What I Write

W H E N  S U M M E R  E N D S

            Pinterest ; Playlist ; Tumblr. #WhenSummerEnds

            Status: NaNoWriMo 2015

                        Draft One: 65,000 words

                        Draft Two: in progress

            In summary….

                        When Summer Ends is a historical coming of age novel set in a rural harbor town in Massachusetts at the beginning of World War Two. It is told from the viewpoints of Leona Stanley, a sixteen year old girl who struggles to define home and family, and her best friend Josephine English, who has a passion for stories, wildflowers, and everything extraordinary.

            Score(s): The Cider House Rules (Rachel Portman) ; Testament Of Youth (Max Richter)

            Opening line: My father was good at leaving. I’d seen how he could pack up and leave a city without a backward glance. He had a suitcase that he could fit everything he owned in and I’d seen him pack it more than once. We were always moving around those days; Father never kept a job longer than a few months. He always got restless. He'd tell us the next one would work out.

Abraham and Leslie

L O V E AND OTHER I M P O S S I B L E THINGS

           Pinterest ; Playlist ; Tumblr. #LoveEtc

            Status: unwritten

            In summary….

                        Love and Other Impossible Things is a contemporary retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, set in a coastal Florida town. It’s told from the viewpoint of Hadley Woods, a seventeen year old girl who likes sweaters and music and coffee. Emma meets Since You’ve Been Gone.

 I  A M  H E R E

            Pinterest ; Playlist ; Tumblr. #IAmHere

            Status: unwritten

            In summary….

                        I Am Here is another historical coming of age novel, set in the 1960s in the same small Florida town as Love and Other Impossible Things. It follows Kathleen Holland, seventeen years old and back in the town she moved away from at age eleven and didn’t expect to see again. I Am Here is sunshine and ice cream and bad puns and old friends being new friends all over again and finding your place in the world.

           Opening line: It's the kind of summer I haven't missed; everything is sticky and saccharine sweet, like a mouthful of flat cream soda. 

E M P T Y  A L I B I

            Pinterest ; Playlist ; Tumblr. #EmptyAlibi

            Status: Draft One – NaNoWriMo 2014; 68, 700 words.

                        Draft Two – Camp NaNoWriMo 2015; 82,800 words.

                        Draft Three – unfinished.

            In summary….

                        Empty Alibi is a historical mystery novel set against the glittering backdrop of Manhattan in 1923, and the first of two books. It is told from the point of view of Bethany Wilson, a sixteen year old daughter of a wealthy lawyer, and follows an investigation into a series of murders that hit far too close to home.

           Opening lines: It snows on the way home. I watch it fall, white while it is in the sky, gray when it hits the ground, turning to sludge, mingling with the dust, the dirt, the grime of the city roads. Small snowflakes stick to the windows and make a patchwork through which Manhattan passes me by in a blur.

When Summer Ends, Love Etc, I Am Here, and Empty Alibi are the novels that I'm planning to work on consistently for the next couple of years. I have a lot more stories, most of which aren't quite as developed, and all of which you can see on my Pinterest. They are...

• Impressions - ghosts in Manhattan.
• Abraham and Leslie - a mystery set in California in the 1930s. 
• Like Paper Wings - a story about two sisters, set during World War One in the English countryside.
• Matchlight - a 1950s paranormal retelling of The Little Match Girl.
• Hollow Vow - the sequel to Empty Alibi.
• In Darkest Night - a World War Two era novel that is massively undeveloped.