story in particular, “Kaleidoscope,” was the best thing I read all year, an absolutely beautiful and shattering piece of writing that will stay with me forever.

Biggest Disappointment

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

This book was hugely hyped and I was excited to read it but found it heavy-handed, preachy, and a bit too precious. One Goodreads reviewer described it as aggressively quirky, and I couldn’t agree more. Just not for me.

Biggest Surprise

The Imaginary by A.F. Harrold

For a middle grade this was super dark. The antagonist, Mr. Bunting, hunts down imaginaries (imaginary friends) and basically liquifies them and sucks them up and eats them. There are pictures to demonstrate. Anyway, a gleefully creepy tale of terror with gorgeous illustrations.

Book You Recommended Most

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

John Green is just an all-around wonderful human. I love his YA books, I love his vlog, and I loved reading his touching and humorous essays—written as reviews on a five-star scale—on everything from the history of Diet Dr Pepper to Halley’s Comet to Super Mario Kart. This was the one book this year I couldn’t shut up about, the one I think everyone should read.

Best New Series

A Key to All Mythologies by Jonathan Franzen

Of which Crossroads is only the beginning.

Best Discovery

Rebecca Stead

One of my priority reads from 2020 that I wanted to get to this year was Rebecca Stead’s The List of Things That Will Not Change. It was the first book I read in January, and I quickly followed it up with two more Rebecca Stead books because she simply writes flawless middle grade.

Best New Territory

Forever Right Now by Emma Scott

I don’t typically read a lot of romance or self-published books, but it’s not because I don’t enjoy them. I just need to do a better job of seeking them out, and this book is a good reason why. It’s perfect.

Best Page Turner

Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco

There were several books that, when I started, I could not put down. These include Crossroads, East of Eden, and Rosemary’s Baby, but the surprise here is Burnt Offerings because it’s a total slow-burn. Regardless, I was hooked from page one and some of the scenes were edge-of-your-seat intense (the swimming pool! the escape through the woods!). Also, the ending did not disappoint.

Best Candidates for a 2022 Re-read

The Illustrated Man and The Anthropocene Reviewed

Best Cover

Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise

Best Villain

Cathy Ames from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden

East of Eden is essentially a book about good vs. evil, and you won’t meet a character more purely evil than Cathy Ames.

Best Classic

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

I am in awe, and not a little envious, of Nabokov’s extraordinary skills. Lolita is one of those books I can’t believe I waited until now to read.

Favorite Quote

“You’ll be sorry you asked me to stay,” he said. “Everyone always is.”

From The Illustrated Man

Biggest Shock

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

I read a lot of horror this year, and a lot of it was shocking. But when I dove into The Martian Chronicles I wasn’t expecting horror. And then I read “Usher II.”

Best (Non-Romantic) Relationship

Maddie and her stepdad Sam in Melanie Conklin’s lovely middle grade novel Every Missing Piece.

Best Recommended Book

Lost Children of the Far Islands by Emily Raabe

On a strong recommendation from my daughter Abigail, and in the midst of a reading slump from which only a whimsical middle grade story could save me, I read and thoroughly enjoyed this fantastical tale of a secret island and shapeshifting siblings.

Best Debut

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant

Once I open a book and see it’s written in first-person present tense, I usually close it. The style has become ubiquitous in YA, and honestly, it’s hard to do well. But Happily Ever Afters was a happy exception. It’s very well-written, charming, and sweet—a triumphant debut from Elise Bryant.

Best Setting

The Salinas Valley in John Steinbeck’s masterful East of Eden

Book That Made Me Laugh

Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson

If you love horror as much as I do, you’ll have a bloody good time reading this celebration of the mass market horror fiction of the 70s and 80s.

Book That (Almost) Made Me Cry

The Illustrated Man (for the short story “Kaleidoscope”) and East of Eden

Book That Made Me Want to Scream

Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco

Why did you go back, Ben, why, why, WHY?????

Best Hidden Gem

A Totally Terrifying Zombie Apocalypse Love Story by Carrie Ann Lahain

Being a huge fan of the original Dead Town, I was thrilled when my dear friend and long-time critique partner Carrie Ann Lahain announced a reimagined version focused on Sara and Patrick’s zombie apocalypse romance. Everything that made Dead Town great is still here—the gore, the giggles, and the nonstop action. But instead of being in 14-year old Scotty’s point of view we get to see the story through his older sister Sara and her swoon-worthy admirer, ex-marine Patrick Bannon.

Most Anticipated Book of 2022

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

You guys know I am a Simone St. James SUPERFAN. I have read everything she’s written and I can’t wait for this one!

Most Anticipated Book in a Series in 2022

Strawberried Alive (Cupcake Bakery Mystery, #14) by Jenn McKinlay

Reading Goal for 2022

Read at least 52 books, same as every year.

Happy reading in 2022, friends!

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The Comfort and Joy of Rereads

Posted on November 29, 2021 ·

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

December is almost here, a time for tinseled trees, fuzzy slippers, hot chocolate, and end-of-year lists. My own list of bookish favorites will be posted in a few weeks, but there’s one category I’ve never featured—the books that seem to always get overlooked on year-end roundups: rereads.

Rereads are the epitome of comfort—old favorites you slip into like a cozy winter robe. They’re always there when you need them, and because you already know how the story ends, they never let you down. In honor of these faithful treasures that humbly stand by while newer novels revel in the shine, here’s a list of the best books I reread in 2021:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

A stone-cold classic. Like most of my generation I was introduced to this novel through the brutal and haunting 1978 animated film. I will never forget seeing it for the first time—a child expecting a lighthearted movie about bunny rabbits soon mesmerized by the terrifying image of a field flowing with blood. It stayed with me, this beautiful, violent film of perseverance, courage, survival, and friendship, and sometime in my teens I discovered the novel and have read it many times since. As an adult I have a much greater appreciation of Hazel’s visionary leadership, but it’s Bigwig—stubborn, arrogant, steadfast, brave—who remains one of my favorite characters in all of literature.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

This is one of those books I came across later in life, reading it for the first time in 2015. The imagery I’d associated with the novel through various film adaptations (none of which I’ve seen) had led me to believe it was a romance. Tormented, impassioned lovers! Isolated, windswept moors! Imagine my shock when I read of ghosts, wrists scraped bloody over broken glass, neglected children, dark obsessions, abusive lovers, and cold revenge. Sounds pretty bleak, but I love it to pieces and will continue to visit this Gothic masterpiece again and again.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Reading Ray Bradbury’s dark fantasy about a sinister traveling carnival spreading evil in a small Illinois town is like falling into a dream. The story is told in prose that’s more like poetry, with sentences that ebb and flow with perfect rhythm and hypnotic dread. If you’ve never invited the Dust Witch to haunt your dreams, if you’ve never watched in horror as Mr. Electrico jerks and jitters back from the dead, if you’ve never felt the pulse of Mr. Dark’s living Illustrations beat in your throat, now is the time. I envy you that it will be your first.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

The older I get, the more I read, the more I appreciate Harry Potter. In 2018 I reread the series for the first time, and it was absolutely delightful. With respect to the movies, which are wonderful and provided years of escapist joy for my children (and me!), the books are so much better. It’s not just the characters, who have more depth (Hermione is hopelessly flawed at times, and Harry is way cooler and not at all boring), it’s the details, the cleverness, the originality, the humor, the fun. I read a lot of middle grade and I’m trying to stay interested in YA, but nothing in recent children’s literature compares to the sprawling, immersive magic of Harry Potter. Which is why I’ll return to Hogwarts in 2022.

The Stand/Pet Semetary/Firestarter by Stephen King

I revisit a few classic King books every year. That golden age between 1974 and 1990 produced some of my favorite books of all time. The first tale I read by the Master of Horror was IT, way back when I was eleven or twelve, and I promptly became a devoted Constant Reader. Throughout my teens and early twenties I devoured everything Stephen King (and most things Richard Bachman): Cujo, The Shining, Misery, Firestarter, The Dead Zone, Different Seasons, The Stand. So much of my own personal journey is wrapped up in these timeless novels; like a childhood song, they are transportive and nostalgic, and they simply never get old.

What are some of your favorite rereads?

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Happy Halloween!

Posted on October 31, 2021 ·

Image by Mayur Gadge from Pixabay

It’s so hard to let go of October; I always wish it would stay a little longer. Halloween night has yet to arrive and already my month has been full of treats.

I indulged in plenty of great horror movies, including a re-watch of the compulsively re-watchable Fear Street trilogy; I switched from summer dresses and sandals to cardigans and boots; and once, on an early morning walk, I spotted a coyote disappearing down a dark quiet street. The half-eaten breakfast he’d left behind on a nearby lawn was as disturbing as anything I’d seen on screen.

Another sort of scary but fun experience was posting a short story to Kindle Vella.

“The Secret Keeper” was first drafted in 2015 as part of my collection What Was Never There. I never published the collection but succeeded in placing several of the pieces in online magazines. “The Secret Keeper” was obviously not one of those; it’s nearly 8,000 words long and that far exceeds most magazines’ word count.

It’s perfect for Vella though! A clear favorite among those who’ve beta read What Was Never There, “The Secret Keeper” is about a boy named Owen and the secrets he keeps beneath an enchanted willow tree. I split the story into three parts, all of which are now available to read. I hope you enjoy this magical tale of childhood wonder, summer nights, and October promises.

Happy Halloween!

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My Big Mistake with Kindle Vella and Why I’m Starting Over

Posted on September 30, 2021 ·

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

You may have heard me shouting from the rooftops about my Kindle Vella story when Amazon’s new serialized story platform launched in July. The YA cozy mystery I’d penned back in 2019 and secretly uploaded to Vella in April was chosen as one of a dozen featured stories on the new site, and naturally I was thrilled. I posted twice about it in a flurry of celebration. And then I went quiet.

Why? Because ten days after Vella launched, one of my dream agents, who I’d queried back in the spring, emailed. She was intrigued! She wanted to see more! Could I send a partial? My heart sank. Instantly I regretted publishing the book. There was no way she’d consider Murder by Milkshake now that it was publicly available on Vella.

But what if I unpublished it? It hadn’t even been two weeks. I would just be honest with her and explain the situation and hope for the best. I sent the partial and notified Vella that I wanted the story taken down.

Are you sure? they asked. That decision would be permanent; it could not be undone. I would lose my likes, my reviews, my subscribers. I said I was sure, and Vella processed my request. Two weeks later, the agent sent a rejection.

At first I was undeterred. I’d only submitted Murder by Milkshake to a dozen agents and that had resulted in two requests for partials and four personalized rejections—pretty good numbers. I told myself I’d just keep submitting and pursuing a traditional book deal.

But my heart wasn’t in it.

It’s not that I’ve given up on the idea of traditional publishing, it’s just that Kindle Vella is something fun and fresh and new. And I think differently about self-publishing than I used to; I love the idea of it. I forget where I read this, but someone mentioned how ego is not what drives writers to self publish, ego is what prevents them from doing it. And that makes sense to me. I remember how afraid I was to start blogging back in 2013 and how, once I got over myself, I started to really enjoy it. Because it’s just a blog. And a book is just a book.

Murder by Milkshake is pure genre fiction, the kind of book that can do well as an indie. In the seven weeks it was on Kindle Vella it earned more money than my traditionally published book earned in seven years. People were reading it and showing support, and I made a mistake in throwing all of that away simply because an agent came calling.

When she rejected the manuscript, it was just that—another rejection. But unpublishing the book came with a real sense of loss. I’d been a part of something daring and new and I’d taken a risk; giving that up felt terrible. But I’m glad it happened, because it helped me realize the self-publishing path I’d chosen for this particular book was the correct one.

I know because I republished Murder by Milkshake last week on Kindle Vella. And my heart is definitely in it.

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When Stories Disappear

Posted on August 22, 2021 ·

Image by piper60 from Pixabay

In June of 2019 I wrote a post paying tribute to literary magazines and lamenting the many we’d lost that year. YA Review Network (YARN), an online publication dedicated to young adult literature, was one of them.

A few months ago YARN announced that their website would be shutting down at the end of the year. They encouraged readers to save their favorite stories before that happened.

I was fortunate enough to have three pieces published in YARN. The first, “We Never Get to Talk Anymore,” was nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize; the second, “The Lost Girls,” won runner up in their 2017 Halloween Fiction Contest; and the third, “From Autumn to June,” was published in the summer of 2018.

Knowing these stories would soon vanish, I thought I’d talk a little about them in this month’s blog post and link to them for my newer readers. Unfortunately, when I checked the links, I discovered YARN’s website was already gone.

The end of the year came a little too soon.

The internet is fleeting, we know that, but it still hurts to see your work disappear. This was a first for me; other magazines I’ve published in that have since ceased production still maintain their websites, although I realize this is probably costly.

Luckily, I’d taken time last year to print out all of my online fiction and creative nonfiction, just in case. I didn’t do a great job of it; I don’t even think I changed my printer settings from draft to high quality.

But at least I have paper copies of my YARN stories stamped with dates and images from the website that first gave them a home. And I’m grateful to the editors for giving them that home, even if it was only a temporary one.

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