My Books




The Day After Doomsday - unpublished ( 3rd draft, searching for editors and literary agents)


     Lyddie has been a slave her whole life, yet her imagination is strong enough to dream of something more. Somedays she is a beautiful Lord's daughters, while others she saves the land as a noble princess. Yet in reality, Lyddie is nothing more than an orphan working in the fields and avoiding the nosey town gossip. She doubts life could ever be anything more. 
   With death closing in on her village, Lyddie is forced to leave the life of her ancestors behind with nothing but a stubborn pig to keep her company. Along her journey to survive she discovers an abandoned castle where she meets a diverse cast of folks escaping from disparate plague created situations: a baker’s wife and daughter attempting to run the castle while their lord is gone, a monk’s son fleeing from a vicious tour of flagellants, a proud but unlucky minstrel honing his musical skills, and a Jewish peddler attempting to right past wrongs in London while surviving deathly prejudices. 
   Lyddie must find courage to face one of history's greatest disasters by forging a new family with her strange company of friends. In a terrible time when many thought the world was ending and every certainty was turned on its head, Lyddie begins to wonder if anything, even her craziest dreams, could somehow become possible if she can only manage to survive.

(It all started when I decided to write a research paper about the long term effects of the Black Death (1348-1349) on the English lower class. As I was researching the period, I found primary and secondary sources citing husbands abandoning their wives and mothers abandoning their own children in the desperate struggle to stay alive. All that death got me thinking, there must have been exceptions to these tales of selfishness. Somehow humanity made it through that rough time. So somebody must have stayed back and nursed the sick. There must have been some forgotten heroes. I wanted to write about them. While this tale is set in one of the darkest times in human history, it is not a tale of death. It is a tale of survival and the heroes that made that possible. It is a story of life.)

Too Close to Say Goodbye - under construction (research, research, research)
    
  Her parents named her NOBODY to ward of the evil spirits who killed her older brother. But Nobody doesn't want to be nobody anymore. She wants to help her horse, Bukaa, become the "Leader of 10,000" at the upcoming Nadaam festival. 
     When two strangers appear lost on the steppes she calls home, she is thrilled to explore the changes they bring to her life. You see, until they came, Nobody had thought that life was like the Mongolian sky: vast, beautiful, and unchanging. But far away in the city filled with monstrous factories and many other new evils, the communist government doesn't want Nobody and her family to live like they always have. Maybe that is why even her solemn papa seems to be changing. Maybe that is why she sees fear in his eyes, that was never there before. Maybe that is why he is weary of her visitors, though he has never before turned down hospitality.
    When Nobody’s family traditions are tested by the communist's new laws and threats, she is ready to fight for her ways no matter what it takes. Even if it means giving up her dream of leading her horse to become “Leader of 10,000.” Even if it means leaving the only land she knows to chase down evil soldiers with only a hawk, a tiny boy, and hopefully some good luck to help her. Even if it means being Nobody forever. Nobody is ready to stop the change no matter what the cost, because losing her customs could mean losing her papa.

Short Story Sampler: 
Time Just Marches On - My first KidSpirit Article
Texas Sky - TeenInkOnline Editor's Choice
Finding - TeenInk Print Magazine
When He Was Twelve - Scholastic Regional Gold Key






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