Writing

Books

Jasmine Lin and the Dollhouse, available now from your favorite local bookseller!

Third grade is over and Jasmine Lin has just finished building a dollhouse all by herself. She's excited for summer to begin.

The day after she finishes her dollhouse, however, she discovers her dollhouse at the end of Arcadia Lane. It's not just her dollhouse-it's human-sized.

How did it get there? Who built it? And what will she find inside?

Visit theapress.org for details about this and other titles!

Memory Stands Still, 2nd edition

Angela Bridges is preparing to enter Cleveland's first bi-annual urban development contest. When memories of the past collide with the present, how will she shape her future and the future of her beloved city?

The second edition features an afterword as well as discussion questions for bookclubs!

Have a bookclub? If you're interested in having a virtual bookclub meeting with me to talk about Memory Stands Still (or any other of my books), reach out to me on the Contact page for more information!

Crystal Winters and the Haunted Mansion (Sticky Ones #1)

Crystal Winters has always stood out among the other kids, sporting blue hair, a razor-sharp mind, and a craving for adventure. On her tenth birthday, her parents give her permission to ride her bike beyond their immediate neighborhood. She rides far and finds a spooky mansion abandoned in the woods. Will she dare to cross the threshold and explore what lies within?

Michelle Lobos and the Labyrinth (Sticky Ones #2)

Michelle Lobos is thrilled to be at summer camp at last, even though Terry Groulx just won't leave her alone. In a moment of solitude, however, she discovers something shocking about the labyrinth on the floor of the camp lodge. Later on the mystery of the labyrinth deepens. Is what her mother told her about labyrinths true? Does she have the courage to find out?

Playing Gauche

Medley Blunt is a former Little Leaguer playing for the first time on an all-girls softball team, and she's got some things to learn. Going from the star of her state championship-winning baseball team to barely making the starting lineup of her softball team, her world has turned topsy turvy. Add to that the revelation that her adoptive parents are having a baby the old-fashioned way. Who is she if not a star ball player? Who is she if not an only child? What are her roots, and who is she, really?

Thean Psalter

The Thean Psalter is a feminist, feminine prayer book based on the Book of Psalms. The psalms are organized into morning and evening prayer over thirty days so that the entire book can be prayed individually or communally over the course of a month. The Thean Psalter cultivates an intersectional thealogical approach and serves as a resource for those who seek to pray using feminine images of the Divine in a feminine voice. Theanism, from which "Thean" is derived, finds its roots in the Greek word, "Thea," which means "Goddess."

Memory Stands Still

Angela Bridges is preparing to enter Cleveland's first bi-annual urban development contest. When memories of the past collide with the present, how will she shape her future and the future of her beloved city?

Lifeblood

M. Kate Allen explores blood cancer and its implications for life and death in four short stories. All proceeds from this chapbook benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Life. Love. Liturgy.

A collection of unconventional short stories and poetry exploring sounds, touches, and morsels of God in quotidian life.

Fae Fatales: A Fantasy Noir Anthology

Allusions of Innocence

Heartbeats: Voices Against Oppression

I write stories. I've been writing them since I was ten years old. For years I was in the habit of writing stories of my day in a journal or, occasionally, a blog. As I pursued academic endeavors, my practice of evocative writing for its own sake fell by the wayside.

Then, in October 2011, I began writing stories and poems on a weekly basis for a writing contest. The most intriguing thing I discovered there was the way folks other than me talked about God, religion, and living life.

What I encountered in these articulate writers was decidedly not what I heard coming out of the mouths of religious people growing up. I read in these writers a variety of life experiences, descriptions of crashing against, opening up, dismissing, and broadening the prescriptions of what life with God and religion should be.

As a result I've explored, in fiction and poetry, questions like these:

What do you get when you throw God and religion together with someone who doesn't believe in the God or religion they grew up with?

What sort of faith is possible when religion fails?

What sort of God do you get when the images you have don't look a thing like the person you see in the mirror? What do you get when they do?

What sort of faith can you believe in when evil deeds have been committed against you or someone you love?

How do you answer questions of ultimate concern when the answers you've been given in the past don't fit your experience?

What happens to God, religion, and faith when you ask questions that make the most powerful religious leaders squirm?

If a religion's beliefs and dogmas are inadequate or unjust, what might keep a prophetic person rooted in religiosity?

Fiction, poetry, and prayer are powerful forms in which to explore such questions in illuminating, heart-breaking, hope-inducing, rage-including, thought-provoking ways.