Welcome to my website. Feel free to browse. Leaf through some of the pages. You can dog-ear them for your next visit.
NOVELS:
Nooks & Grannies - Contemporary Quirky Fiction - YA - character-driven novel about two emotionally damaged friends on the threshold of adulthood. At 13 Amelia Granger's testimony sent her meth head mother to prison. Now 19, and Amelia and her best friend Keegan O'Rourke are living in his late grandmother's house. Unbeknownst to Amelia, her mother gets an early release from prison and shows up at the house. Keegan turns her away and keeps this news from Amelia, not wanting to upset her. Days later he learns of Amelia's mother's death and keeps that from her as well. Soon after strange things begin to happen in the house. Amelia thinks it's the spirit of Keegan's grandmother. Keegan has other ideas. Think The Catcher in the Rye meets Juno. You can read the 1st chapter here:
This Ain't No Cowboy Movie - Contemporary Multicultural YA novel of Native American girl, Laurel Blue Stone. Her Zuni parents insist she date Navaho Reddington Cornudas who has convinced her father he is owed Laurel to pay off a debt. Sensing Cornudas' bad medicine Laurel runs to the safety of the mesa where she meets a white park ranger, Cal Trillig. Cornudas, now a bank robbing meth head, stalks and abducts Laurel and drags her into the New Mexican desert. [1st chapter can be found under 'more']
Death at the Drive-In - Contemporary quirky women's fiction of baby boomer Billie Jenkins who loses her murder mystery dinner theatre and her real life turns into a murder mystery when the real body count starts mounting.[1st chapter can be found under 'more']
Brogwin Frayney and How He Almost Saved a Kingdom - Middle Grade heroic fantasy taking place in 14th-Century Wagetannia. Think: King Arthur-meets-Atlantis.[1st chapter can be found under 'more']
Gatsby Delaney - 7th Grade Impresario - Middle Grade story of 12 year old Gatsby Delaney selling F. Scott Fitzgerald's muse - Zelda - on eBay in order to buy himself some new clothes after a growth spurt left him looking like a scarecrow and his uber frugal hippie parents are too self-absorbed to notice. Gatsby's partner in crime is his 8 year old sister, Zelda, and his best friend Mugsy - who just got her 1st training bra.[1st chapter can be found under 'more']
Dead Serious - Contemporary fiction - Former journalist, Michael Calder, is pursued by paroled criminal, Charlie Devon, who plans to kill him as retribution for journalist's efforts that kept him in prison for his full sentence. Michael and his children's book writer wife, Linda, decide to combine their talents and write a mystery. When Devon witnesses Michael putting Linda into the trunk of their car so she can empathize with their fictional kidnap victim, he makes his deadly move.
Medium Rare - Contemporary commercial fiction - Young woman with psychic abilities rents furnished sublet and 'sees' murder of previous tenant when she sleeps in the same bed. Befriends upstairs neighbor and after several flashes of images of what occurred in that apartment, begins to believe the upstairs neighbor was involved.
Head's Up - Contemporary commercial fiction - Low-life sociopath, Lenny "The Kraut" Schneider, forces his girlfriend to seduce a wealthy Montauk writer in order to blackmail him. Things don't go according to plan when his girlfriend decides she'd rather be with the kind writer and refuses to obey Lenny's orders.
Oldman & Roth - Contemporary fiction of one desperate brother who kidnaps his brother's baby to pay off a large debt to the neighborhood loan shark.
Jamaica Moon - Contemporary fiction - Biracial female pilot who flies tourists around the Caribbean Islands, Jamaica Moon saves a toddler from a house fire while his drugged-out, has-been groupie mother hides from her wealthy New Yorker husband who is hunting for her to get his son back, and from mobsters who want her dead.
A Scoundrel's Tale - Chick Lit - A hedonistic Englishman decides to abandon his excessive wicked ways to show the Owner of the Matched Set that he can change for the better.[1st chapter can be found under 'more']
Motorcycle Babies - Contemporary YA novel of disenfranchised teen girls believing the way out of their shabby lives is to get pregnant and reap the benefits of public assistance.[1st chapter can be found under 'more']
NOVELLAS:
Chadman Breach - 1928 Southampton, NY - The coming-of-age story of Chadman Breach, the son of a banker who wants to be an artist rather than follow in his father's footsteps and falls for the bohemian wife of the town gravedigger. You can reach the first chapter here:
Greetings From Hell!- Humor - Englishman in Witness Protection Program is relocated to Central Florida where the culture shock is killing him. You can reach the first chapter here: GREETINGS FROM HELL!
The Knotted Gun – A modern day thriller that takes place in NYC and environs in which, through the use of drones, Manhattan’s early morning rush hour traffic is brought to a standstill, an elementary school is forced under lock down, holding all 600 students, teachers and staff prisoner while SWAT teams make their way there on foot due to snarled traffic. And the POTUS is ordered to stand at the Non-Violence sculpture at the UN Visitors Entrance until further notice. You can reach the first chapter here: THE KNOTTED GUN
SCREENPLAYS:
Dead Serious(with co-author Carol Daub)
Greetings From Hell!
STAGE PLAY:
Greetings From Hell! - Produced March 18, 2010 at the Naked Stage, Bridgehampton, NY. Ex-pat Brit in the Witness Protection Program finds himself in central Florida and is desperately trying to escape.
SHORT STORIES:
Duncan Blunt - Husband nearly manages to get away with framing his wife for his murder.
A Troll A Day - After extracting a promise that the giant won't eat him, a troll frees the trapped ogre from his own too-small front door.
Ambrose Podgorny - Young man stumbles back in time to the day Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated.
Lucky China Buffet - Woman gives birth to twins in kiddy pool above Chinese restaurant.
Zephyr Rafferty - Grown son caring for his aging father on their farm.
Pinkie - Published in The Improper Hamptonian - Contemporary fiction of lonely man and his airy companion.
Dot & Dash - First story published in The East Hampton Star - Contemporary humorous fiction - 30-something twins in NYC - Dot climbing corporate ladder and obsessed with fashion. Dash - avid idea man and inventor who is obsessed with cosmetic surgery until his epiphany.
Boxo & Emma - Contemporary humorous fiction - English bookshop owner meets American living in London.
Tut's Hiccups & Glitches - Sci-Fi humor of two of the few remaining androids in post-apocalyptic America in search of lithium for their batteries. (Thelma & Louise-meet-AI)
Human Caviar - Aliens invade Earth to harvest our eggs.
A Snowy Bethlehem - A young couple driving in a snowstorm from Bethlehem, PA to NYC pick up a hitchhiker who could be an angel.
The Gideon Girls - Adult twin sisters - one a reclusive hoarder, the other a successful business woman.
Hammond House - a short story about my experiences as a teenager living in a haunted house for a year in Valhalla, NY.
CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS:
(Co-Authored with Beddy Piekiel, and each book is accompanied by four original, professionally produced songs)
Illustrated by Davina Pellatt)
Best Foot Forward - Dexter (a young crow) and Jinx (a young seagull) meet at the beach and help each other get out of mishaps due to their differences. Comes with CD of four original professionally produced songs.
Brendan the Penguin - Brendan, an antarctic penguin, finds himself on a shrinking ice floe and arrives at the beach where Dexter & Jinx hang out. Together they attempt to build a vessel for Brendan to get back home.
Run Amok Duck - Shunned by her fellow ducks because she cannot fly in proper "V" formation. Dexter & Jinx help her get her bearings and overcome her fear of flying.