My mother read to me--stacks and stacks of books--and she took dictation as I made up stories. Later, when I could write for myself, I wrote scripts for backyard plays, poems, and short stories. I wrote my first novel, a medieval adventure, while in the 6th grade, firmly believing that it would be published. It was not. At an impressionable age, I saw the film version of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". When Big Daddy spoke of mendacity, I recognized my calling. To cope with an alcoholic father, my own Big Daddy, and the attendant craziness, I wrote in secret about secrets. In one way or another, the main characters of my novels and plays have trouble with authority figures, and their lives are entangled with intrigue and injustice in a Southern gothic world.

My plays have been produced in the Unitied States and Europe, and include Mossy Cape, based on Southern folklore, and The Little Death, set in 1880's New Orleans. My published novels are What Remains, an historical mystery; Juliette Ascending, a young adult historical set during the 1874 Mardi Gras; and Women of Magdalene, an historical novel set in post-Civil War Louisiana.

I'm a member of the Historical Novel Society and Mystery Writers of America.

I'm scheduled to be a panelist at the Louisiana Book Festival on November 3, 2007, in Baton Rouge, presenting my newest novel, Women of Magdalene.

Tales of the Southern Gothic
Novels, plays, articles, and events

Kunati Inc.
Publisher of my new release, Women of Magdalene