My Work

My Work.

Recent: Revising contemporary young adult SFF novel
Planned series of Contemporary/Urban Sci-Fi/Fantasy Young Adult novel with strong environmental themes. This project is at about 400,000 words, encompassing three (possibly four!) books into the series. My current focus is the first book of the series, as I undertake the next big revision. I just completed a major overhaul, basically taking my "Frankendraft" (a messy, heavy, disjointed thing) and making it a readable document ready for Beta reading. The first chapter (and pitch) have also been professionally critiqued twice, so the next round of revisions is based on that feedback. Lots to do, but very exciting!! No matter what other writing I drift off to, this series is the heart of what I do.

Another library project, this one to promote our summer reading program (for Fairy Week!). Thanks to Canva, Pixabay for the image of the bird and forest (credit to satyatiwari, but I have changed the sizing), and the #wickedwingslewiston wall in Lewiston Maine done by Wicked Illustrations.

This is the original photo.

May 2020 #bookfacefriday post for the library where I work. This is my third and favorite attempt at a bookface! (Also, one of my favorite YA fantasy books, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone.)

June 2019: 75-word story for SFF Chronicles--Theme: Noise/ Genre: Cyberpunk
Nostalgia Hacked
New Town sirens, far and faint. Dripping water, creaking floors. And then--
“GAAAHHHHH!”
“Cripes! What’re you shrieking for?”
“Look!”
"...a...dinosaur? This a museum or something?”
My headLED slices through gloom, reflecting more glass eyes. “Yeah. Guess so. Archives, maybe?” Scuffling through debris, I pop the simtag on the T-Rex, remembering the roar from a long-ago holobook...
MOOOOOOO
“Whaaaat?”
“Try the others.”
Deer: Oooink!
Tiger: Squeak!
Wolf: Meoow--
“Kroddy gutterpunks! They gotta hack everything??”

May 2019: 75-word story for SFF Chronicles--Theme: Animals/ Genre: Tall Tales
It's Our Tern
“…and leviathans, deep in the ocean, passing under our islands like day-long shadows.”
“But, Grandmother Gull, how could you see them?”
“They could still see some ocean surface then, Little Fledgling.”
“Are they still there?”
“Gone, all gone. Like the Creators, once so powerful, gone.” From her soft Styrofoam nest, she pushed at a flapping bag, tucking it neatly under a bottle. The web of plastic beneath her undulated softly. “All gone...all ours.”

May 2019: Final drafts for creative writing class at Central Maine Community College
Fiction: The Mold, an 8000-word story about loneliness and enduring...and mold.
Non-Fiction: The Lie, a 3000-word narrative essay about a time I tried to shock my grandmother.
Poetry: experiment in black-out poetry, below:

(Page from Tag You're It! by Kathleen Kimball-Baker,
copyright 2003 by Search Institute)

April 2019: 75-word story for SFF Chronicles--Theme: Structure/ Genre: Gothic
For Notre Dame
The sky sulked low, dogging the earth, soaking it with tears. Drifting through the ruined church, her hands brushed at still-warm stones.
Too late.
The rain came too late.
Char and cinder. Even the framework, ash. Her refuge for centuries, gone in a day. No more echoing voices, swelling music…the resonant, resounding tower bells.
Among the rubble, blackened bell-husks. She traced the curves, her hand ever fainter. Au revoir, mon cœur. Au--

March 2019-June 2019: Comedy writing class and open mic stand-up comedy (comedy is all not all about the writing, but mostly!)
After the six week class (twelve hours of class time), I participated in five open mics--four in the Lewiston/Auburn area. (She Doesn't Like Guthries, 84 Court, Bear Bones Beer), and then did my grand finale in Rumford, Maine's 49 Franklin! I added a song to my routine and went out on a high note!! :P

March 2019: 75-word story for SFF Chronicles--Theme: Pulse
Home
After grandfather died
she heard his echoing heartbeat
thrumming
from the dawn-bright meadow,
a drum beating far underground
where they’d laid him in the cold clay.

Over decades
other hearts joined his
until the collective pulse of sound
swelled
like hooves to stampede her.

Disquieted, she endured
until alone and weary,
she rambled to the dusk-muted meadow,
a curve to her lips,
surrendering
letting the rhythm of breath and blood
sing her home.

January 2019: 75-word story for SFF Chronicles--Theme: Roots
Enough
These bullied saplings compress the power of centuries
Into moments
Like lava, the roots flow
Burrowing down, snaking out
Buckling roads, fissuring concrete
Branches unfurl, wend, contort
Tentacle into walls, splinter glass, warp steel.

Humans think they are sovereign
But they are a flick of time
Fleas on this planet
We have been here for millennia
For eons
This green Earth is ours
We are done sacrificing it to you
And we take it back.

December 2018: Essay contribution for Georgina Grenier's Certainty, a community writing project with contributors from all over New England (with community readings and discussion at Norway Memorial Library and the Table Rock Arts Center.)

December 2018: 75-word story for SFF Chronicles--Theme: Reindeer
Aurora Borealis
On the night of the winter solstice, the reindeer gather. Soft pelts meet shoulder to shoulder as they form a circle, velvet antlers knocking in greeting. Light and color shimmer with each new touch: cerulean, magenta, chartreuse. Noses point skyward, pluming white breath into the night as their lowing calls the colors to intertwine and effervesce in the frigid air, lighting the solstice aurora against the darkest night once again.

2013-2015: Blog Transplanted Ivy
All about my adventures moving from Michigan to Oregon to Maine! Featuring moss and cosplay and job angst and Penelope the Dog! And lots of photos! (Mostly of moss!)
You can find this blog at: vineyivy.weebly.com

2013: Bobbie and Jun and the Silly Zoo, children's picture book written and illustrated for private sale (sample pages below)

2012: Mighty Michael, children's picture book, written and illustrated for private sale (sample pages below)