Publications and Works in Progress
Works in Dry Dock
The Ship Called Last-Lorn on the Brimful Puddle, Book One.
Muller’s Mile, a novella.
The Man Who Killed James Caliburn, a musical work for the stage.
Rage and Grace, a musical work for the stage.
Ready to Launch
Modus Perfectus, a collection of inter-connected short stories, musically themed.
In this collection of interconnected stories, the characters’ concerns center around Modus Perfectus, a musical utopia which most people can’t even locate, let alone reach. Those who experience brushes with the enticing yet often insidious allure of Modus Perfectus include a hideously ugly woman who serves as a kind of town troll, a gonzo architect, a music hater, sad-sack birthday clowns, movie actors, dead lovers, would-be rock stars, and many others.
Their stories unfold, always with plenty of pathos and humor, in the form of told-beside-the-fire ghost tales and small-town coming-of-age or small-town has-been tales, in the suspense of escaping a derailing train, in the gothic lair of a mad scientist breeding musical geniuses, and finally, in the musings of a tone-deaf woman who dislikes music but finds herself pregnant at age forty-five with the three saviors of music and must make her way to Modus Perfectus for their birth, seeking her own redemption.
In John Kessel’s words, Modus Perfectus is “quirky, funny, serious, and highly original” magical realism, equal parts chimera, comedy, love story, and coming of age.
Publications, Performances, and Accolades
“Florestan and Eusebius,” Best of Wilde Oats Three Year Edition (Summer 2013)
“Audition,” Brave Blue Mice (Summer 2011)
“Exalted,” Schlock Magazine (Spring 2010)
“Florestan and Eusebius,” Wilde Oats (Spring 2010)
“How I Learned that All the Houses in Survillion Circle Should Be Painted Heliotrope,” The Battered Suitcase (Winter 2009)
“The Sword and Dagger of Marcus Brutus,” The Abacot Journal (Summer 2009)
“Jeremy,” Midnight Times (Winter 2007)
Film descriptions for the 2007 Indianapolis International Film Festival
“Jeremy,” Genesis (2006)
“The Touch” (plus two poems), Talking Leaves (2005)
Opera Tales that Are Told (librettist), workshopped and performed by Jackson County Players. Composer: Martin McClellan, D.M., Indiana University, 2010.
Rebecca E. Pitts Fiction Award 2007 for “Pirate”
Mary Louise Rea Short Story Award 2006 for “Survillion Circle”
Liberal Arts Chancellor’s Scholar 2007
Outstanding Film Studies 2007