My novel writing journey started with my oldest daughter’s story time. Her habit of lying led me to research how other cultures deal with disobedient or dishonest children. This rabbit hole spiraled into wild stories about the MicMac Native American tribe’s legends, the Chenoo and other fantastically scary creatures who came for naughty children. Maybe I should have stuck to threatening Santa’s coal, but her wide-eyed excitement kept bedtime stories fixated on the culture for months.

Eventually it became my first full-length novel, and after dozens of revisions, beta reads, contest entries, the love of a literary agent, winning an award, and a crazy 2020 delay, Moon Daughter Rising is preparing to enter the light at the end of the month!

I’m especially humbled to have won the Idaho Writers League Novel Contest in 2018, where three industry professionals read the synopsis and first chapter and selected Moon Daughter Rising from the entries. The fact that so many recognize the merit of this novel makes me proud and excited.

Blurb:

Annalee’s dad went missing and no one is doing anything about it. 

The police say he abandoned her, but Annalee knows better.  Her aunt and uncle make her promise not to look for him, especially in the woods behind their family cabin for fear she’ll go missing, too. 

When she finds her father’s trail, she breaks a promise and tells a lie, hoping she can save him. Doing so attracts Winpa the abominable ice witch, who chases Annalee into their tribe’s spirit world.  Though she doesn’t know it yet, Annalee holds the third Wonderstone, the only possession her father left behind. The crescent-shaped talisman could give Winpa control over World Above the Sky and the ability to open the ancient ways to the Earth.

Annalee must seek help from an ancient grandmother and her spirit guides to grapple with her newfound moon magic and rescue her father and a grandfather she’s never known from their icy prison. Is she fails, World Above the Sky will fall to Winpa and the gateways will be open for evil spirits to roam Earth. But if she destroys Winpa, her father and grandfather stay locked in ice forever. Outsmarting Winpa will take, courage, honesty, and somehow mastering the power of the Moon Daughter rising within.  

A beautiful weaving of fiction, MicMac tribe legends, and some moral truths we all must face.

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