Writing
I am a writer, but I’m new-ish to sharing my writing. I have always written. It’s how I work out the world around me. It’s how I process my thoughts and share my passions, and how I figure out the hard stuff. Writing has always helped me, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy.
My life has changed a lot in the past decade. I lost my folks, moved across the country, again, and bought a house over the internet – it’s been a whirlwind of change that isn’t unique to me, but it’s new to me.
I write about change, loss and this new, constant midlife-awakening buzz and energy to create and share my work.
“Adversity breeds character.”
-Anonymous (and my grandfather)
They say every family has a secret. I was 12 years old when I discovered ours.
"Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it," my mother always said.
Clues dropped randomly by family, friends and neighbors over the years only heightened my suspicion that my parents were hiding something. For years I eavesdropped and snooped, a spy in my own home. A detailed list folded into a tiny square and tucked under my mattress traced my story. To the uninformed eye the list was random words on a scrap of paper, but to me it was evidence of something secret, something hidden. When the proof led me to the truth, I was too scared to confront my parents, too afraid of what else I might learn.
Uncovering the Lily
Set in Chicago in the 1970s and ‘80s, Uncovering the Lily shares my ongoing search to find, understand and tell my grandfather’s story. Part mystery, part family drama, part life lessons; Uncovering the Lily centers on my discovery of our story, my search for clues, and my father's unwillingness to indulge my childhood Nancy Drew/Charlie's Angels fear-fueled worries and decades later, well into his 90’s, his new willingness and boasting as he talked about how his family fought against “the man.”