June 2010
I have written a new novel, The Beauty of Ordinary Things. This is a story of love's possibilities, powers, and consolations. A modern Confessions, told in the circling first-person voices of three friends in their twenties over the summer of 1974, this novel grapples with the surprising forms love can take, both human and sacred. Benny Finn, a Vietnam vet and an orderly at Children's Hospital in Boston, puzzles out his powerful connection to his brother Liam's girlfriend Isabel, as Isabel questions the wisdom of her own life choices. Sister Clare, a young nun, adds her own candid voice to a vision of love that encompasses all of these figures, and more.
I am now engaged in writing short stories, and revising a novel about Edgar Degas' 1872 visit to his Creole cousins in New Orleans (possible title: Edgar Degas Dreams of New Orleans).
Guest Blog Posts
“Walking Through the Hedge” – an essay on Meg Waite Clayton’s site, 1st Books: Stories about How Writers Get Started.
"Two Achilles Heels" and "I Love All Things Irish"-- blog on The Well-Read Donkey, Kepler's Bookstore:
"My Life as a Writer"
