→ finished ← Claustrophobic and agoraphobic, Alaska Gouramie doesn't leave the house much. She whiles her days away nurturing her goldfish, Gordon. Her life is passing her by. Elver Harrison James is scared of fish. He won't go near the pond at the bottom of his garden. He will do anything to stay away from those water-loving freaks. Alaska's mother forces her to leave the house. It's just a trip to the park, no big deal. Until Alaska falls in the pond. And Elver is the only one around. Teen Fiction #118

Charlie doesn't speak, so he paints.

A collection of my original vignettes.

Sometimes all you really need is a place to call home. * * * Being re-written completely as of May 14, 2021

"Every fairytale begins in the rain." When you run into an old bookshop in the middle of Paris to escape a storm, who knows who you might meet there. {Written 2014.}

They met in December.

"The Porch on Which She Sits" is a dramatic vignette that recounts the life of an elderly widow. Once famous but now nearly forgotten and dying alone, she basks in the sunlight and enjoys the final peaceful moments of her life.

WATTPAD ORIGINAL EDITION In 1955, mixed-race Ethan Harper leaves his progressive hometown for a summer in Alabama where he's not welcome, except by resident free spirit, Juniper Jones. ***** After getting himself into a bout of trouble, 16-year-old Ethan Harper's parents send him to Ellison, Alabama, to live with his aunt and uncle for the summer. But the year is 1955, and Alabama is a far cry from his beloved home of Arcadia, Washington. As much as it's hotter in temperature, it's colder in every other way, and Ethan learns the hard way that people see his mere existence as a threat. Amidst all the mayhem, a fiery, free-spirited, oddball walks into Ethan's life. Her name is Juniper Jones. She is the first person in Ellison who seems unfazed by their racial differences, and she promises to give Ethan a summer he will always remember, filled with endless adventure and discovery. With Juniper, Ethan can breathe, he can be, despite the incessant attention and bullying their newly formed friendship attracts. Can the two survive the summer, run in the light and block out the noise of the outside world? [Published version comes out June 16, 2020 with Wattpad Books!] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]

The story of Claude Temple, an ex-fashion worker who cools off at a coffee shop and falls in love with the waitress....

The next December, they were apart. [Sequel to December]