Recent and Upcoming Publications

“A Better Man,” a moody domestic mystery of sorts, has found a home at Cutleaf Journal. The editors added gorgeous artwork by 19th-century artist Philip Henry Gosse.

I wrote a reflection on the connections between trad wives, fascism, and homemade bread in “The Coup and the Loaf,” published in March 2023 by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for 21st Century Studies.

You can play around with my new poetic form, the atari, by reading some examples here, at BrainMill Press’s site.

My short story, “The Doorman,” from my unpublished collection, American Bittersweet: Short Stories, appears in Fire & Water, an anthology of literary climate fiction from Black Lawrence Press. The story features a magical realism vibe and a cast of wild animals!

You can read “Wiseacres,” another story from American Bittersweet at the Wisconsin People & Ideas site, because that little beauty came in 2nd place in their fiction contest. Check it out!

I also have a poem and a little essay in a queer Midwestern anthology called Sweeter Voices Still, from Belt Publishing. It’s available from the publisher.

Milwaukee Noir

I’ve got a story, “Cousins,” in the Milwaukee Noir installment of Akashic Books’ acclaimed “city noir” series. I was absolutely thrilled to be invited to write about my beloved city again. In the case of “Cousins,” I’m writing about Silver City, the near-South Side neighborhood, part of which I represented for eight years on the school board. I bent the traditional hyper-hetero/cis gender noir genre for this story: The protagonists are a gay woman and her trans* cousin.

On that note: Here’s an invitation to all of you writers to say “yes” whenever possible. If you know my writing, you know that I LOVE a happy ending. I’m a tender-hearted creature-writer who must be prodded to let my characters suffer. The noir genre, with its violence and sordid underbelly-ness, is far from my natural instincts. But I said “yes” when editor Tim Hennessy asked me to contribute a story to the Milwaukee Noir collection, because I believe in stretching myself as much as possible as a writer—and I love Milwaukee. “Darkness?!” I thought. “I don’t write darkness!” But apparently, I do. And then something even more amazing happened …

Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers

Legendary novelist and short story writer (and fellow Milwaukee-lover), Joyce Carol Oates, asked me to contribute a story to another Akashic noir collection: Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers. I’m sweating as I type this because the other contributors include Aimee Bender, Margaret Atwood, Edwidge Danticat, and Valerie Martin. My story, “The Boy Without a Bike,” enlists another gay female protagonist in some “trailer park noir.” The book was published in November 2019 and you can get a copy from Akashic Books or your local, independent bookseller!

 Virtual Author Visit to Your Book Club

If your book club, community organization, workplace, church, school, or other group commits to reading Meet Me Halfway, I will make a Virtual Author Visit to your group (via Zoom, Skype, Google, FaceTime, etc.) — for free! Just let me know via the contact form on this site and we’ll make a plan.

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