Writing
Fiction
I’ve been telling stories forever. I absconded with my mom’s Olivetti Underwood manual typewriter (which I regret selling for $20 at a garage sale long ago) so often by the age of 9 that my mom had to buy a new electric typewriter for work. Ms. Tuttle, my fourth grade teacher read The Hobbit to our class. Soon after, I found myself banned from the adult section of the library when caught returning the The Lord of the Rings to the shelves after taking the books without checking them out (if they hadn’t been restricted in the first place … ). I had to read the books with a dictionary. I can thank Tolkien for my vocabulary.
First Words
My first “novel,” completed as a pre-teen, consisted of page upon page of single-spaced type that ran off the margins, both sides of the page, the keys punching holes through the paper. It owed a huge debt to Tolkien. I made my own crayon-colored covers and created character and place names based on “obscure” terms found in the dictionary. Really, who else could have heard of words like “Edema” and “Aorta.” I blush. I heard a creative writing instructor from what was then known as Sangamon University interviewed on the radio. I can’t remember her name, but really, I have to thank this kind soul for actually looking at this juvenile masterpiece and crediting me for my first 75K words and providing me with lots of encouragement.
I think I’ve improved since then.
I wrote my first “real” novel as my senior thesis in creative writing. I admit that first draft was awful, written by someone who knew the world based on books read, not on experience. My professor, Jay Clayton, (who may not want his name associated with this) handed me a copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk & White and begged me to learn the proper use of a comma. Yikes.
The book has changed over the years, grown as I’ve grown. It is now The Enchanter’s Web, a fantasy trilogy. I guess I didn’t fall far from that LOTR tree.
Validation
While I saw my words in print in a few places, I was an adult before a contest judge provided validation with the first place in a fiction contest that actually paid, and awarded an actual jade ring, from what was then known as the Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Association. But after years publishing journalism for newspapers and magazines, my first short fiction sale for publication was the real validation I needed. A story saw print! Sometimes that’s all you need to keep going.
Since then, I had a dark fantasy story gain a mention in a “Best of” collection, I’ve completed five novels and I’ve lost track of how many pieces of short fiction and poetry, with eight making it to publication. I took a very long break to be a journalist, and then an academic, focusing on nonfiction. Picking up the fiction mantle again feels like coming home.
Novels
Black River, 2024, Crossroad Press
Specters from a Dream: The Enchanter’s Web, Book I, 2025
Dread Warrior: The Enchanter’s Web, Book II. 2025
The Rising of Kedtair: The Enchanter’s Web, Book III, 2025
Ryslad, Preorder now for October 1, 2026
Published Short Fiction
“Standoff Fox & Goose” magic realism Mystic Fiction (Vol 2; No 4), Fall 1994
“The Crow” Horror/dark fantasy. Skull, the magazine of dark fiction. Vol 1;2 1994
“Sing Heavenly Muse” Dark fantasy. In Blood Muse, Timeless Tales of Vampires in the Arts Esther M. Friesner and Martin H,. Greenberg, eds. Donald I Fine. 1995 (Honorable Mention Year’s Best Horror)
“Reality” magic realism Interzone 118, April 1997
“Proving Ground” fantasy. In Wizard Fantastic. Martin H. Greenberg ed. DAW 1997
“Medicine Rock” fantasy. Elysian Fiction #4 (webzine) (prequel to The Enchanter’s Web)
“Garden of Souls.” Science fiction. PanGaia Magazine # 43. 2006; Reprinted Fantastic Stories Presents. 2014 Wilder Publications.
“Shades” Fantasy. Front Lines, Ed. Denise Little and Martin H. Greenberg. DAW 2008
“Proving Ground” (revised, reprint from the prologue of Black River) In Adversity and Audacity, sf&f from cancer survivors, Lawrence M. Schoen ed.
Nonfiction
After graduating with a BA in Journalism from UW-Madison, I worked for a couple of newspapers, edited a business magazine, and drafted numerous publications for Wisconsin DNR in addition to a lengthy freelance career writing for publications ranging from the Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to Scientific American, Archaeology Magazine and Standard & Poor’s Industrial Outlook. I also edited and designed publications for the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, UW-Extension and state agencies.
My academic research, which combined my degree work in archaeology, environmental anthropology, communications and folklore, focused on resource conflict and public policy. My dissertation “Negotiating mine fields: Public policy, protest, and the proposed Penokee Mine” (2015) detailed the attempt to rewrite laws that endangered not only delicate environmental ecosystems, but the drinking water supply, food resources, and culture of an Ojibwe tribal nation. I completed that work with a mind toward goals of not colonizing information as I was working with an Ojibwe community.
