My novel will be out in April 2009

I anticipate a PublishAmerica release date of April or May 2009. My novella tells the story of Kristen, who in her childhood suffers the greatest of losses, but also experiences much joy. While Kristen is a fictional character, much of her story parallels my own life (while still other parts divert from it drastically). The book will follow Kristen from birth to age thirty. The main themes are small-town Americana, mental illness, alcoholism, romantic and familial relationships, loss and survival- all that life can throw at us. It sounds heavy, and it is, but there is also a lot of happiness and laughter in Kristen's life.

I will be creating a Facebook page to promote the book in the near future, and I will be sure to update everyone on when and where they can purchase Praying For Snow. In the meantime, here is a short excerpt. Thank you all so much for reading.

From Chapter 3-

...and at age eight, that Kristen truly stopped believing in both God AND Santa Claus.

As soon as she made her decision so matter-of-factly, the guilt swelled up in her chest until she could actually taste the acidity of it. She felt like vomiting, and wiped away the tears that were forming in her little green eyes. She felt ashamed again, just like when her fingernails were dirty, but about a million times worse. Despite everything that she had been through up to this point, this was the most intense feeling the little girl had ever felt in her young life. She just knew that everyone in her family, all the kids at school, all her neighbors, and even strangers on the street could tell she was a heathen. They would know she was bad. They would think she was evil, a child of the devil. Kristen envisioned the adults in her neighborhood plastering signs on the phone poles, shouting it from the rooftops- "Keep away from the devil child!!!", and finally corralling a posse to run her out of town. It would be a long, public shaming. So she kept her feelings inside, pretended to pray, and once again, refused to let her questions and frustrations rise to the surface in fear of what others would say. She never told anyone, not even Charlene, that she had denounced God that night.

At age eight, this trend of secrecy and fear was already becoming routine- an unhealthy way of dealing with her pervasive perceived feelings of being an outsider.