18/02/2020
A summary of my work so far... 2/18/2020
My stories are about children, children growing up deep in the woods of rural Vermont, or in two cases, a suburban cul-de-sac somewhere in Virginia, growing up at risk of the adult world around them. In the face of danger, childhood is a time of becoming, and a time to discover old lies and new truths. It is time to try and make sense of our identity and our place in the world. This struggle to “become” is at the center of all of these stories. While the Betts trilogy moves to the slow heartbeat of deep country life, Anna is a fast paced thriller, Page of Swords is a coming-of-age social commentary, and The Keeper could be called a fantasy, all these books have a solid core of childhood truth, and a deep, real magic sparkling around the edges. The experiences, perceptions, and language of childhood are accurate, and the children in the stories, and their adults, are real in the way that only fiction can accomplish. The magic is the kind of magic that children can see and understand, and the kind of magic that the reader can remember, and learn to believe in.
The Betts Trilogy
Betts Best (113,002 words, 312 pages) Published, BRW
Betts Becoming (100,815 words, 288 pages) Ready 2/5/2020
Betts Belonging (87,396 words, 254 pages) Ready 2/12/2020
These three books see Betts grow from a scrawny seven year into a powerful young woman, and show Betts slowly and solidly healing from a terribly broken child into the strong adult she is finally able to become. Family and love are redefined. Ghosts from the past haunt the living, while other ghosts work to heal those who cannot forget. Trauma and recovery, loneliness and friendship, loss and love, the building of some families, and the destruction of others, these things are real, and show the terrible power of the everyday events so common in the lives of children. The center of Betts’ universe is a tiny cabin near the top of Bear Hill, deep in the Vermont mountains. The powerful sense of place and home found in the Betts books carries the reader up twisting dirt roads, through the Vermont seasons, to a special place of long views, cold springs, wood heat, poverty, resilience, and love, deep into the hearts of the Vermont people.
Betts Best introduces us to Betts, a quiet and curious seven year old already bruised and battered by the chaos in her life. After a short life of abuse and neglect, a whirlwind of failed foster homes and a locked psychiatric unit, Betts finds herself in a kinship placement with her shy uncle Ames, a wounded vet who has retreated to a tiny cabin on Bear Hill, trying to keep his own demons from the Sand Wars at bay. Zoey is the young and hopeful social worker who believed in this placement, and who falls in love, first with Betts, then with Ames. Family, school, and friendship are all hard, as Betts slowly learns to trust those around her, and the magic of the Vermont woods.
Betts Becoming finds eleven year old Betts living with, and fighting with her best friend, Cara. Their teacher might be a witch, the therapist has a talking cat, and Betts’ anger spills over at school, bloodying a bully and threatening Betts place there. Cara’s mother is missing, then horribly found, and Cara has to fight to stay in the cabin on Bear Hill. Families are lost, and then found, and love finds a way to heal and hold the people in Betts life.
Betts Belonging shows a teen-aged Betts finding her strength, her art and finally, her own romantic love. Betts finds new dangers in the world around her, and tries to save the next girl. Betts works on building some walls, and breaking others down, trying to find a balance between safety and connection
The Buckman Kids (78,723 words, 218 pages) Published, BHB
Toby is an eleven-year-old boy, familiar with his small world of church, farm and family, a life set in the early sixties on a small dairy farm in rural Vermont. School, chores, homework, a bath, and then bed. Toby finds this world rocked when the Buckmans, (shudder!) move into the old single wide just down the road. Roy Buckman is Toby’s age, but tough as nails, and his kid sister, Trish, is even more powerful for Toby. Nothing will ever be the same again.
Road Trip (62,663 words, 190 pages) Published BHB 1/22/2020
Two girls on the run, Stella, 13, a warrior, and an expert on running, and Brandy, 15, who can no longer stay with her mother. A hardened foster kid helps an older girl run away, trying to get all the way from Chelsea, Vermont, to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Breaking and entering, car theft, and assault and murder are worse than anything Brandy has ever thought to do, but she finds herself happier than she has ever been, and Stella discovers something worth fighting for.
The Fosters of Camp Algonquin (69,000 words, 203 pages) Published BHB 1/29/2020
Six hard-scrabble foster kids are sent to wealthy Camp Algonquin for the second session of the summer, under the distracted eye of the counselor, a soon-to-turn-18 foster child who is aging out of the system. The Fosters, as they are called by the rest of the camp, are there as an experiment by the well meaning board of Camp Algonquin, who wanted to do something kind for children in need. Strangers become family up in Cabin 17, and Camp Algonquin gets more than they bargained for.
Page of Swords (70,583 words, 191 pages) In print by 2/23/2020
Regina, in Page of Swords, has one kind of family, and Evie, her best friend, has another. Things are not as they might seem in the complex world of middle school and suburban families, a world of missing fathers, and of mothers, good, and bad. Faith battles with religion as Regina and Evie struggle to keep their friendship, as they began to understand who they really are.
Alicia and the Rabbit (90,481 words, 265 pages) In print by 2/30/2020
Alicia runs into the forest, fleeing from a predatory, older cousin, Mark. She finds herself down the rabbit hole, and in the company of Edward, her once-lost stuffed bunny, who welcomes her to his delightful burrow. Searching to woods for Edward’s front door leads Alicia to Juniper, the odd child of an odd couple, who kindly take Alicia in. Mark is still a danger, and dreams and reality shift, as Alicia, Edward and Juniper discover who they might actually be.
Kenny And Stan (78,142 words, 238 pages) In print by 3/7/2020
Kenny is an eleven-year-old boy with Asperger’s, the youngest in a wealthy evangelical family. Kenny’s father, Rodger, is a deacon at Prosperity Baptist, a mega church that provides a fraternity of sorts for the wealthy men of Harrison, under the corrupt authority of the Reverend Melvin Mann. When Kenny finds a homeless man living on the street, in a pile of blankets, Kenny decides to secretly move the alcoholic vet into his basement, hoping that somehow Stan will help heal the unhappiness in Kenny’s family. Tracy, a hyperactive girl in Kenny’s Emotional Literacy Class, and Kenny’s only friend, is the only one in on the secret. But Stan has his own agenda, and his own strange powers.
Cora, Jenny, and the Keeper (76,438 words, 214 pages.) In print by 3/14/2020
The Keeper is a magical being, filled with light, one of only a few, made back before the moon, and set over time into the bodies of mortals, to watch and keep the balance of creation. While the Keeper’s story is never ending, these two joined stories tell of her time with two young girls who start as best friends, and then grow to become something more. Cora, born with the Keeper already inside, feels the Keeper is something like the best big sister ever, even with her odd, yellow eyes. When Cora finds herself unable to protect the one she loves, she decides the Keeper is the best gift she could possible give. The Keeper comes to live inside nine-year-old Jenny, who struggles with suddenly finding the voice of love and compassion deep inside her, where she had always thought herself to be hard and safe and alone. Darkness is loose in the world, the boundaries have been broken, and Light needs all the courage that Cora, Jenny and the Keeper have.
Anna (68,957 words, 192 pages) In print by 3/21/2020
Anna takes the role of “thriller” seriously. It’s a fast paced story, filled with danger and action, a revenge tale set in the crossroads of comfortable, tidy suburbs and the darkest secrets of current American culture and politics. Eleven year old Anna is unlike any child Bonnie and David have ever known, appearing suddenly in a wreck of diesel flames and smoke, so strong and so vulnerable, and so desperately in need of a mother. Anna and her new parents are hunted by Speetzy, pure evil in a very nice suit, forever changing the lives of the elderly couple, who must forget everything they once believed about their country and themselves, if they hope to save their scary new daughter. Never underestimate the power of a young Ukrainian gymnast with a 12-gauge shotgun, or the retired Girl Scout leader who has decided to become her mother.
Flossie Underoak (49,000) In print by 3/28.2020
Flossie is an elderly lady Marmot, or woodchuck, if you will, raising what she knows will be her last batch of kits. Like all lady Marmots, she is a meticulous homemaker and mother. But Flossie is also a deep thinker, and begins to question the rock-solid canon of Marmot beliefs. Her youngest kit, Nipper, is different from the rest, and forces her mother to reconsider all that she has believed. Nipper stays to help her mother on an adventure, as they accompany a runaway child and an elderly dog down the mountain, and into danger.
Jessica Jett Takes Off! (Work in progress) Expected to print in April 30th?
Jessica is a fifteen-year-old with some problems. Her mother has died, her father is drinking, a lot, and her eight-year-old brother keeps getting tossed out of school. Her good grandparents live all the way up in Maine, and her evil grandparents have turned up at the worst possible moment. She either hates the guy she had a crush on, or has a crush on the guy she hates, and is driving without a license. Soccer is still pretty great, however.
