Freya the Deer
Coming out in early 2026 from Rootstock Publishing!
Freya the Deer is a literary novel. It's about a neurodivergent romantic on a quest to understand the actual substance of the soul. Prone to see things in absolutes, she follows a deeply loved boyfriend into radical politics. Once there she must decide between his violent tactics and her own sense of right and wrong, risking her cherished, obsessive relationship.
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SCHOOL FOR THE INSANE
Currently querying School for the Insane, a moody 64,000 word literary fiction. Two story lines, a century apart, intertwine on and around the grounds of a charitable institution for mad girls. Is this place haunted? Many believe it is.
In 1923 two inmates of Morningside School, Faith (brought in for perversion) and Myrtle (brought in for muteness after her family dies in the Spanish flu epidemic) fall in love. It isn’t easy to find the privacy they long for, but finally in the chicken coop they are able to consummate their relationship. Unfortunately, they are caught in the act by the institution’s handyman, who uses the information to blackmail them. He manipulates Myrtle into a sexual relationship with a patron of the school.
By 2023 Morningside has been razed. Seventeen-year-old Mariah lives with her twin brother and mother near the remaining park. Mariah struggles with suicidal thoughts, her mother struggles with human connection, and her charismatic brother leads a Discord room focused on pop culture and hatred of pedophiles, while his best friend Diane embarks on a relationship with their math teacher. The history of the family’s dysfunction gradually unfolds, with some help from ghostly smoke and mirrors.
The Sum of Their Hearts
I very joyfully adopted my son from Cambodia in 1998. When he was three the FBI revealed that the agency I had used was illegally trafficking children. This novel (originally titled HEADACHE) was inspired by my son's chronic migraines and the issues that arose from his adoption, fictionalized of course:
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Newly single and nearing 40, Katy Connor adopts from Cambodia, unaware that the agency she uses is child trafficking. Her best friend, Nicole, who adopted from Ethiopia, loses her husband in a bike accident. The women move in together for mutual emotional and practical support. Written from multiple points of view, including birth mother, adoptive mom, child, and child traffickers, this 78,000 word upmarket fiction examines how families are held together by the messy glue of love -- despite questions of identity and ethics that surround foreign and cross-racial adoption.
For several years I taught at Interagency Academy, an alternative high school that served youth who did not succeed in traditional settings. Many students were gang-involved. Others were not native English speakers, and had fallen through the cracks in larger schools. Some were navigating trauma. It was an education in humanity.
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LEXI GOES TO SCHOOL
That's my first novel, currently in a drawer. It's about a woman teaching kids with serious life struggles, and coming to terms with her own issues. It's about violence, redemption, and forgiveness.
Nothing heavy.
Want to read a story?
Here's one I wrote called "Bluenowski."
It was published in Louisiana Literature.
The link: www.louisianaliterature.org/bluenowski/
Here's another called "The Copy Queen."
In Isele Magazine
https:iselemagazine.com/october-2024/
Or here's another called "Collateral Damage"
In Judith Magazine.
https://judithmagazine.substack.com/p/collateral-damage
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