Writings
Selected Works
Candlewood
Forthcoming novel
~ I lay next to Al, the man who would have married me, except for the rules.
St. Croix Valley, 1977
In a world where women’s opportunities are limited, devout Meg Joyce takes a job visiting homebound parishioners for St. Gabriel’s. Far from landing in a holy haven, the young and naive Meg finds herself fending off the priest from prayer group who tricks her into viewing a painting that hangs over his bed as he rants about the woman who gave it to him. Shaken, Meg confides in her brother, a gay man, who warns her to keep quiet since the bishop is likely glad his priest goes after women rather than other men or boys.
A challenge of a different sort looms when salt of the earth Fr. Al Vogel is assigned to the parish – the rugged stranger who helped her coax an elderly woman’s cat down from a tree, before learning he was a priest. Meg knows the rules and is loath to add another sin to her family’s litany of taboos, but when Fr. Al is injured in a car accident, the rules don’t make sense. Can she survive in his world of secrets and shadows? At what cost?
Against the backdrop of a Catholic Church reeling from Vatican II’s changes to long-held traditions, as well as impacts from women’s liberation, Meg grapples with the misogyny of an institution she once trusted, a crisis of faith in God, and a reckoning with her dreams.
Short Fiction
Potato Soup Journal, Flash Fiction, July 2022
Poetry
Alma’s Sky
Creative Wisconsin Anthology, Honorable Mention, Jade Ring Contest, 2019
Burnt Prairie
Midwest Review, 2nd Place, 2015
Essays
Vote Like an Inchworm, Medium.com, 2020
Book Reviews
Tombs of Little Egypt by James Varga
Windy City Reviews, December 2022
At 12th & Marquette: A Story of Love, Faith, and Caregiving by Marie Malicki
Windy City Reviews, August 2022
Our Bodies Stay Home, Our Imaginations Run Free: A Covid-19 Story for Children
by Lora Hyler
To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
~Ecclesiastes 3:1