Welcome to the Afterlife
A young woman’s fear of repeating her parents’ mistakes spirals after reading her late father’s hidden journal, luring her into the Afterlife and the secrets he left behind.
Young and married, living in the Midwestern suburbs, Iris was already following a path that didn't quite agree with her. But now, after reading her father's darkest secrets, Iris, who has a baby on the way and wants so badly to believe that there's life after grief, is second-guessing herself, her marriage, and motherhood.
Plagued by moving objects, flickering lights, and nightmares so real she feels as though she is living them, Iris's fear of following in her father's footsteps turns into a deadly obsession— one that sends her straight into The Afterlife.
In WELCOME TO THE AFTERLIFE, a domestic suspense novel, complete at 86,000 words, Iris narrates the story of her father’s life so that she may finally understand her own. But some truths demand a choice: between inheritance and independence, guilt and freedom, love and letting go.
Got the 2000’s-era bug?
Check out my (somewhat) recent short story publication with Y2K Quarterly titled, T9 Dating.
Stupid, Pretty
The brutal breakup, online dating in the early aughts, and a narrator’s nostalgic deep dive into T9 texting, low-rise jeans, and overly-sexualized pop culture.
Sex and the City meets Lena Dunham’s Girls. Or, a funny Taylor Swift album.
“Are You the reason I’m stuck? Why did You call me? I’m kind of a little bit famous now, and if there was someone who could ruin this for me, it’s you.”
In STUPID, PRETTY, a romance writer on deadline with her second novel gets an out-of-the-blue missed call from her ex of twenty years ago and decides to pen him a letter—an assignment from her therapist—hoping to cure her crippling writer’s block.
With her career (and sanity) on the line, Alice takes a stroll down memory lane, analyzing how this toxic relationship played a part in skewing her views of romance, men, and self-worth.
But before Alice has a chance to cure her writer’s block and ultimately find the courage and confidence to choose what she wants over the expectations of others, she gets another missed call from her ex, and then, another. Until finally, a package arrives at her doorstep, addressed by him.
Writing is like going to the gym— I do it to stay happy and healthy. I do it because it makes me feel good. I do it because if I didn’t, I’d be a miserable grouch who watches too much TV.
I’m a morning person. I like waking up early. I like drinking coffee in silence with my laptop. Light a candle, start the fireplace, me in my daytime jammies—that’s how my perfect day would start—But—that’s not always how it works, and so, my writing process is ever-changing. It depends on the book, the chapter, the day of the week. What I do know is that I get incredibly irritable, maybe even a bit manic, when I don’t touch my WIP for days at a time. Sure, there are intentional moments of gestation that comes with any project, but when it comes down to getting my butt in a chair, I’m disciplined and focused.
I do a lot of binge writing—two or three days of the week where I sit down and let the words flow. When I’m not so focused, I use the Pomodoro Technique and squeeze in 250 words here, 100 words there. And if the week has been a week (we all have them), then Fridays are there to pick up the slack. Fridays, no matter the week, belong to my novels. It’s where I get large chunks of uninterrupted time to get BIG work done.
On Tuesday Nights, I Workshop.
I belong to a weekly writing workshop who has seen every chapter of my novels. I have taken classes from Gotham Writers Workshop, CRAFT TALK, Inked Voices, Jane Friedman, Amy Collins, Chelsea Cain, and Chuck Palahniuk. I have invested in quality editors and continue to enhance and strengthen my craft by reading novels by authors I love, subscribing to various forms of continuing education, and reading craft book after craft book.
WELCOME TO THE AFTERLIFE is a domestic suspense novel that I am actively querying to literary agents. STUPID, PRETTY is my humorous, women’s fiction WIP that was accepted into the 2024–2025 StoryStudio Chicago NIAY program—a selective writing cohort led by author Lindsay Hunter that workshops, studies the craft, and provides accountability toward the goal of completing a novel over the span of one year.
Where would I be without the writing community? On the couch, miserable, watching too much trash television.
P.S. I really do love watching trash television.