and now I feel your curse
Creative Writing Samples
Fiction and Screenwriting
Like a lot of people, I write. Unlike a lot of people, I finish things. On this page are samples from my two most marketable pieces of creative writing. There are others, but they're marinating right now.
The Salt Mine
The Salt Mine is a 62,000-word middle-grades fantasy novel (ages 9-12). It tells the story of Alexis, whose father up and sells her to a salt mine shortly before her twelfth birthday. She's not keen on slavery, so she begins plotting to escape.
Before long she's uncovered a mysterious, magical secret one of the other slaves is hiding, and decided that what this place really needs is a full-scale revolt. She'll need to figure out whom she can trust to make that happen. Stand-alone story, but with series potential.
As of Summer 2019, the full manuscript is under consideration by a few UK-based literary agents, but I am still seeking representation for this project.
The Old Forks Inn
The Old Forks Inn is a supernatural drama podcast. Emily plans to spend a year working at the Old Forks Inn to save money for graduate school. Forces at work on the grounds have other, longer-term plans for her. Eight 20-minute episodes.
As of Summer 2019, this project is entered in the Austin Film Festival's fiction podcast competition. Wish me luck!
Listen to the Frogs' Chorus described in the script here:
Distance
Distance is a contemporary drama set in Chicago. Nell Flanagan is a driven young computer scientist and nationally ranked marathon runner who wants more than anything to move out of the apartment she shares with her twin brother, ex-junkie Tom, and his live-in music professor boyfriend Kieran. Then Tom's diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.
It will fall to Nell to arrange Tom's care, attempt to reconcile with their estranged parents, and keep sensitive, anxious Kieran from losing his mind. To relax, she'll attempt to run an Olympic trials qualifying time in the marathon with the help of Simon, an attractive new neighbor who is wrong for her on a number of levels.
Really. So wrong. It can't happen.
An earlier feature-length version of this story placed in the finals of the 2012 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, made the second round of the 2013 Austin Film Festival's screenwriting competition, and placed in the quarter-finals of the 2014 BlueCat Screenwriting Competition.
Notes from various judges, agents, coverage readers and producers who've read the feature over the years agree there was too much "there" there for a 90-120 minute runtime, so now it's a limited series.
Read the cold open of the one-hour pilot episode here.
Hey, I Like This!
If you want to talk to me about either of these projects, please contact me via direct message on Twitter.
Copyright: Both of these works are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. DISTANCE is also registered with the WGA East.