Projects

Forthcoming from Trompe L'Oeil Press -- Get ready for a wild ride!

THE PECULIAR CRAFT of SHADOW REPAIR (90k),* a 3-POV grounded speculative genre-blend novel with themes including family dynamics and relationship repair.

Maude “Ma” Brubaker is one of the few, soon to be many, infected by a Shadow Weaver. The tiny creature provokes new symptoms every few years, including time travel and a more serious one—disappearing limbs. Symptoms are triggered when the host experiences extreme stress.

Ma’s symptoms are ruining her relationships. The first time the body-quakes happened, Ma thought she’d be adopting a son, clinking champagne glasses, buzzed and celebrating with her bride. Instead, she finds herself in the middle of a traveling carnival—a century in the past. She unwillingly time travels to the 1920s, misses her wedding, and the opportunity to adopt her partner’s son.

When she time travels back to her present time three months have passed and Ma discovers that her partner has moved-on and moved-in a new girlfriend. When Ma explains to her partner that she time traveled which caused her to miss their wedding, she is met with anger, disbelief, and told to stay away. After that, her motorcycle stunting career tanks and she must rebuild her almost-adopted son’s trust. When she loses more friends, she decides she wants her life back.

The only way to fight time-travel or disappearing is to make amends with those she loves. However, not everyone is willing to exonerate her.

To the right: Fun poster for The Peculiar Craft of Shadow Repair.

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Currently querying

THE LAST PORTNOVA (80k), a modern gothic horror novel with a romantic subplot. My book is similar to Apple TV’s Widow's Bay series for its coastal location and spooky atmosphere. Readers will be drawn to my novel if they like The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste for its unusual ghost rules and theme of grief combined with This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno for its exploration of loss and its depiction of haunted objects.

A year after her parents died in separate accidents on the same day, a grieving Iona Portnova is scraping together funds to repair the historic Dead Sands Lighthouse, her inheritance. Rumors about their ghosts haunting it hinders her ability to let go. When she receives a package—a portrait, she pricks her finger on its frame, unlocking the power to speak to the dead.

Iona must conceal her ability to talk to her father's ghost during lighthouse tours, severe weather alerts begin, and other mishaps crop up. Curious about her roots and how to stop the spell, Iona meets Marcus, who is also on a mission to stop the peculiar magic. Iona takes a roadtrip with her best friend to a port town a few hours away to investigate its origins. She discovers that a wish granted to her great aunt has become a curse generations later, as accidents and extreme weather occur when Iona speaks to the dead.

Iona discovers the family history that could save her and those she loves. If she is strong enough to peel back decades of tragedy and complicity and let go of her parents a second time, she can reverse the magic spell. If she can't, misfortunes will continue to endanger those she loves, and she will join the dead who haunt the living.

Contact me if you are interested in learning more.