Swarm of Secrets (edgy YA novel, in revision)Sixteen-year-old Cara Demos does not share her mother's dream of having a famous daughter, but her mom's failing health makes it nearly impossible for Cara to quit the beauty scene. Cara's head spins with secrets: her sister's job at a strip club, her disdain for pageants, and her stepfather's uncomfortable glances. As her family falls apart, Cara turns to a group of "unpopulars" who dig animatronics and anti-prom. But Cara will never reach the level of normal that she seeks until she tackles her family's painful past.
Nonfiction Work
(You're probably wondering what's the connection between teen novels and scholarly essays. Not much, *but* C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both started as lit nerds before writing for kids. That counts for something, I think.)
"The Necessity of Time in Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland," an essay on anxiety and healing offered by time in America's first Gothic novel, written under the guidance of Dr. Jeffrey Einboden (April, 2010, Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language, and Media)
"Pack Rats and Procreation: Using Your Past to Write Teen Fiction." WOW! Women On Writing. March, 2010.
"Moll Flanders the Working Woman," an essay on women and class issues using Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders, written under the guidance of Dr. Sean Shesgreen (November, 2009, Western Illinois University, EGO Conference: "Questioning Identity: Representations of Class and Working Class Identity")
