I have a handful of very short stories called Flash Fiction that I submitted to the market and were picked up and published by magazines that are no longer live on the internet save one. Since I am also a mother with five children I lost the writing bug while dealing with the messy life in front of me instead of the plotted ones in my imagination. (Explaining the ten year gap in this blog) The kids are now all grown and many are parents of their own, making me a grandmother of six!. Okay, life isn't any less busy, but they all go to their own homes now and I have the time and energy to let my imagination out to play again. This page functions as the pile where I scoop all the stuff I have published and all the stuff I am working on currently (including a wordcount and surrent status of the project.) I also tossed on this page what I have on deck for the future. So is this a Bio? An accountability page? A backlist of my work? Yes. All of the above!
Published Works
Flash Fiction: Joy Ride Long Story Short Magazine (blue link is active)Flash Fiction / Play: Dream Therapy Dexter Drama
Flash fiction adaptation to one act play performed and video taped by the Dexter School Drama Program. They have an annual event where seniors select the play, cast, produce, and direct it for a live audience. A video of this work exsists in the world. My daughter Alyssa was a senior at the time (2012) and she co-wrote the adaptation from flash fiction format into a one act play. She cast it (included some of her sisters), and directed it. My daughter Megan played the supporting role as the younger version of the main character. Another daughter, Jessica played the dead body under the sheet. This was a very proud moment for me!
Play: Heaven in His Eyes Scio Community Church
There once was a time at the church I attended three of us who took turns writing a play and then produced and directed it. This was my offering for an Easter musical that our church performed that I wrote using the music of Rich Mullins who had passed away recently. His album, Heaven in His Eyes, published posthumously and was the story spark for the creation of this full length Easter musical. This was a two part album. One half had the rough draft Rich put together in an old church for the acustics. It is my understanding that he didn't write music but played by ear. So his habit was to make a rough copy of what was in his head, then pass it on to his band who would transpose it and colaborate on the finished song. Before he could deliver the recording, he died in a car accident. The other half of this album is other artist/friends who each took one of the songs and produced their own version of it to be included as tribute. I was inspired by that synergy and respect and wrote a church play about a church putting on an Easher play. It came off better than it sounds in description, I promise! There is video of this work somewhere out there.
The Stories below were featured in online magazines that are no longer in operation. All rights have returned to me.
Flash Fiction: Burn
The sins of the father...
Flash Fiction: One Day
A mother, a child, and a terrible price for safety.
Flash Fiction: Sarah's Winter
Sarah has lost her husband to cancer. Now she wrestles with God for her faith.
Flash Fiction: A Day in the Life of a Mouse
A boy tells his troubles to a mouse he's tamed with crumbs from his pocket while his mother listens in.
Flash Fiction: Mantle of Responsibility
An alien invasion, a resistance leader, and a mole...
Works in progress
Christian Romance: My Happy Place (61,495 words into the 1st draft)
Lucas is a policeman with his partner in the hospital following a shoot-out. Kelly is at the hospital too, getting a prognosis for her little girl. A chance meeting that changes everything.
Paranormal Novel: Echo (1st draft finished, undergoing edits.)
A mortician suddenly acquires the ability to absorb the memories of the people on his table. Before he can make sense of it, he sees a killer's face through the eyes of his victims. Can he convince the police he's not crazy or in collusion before he murders again?
Mystery Novel: Tracey O'Day (44,972 words into the 1st draft.)
A private-eye finds out she has a long-lost half-brother. Her search for him takes her into mob territory. Are some secrets better left hidden?
A mortician suddenly acquires the ability to absorb the memories of the people on his table. Before he can make sense of it, he sees a killer's face through the eyes of his victims. Can he convince the police he's not crazy or in collusion before he murders again?
Mystery Novel: Tracey O'Day (44,972 words into the 1st draft.)
A private-eye finds out she has a long-lost half-brother. Her search for him takes her into mob territory. Are some secrets better left hidden?
Science Fiction Novel: Icarus (38,238 words into the 1st draft)
A colony massacre leaves a sole survivor. She is recruited to a specialized team to hunt down those responsible.
In the process of compliling this page I've noticed a terrible trend of getting near 40,000 words in a novel completed and abandoning it to go an unwrap the next shiny idea. *sigh* I've had some practice at setting up a story and getting through the first act. Only one novel survived long enough to finish the first draft stage. It looks to me like I need to NOT start any new novels until these are finished!!!
In The Works
Devotional: Passages (Notes and research stage.)
I have hundreds of devotionals I've already written. They are scattered in this blog, the note section of my profile through YouVersion Bible app, and as a guest writer on the Scio Community Church blog titled Scio journal, plus many many more that live in my personal journal (What can I say? I chew with my mouth open figuratively speaking. This is how I process what God said to His people in general and find what He has to say to me personally. I complete the chain by passing on what I learned in an effort to make disciples as we were commended to do. Once these thoughts are crystalized into words and metaphors I can used them in teaching and lay-counseling. These devotionals just need a plan for how to select, structure, format, and polish.
Children's Devotional: Go Fish (Idea stage.)
I have already written five connected skits that were commissioned for a VBS one year. They were performed to great success! Now they sit on my hard drive. I'm thinking about putting together devotionals (see above) and this seemed like a nice flow through story-line. I can adapt each skit into a deeper dive in scripture aimed at school age kids but universal enough for family style devotions.
