Dear Goodreads readers, my new novel, Beatrice Penny Survived, is now available on Amazon. You may find an excerpt and plot summary in the description, but I'd like to add a bit more personal information.

I chose to publish with Kindle Direct Publishing because I spent four years researching and writing this novel, four more years corresponding with five publishing houses. The process, as authors may know, is submitting a pitch, waiting for response. Sending sample chapters and waiting for a response. They all want to read it but won't accept dual submissions, and months go by . . . I'm not complaining; editors are overwhelmed by submissions, [the state of publishing is in upheaval, in which I am a tiny cog] and each editor did respond with kind words when they passed on the novel. I had begun work on a new novel, 100 pages in when I became aware of the Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction, 2021. I entered the competition and my novel was long-listed for the prize. Although my novel was not awarded the prize, it was a great honor to be included . . . and I wanted Beatrice's voice to be heard . . . now rather than in four years or more, or not at all. I have more years behind me than ahead of me. It is simple, for writers who don't write in hopes of becoming rich or well-know, but write because something burns bright in your mind and heart and because your soul is diminished if you don't.