Contemporary
I Am Alex Locus is the story of a twenty-three-year-old woman who learns, quite by chance, that her mother, who died when Alex was 14, wrote stories that few people saw. She decides to collect them from the attic in the upscale suburban house where she grew up and see if they revealed anything about her mother. She’ll regret starting her quest time and time again as she learns unpleasantness about her mother and her father.
Imagine returning home from your job in Manhattan to find a stranger, a 16 year old girl, waiting for you. The girl is Scarlett Evans. Yc1ou are Cassandra Owens. And you discover that Scarlett is the daughter of your late husband Keith.
My Husband’s Daughter is the story of how Cassie comes to love Scarlett, after some very difficult moments, and how Cassie comes to love herself, in a series of disastrous dates with men who she assumes are eligible.
In Redemption, New Yorker Amy Reid literally runs into Peter Edgar, who is quite wealthy, on a sidewalk on Park Avenue. From this simple act of inattention will grow not only a romance between them, after an unfortunate diversion, but also between nurse Bridget Casey and the beautiful Evelyn Manners.
There are acts of betrayal along the way, but in the end love will prevail.
Austen Fan Fiction
Becoming Catherine Bennet imagines the world of Pride and Prejudice some years after that novel’s conclusion. It begins in June 1815, shortly after what would become known as the Battle of Waterloo. It chiefly follows Catherine (or Kitty) as she grows from the girl happy to tag along behind her younger sister Lydia into the woman who finds love, in two people.
The Omen at Rosings Park
This is a true Pride and Prejudice Variation: It imagines that Elizabeth Bennet does agree to marry Mr. Collins. But that when circumstances bring her, as Mrs. Collins, together with Mr. Darcy, unacknowledged feelings between the two are ignited. When Mr. Collins dies in a fall at Rosings, Elizabeth and Darcy struggle to understand their feelings, and where they will take them.
The Diary of Elizabeth Elliot
A Persuasion sequel
Imagine Elizabeth Elliot in the days after her life was turned upside down, with Anne to marry Captain Wentworth and her cousin William and her companions Penelope Clay abandoning her in Bath. And the resumption of war with Bonaparte and unpleasant news about her father’s finances.
What will become of her?
A Pride and Prejudice sequel focused on Col. Fitzwilliam who is injured in the Battle of Waterloo. One of the Bennet sisters tends to him and Georgiana Darcy befriends the Col.’s aide, Major Groeper. There is a long-simmering scandal that rears its head and our foursome must address it.
Gilded Age Novels
Róisín Campbell: An Irishwoman in New York begins in 1870. Róisín Campbell is a daughter on a dairy farm on the eastern part of County Limerick, Ireland. Economics being what they are, she must emigrate. Her eldest brother will stay on the farm and her eldest sister has married a nearby farmer. But her other older siblings are in Liverpool but she is fated to go to New York.
The First Three Chapters.
A Studio on Bleecker Street begins in May 1872. The main character, Clara Bowman, is referred to in passing in Róisín Campbell, and Emily Connor, who appears several times in that first book become Clara’s best friend. Although this is a stand-alone novel, it intersects with the final scene of Róisín, and numerous characters from that first novel appear in this one, in something of an attempt to find out what became of them.
This is the story of a woman newly out in society and what happens to her when the man she intends to marry dies in a train crash with his sister, and Clara’s best friend.
A Maid’s Life begins much as Róisín Campbell does. A maid from Ireland comes to New York in the early 1870s. She trains at the House of Mercy and becomes a maid at a fashionable house, that of the Palmers. The story diverges as the maid–Margaret Treacy from County Mayo–finds herself exiled from that house for reasons unknown. She wanders throughout New York until she discovers the meaning of love.
Bridget & Joseph in 1918 is a story mixing facts learned about Joseph P. Garland’s paternal grandparents and an imagined story of how they got together. Available at Amazon and other ebook outlets.
A Compilation
This is a collection of stories I’ve written for the A Muse Bouche Review. Some are excerpts from my books and some are standalones. It’s a simple way to get an introduction to my writing.
Inspector Washington & The Priceless Necklace is a short crime/mystery story involving an NYPD Inspector who appeared in A Studio on Bleecker Street. Set chiefly in Newport, Rhode Island. Available exclusively as an Amazon ebook (and Kindle Select).
Romances
These romances of varying orientations and lengths.
Coming to Terms is a contemporary, multi-generational romance novel set chiefly in Manhattan and the New York suburbs. It includes a fair amount about life at a New York law school and wrestles with the limits of Catholicism. Available as an ebook or a paperback at Amazon and elsewhere.
Disowned is the story of Mary Elizabeth Nelson, who is the aunt of Suzanne Nelson/Neally, one of the main characters in Coming to Terms. It is the story of her estrangement from her family in California and the life she builds for herself in New York. Available at Amazon.
A Theory About Valentine’s Day is a short novella about best friends. What happens when platonic friends find their regular Thursday night dinner will be on February 14: Well, he laughs about the inanity of proposals that day—it’s his “theory”—but then he asks her an interesting question and she must decide how to respond. Available at Amazon.
Deception: A Mother’s Secret. A suburban mother spends her marriage denying that she is gay. She has a daughter and goes through the motions, at least in the bedroom, with her husband. Her daughter is preparing to leave for Cornell and comes out to her. This forces the mother to come to terms with her own sexuality, repressed except for one long ago fling. She confesses and live changes for everyone involved, with honesty and true feelings prevailing.
A Vintage Gown* (*and the women who own it) is a romance about the effect a Dior gown has on two lovers who believed they were lost to each other forever. Available at Amazon.
A Fairytale of New York is the story of a British man who meets an Irish woman who is working in an Irishy tavern in midtown Manhattan. After several days of romance, they part company. Until he comes home on vacation to his parents’ house in Brighton and she is sitting in the sitting room. A romance. Available exclusively at Amazon, including on Kindle Unlimited.
My London Honeymoon is the story of a New Yorker whose fiancé gets cold feet some weeks before the wedding and who decides to use the ticket and accommodation meant for the honeymoon to go to London. Where she meets someone quite accidently on a path in Hyde Park. And after the passage of some time, they find something in each other to love. On Kindle Unlimited.
The Sergeant and the Suspect has a bit of a twist. It begins with a mysterious woman inducing men to take her to their homes, where they allow themselves to be bound. And she leaves them to be discovered in the morning. Metro Police Sergeant Jamieson leads a task for to try to track her down. When they confront one another in a bar, everything changes for both of them. Love at first sight indeed. A little spicy but a true romance
An American Historian on Oxford’s High Street is the tale of a widowed, tenured professor of history at a university outside of Chicago who runs into a former student while out on Oxford’s High Street. Despite his daughter’s misgivings, and some of his own, they meet again when she, now getting a Ph.D. from MIT, appears at his office. And they reconnect. Available at Amazon.
On Finding Love and Acceptance is the story of a gay woman who takes the train from New York to Chicago, to see her dying father. She’s been told he’s a changed man. She learns otherwise.
Iubirea Mea (my love). A short piece about an important but fleeting encounter in the Berkshires between a New York lawyer and a Romanian student. It has one very steamy section in which the two women touch each other’s souls as well as their bodies. in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Something Different
…But Not Me is a collection of lyrics from songs I’ve written over the years. At Amazon.
Dermody House 