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Works in Progress

How to Catch a Bear

Middle Grade Contemporary Realism

Twelve-year-old Juniper Dale can’t wait to spend the summer camping at Yosemite National Park. She has her new camera all ready to photograph all the amazing plants and trees in the park. Of course, she will have to keep a close eye on her younger siblings: Finn, the animal know-it-all, and Bea, aka the Terror, who is always getting into some kind of trouble. When the Dale siblings hear that black bears are raiding food from the park campgrounds, they decide to take a closer look only to find evidence that someone else might be trying to frame the bears for their crimes! Determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, the siblings set off throughout one of the world’s most stunning landscapes to investigate who might really be behind the food-snatching.

The Piano

Middle Grade Contemporary Realism

After her parents' divorce, thirteen-year-old Elise and her mom move from the bustle of Cambridge, MA to the tiniest town in Vermont where Elise's mom has purchased an old barn to renovate (despite not even knowing how to use a hammer). The local restore/hardware store becomes a nearly daily stop as Elise's mother attempts to rebuild the barn and her life. It's also where Elise becomes infatuated with an old spinnet piano, only $50! and guilts her mom into buying it for her (despite never having played an instrument in her life). As Elise and her mom adjust to a new life and new friends, the history of the piano is told in flashback vignettes, the piano bearing silent witness to human joy, sorrow, grief, love, and loss over the decades only to arrive in Elise's life at just the right moment.

Heights and Heists

YA Speculative Fiction

Islanna Ravenwood might be the most talented high-wire performer the Trident has ever seen, but like so many young performers eager to score a spot in the elite city circuses, she is trapped by a vile and predatory ringmaster who cares more about pushing the edge of danger for his audience than the actual lives of his replaceable performers. But when a mysterious knife-throwing stranger arrives to offer Isla a dangerous job in a high-stakes heist, it might just be the escape that Isla has been waiting for. Teaming up with a crew of teenage performers all running from their own dark pasts, Isla learns just how deep the corruption goes within the circus circle and how many young lives are at stake. It will take the performance of her life to unmask the villains behind the curtain, and she can't afford to fall.