Works in Progress

Here are the things I am working on right now. They are in various states of completion, anywhere from published book, finished manuscript, or just an idea. Each one has tickled something in me to pursue it--some more than others. I hope they all find themselves in a finished work some day.


The Claiming

(Fractured Kingdoms series, book 1)--releasing January 25, 2023 from Wild Rose Press


Spense should be used to messing up spells by now. He's had practice. When one goes terribly wrong, he accidentally Claims a faerie--taking control of another's will is strictly against the rules of magic--and he is pretty sure the Fae court will not be too pleased, either. It couldn't have happened at a worse time, right when his home country of Telridge faces war.
Spense must find a way to release the faerie, beg mercy from the Fae, and help to save his kingdom. He's never been a hero. It's about time that changed.

YA Fantasy

The Winter Heir (Fractured Kingdoms, book II)--releasing 2024 from Wild Rose Press

Spense managed to save the day, technically. He even won the heart of the princess. But then he lost her when she took his place in service to the Winter King.
Spense knows that can't be the end of the story. He sets out to find the lost heir, and free Dewy from her life of servitude.

But this is Dewy, and Spense might have remembered that she doesn't really need saving.

YA Fantasy

The Summer Queen (Fractured Kingdoms, book III)

Spense and Dewy, as they take on the mantles of their new royal positions, seek out ways to nullify the ancient magical treaty that keeps their people apart. They are frustrated by the slow workings of diplomacy, age-old grudges, and tiresome prejudice. They even question their cause when a dear friend pays the ultimate price for their actions. They want to believe that love and justice will conquer all, but sometimes the stakes just seem too high.

YA Fantasy

The Hawthorn Crown (Fractured Kingdoms, book IV)

Spense and Dewy struggle to wield the tools of their sovereignty as they each grow into their roles.  They are reminded that if they truly want to reunite the faerie lands and find a longed-for justice, it is through trust, love, forgiveness, and humility that their people will find redemption and healing. They must become the rulers their shared people need, following in the sacrificial footsteps of those who have gone before.

YA Fantasy

Fish Food and Other Constellations

Joe was used to having a brother to look up to, teach him how to drive, explain girls. 
His parents hoped he would "get back into things".
But Joe just wanted to melt away, like the stuff they sprinkled all over the freeway after an accident.
His brother was gone. And Joe still had a lot to figure out in this world.

YA Contemporary

Call Me Mike

Michaela is tired of being the only girl. The sidekick who remembers the brownies for the Astronomical Society. The tiny person who is easy to ignore or leave behind in a group of supposedly enlightened scientifically-minded guys.

If they'd just call her Mike, maybe she could be one of them...

YA Contemporary

(un)Amazing Grace

Perfect grades. Perfect family. Or at least, that's what Grace is supposed to say.

But is there still acceptance when she isn't so perfect? What happens when she makes ordinary mistakes like every other teen in her high school? What happens when she makes big mistakes? Is she still amazing?

YA Contemporary

One Beginning

Genesis wants to be a normal girl. But as long as she keeps seeing flashing lights that no one else can see, that will never happen. When she discovers that those lights are actually gateways to the otherworld of Ancora, and that her family has a royally complicated history there, Genesis realizes she will never be normal.

YA contemporary fantasy adventure story, also there are boys and kissing

Manifest

Alonna and Lea once enjoyed a simple life and a sweet friendship. They tried to honor their parents, worship their God, and each hoped for little more than to marry a faithful man—hopefully young and handsome—and to share their lives together.

When they are captured by the Seleucid King Antiochus IV—called Epiphanes—their simple dreams shatter. They enter into the pagan king’s court as slave girls, forced to serve, sometimes in unspeakable ways. Alonna and Lea struggle to maintain their faith and their dignity in the decadent court.

Historical fiction—Babylon during Antiochus IV Epiphanes’ reign 175 to 164 BC