Kirkus: “Sublime beauty in painstaking portraits”
When I sit down to write, confidence is rarely my companion. Self-doubt snuggles up like a tired old puppy: “Pet me. I’m insatiable.” I’ve had lots of practice now in…
The Twists and Turns of a Writing Journey
Many, many thanks to the The Hyacinth Review for featuring an interview with me. It was a treat to talk with Ariel Moniz about the difficulties and delights of getting…
Edison Library Welcomes Mary Ann McGuigan
EDISON, NJ – Join local author Mary Ann McGuigan as she chats about the challenges, surprises, and rewards that come along with building a literary career later in life at an upcoming…
A Reading & Talk in Metuchen
I hope you’ll join me at Metuchen Public Library on Tuesday, October 28, from 7 to 8 pm. I’ll be reading an excerpt from That Very Place and giving a…
Best of the Net
I learned last week that Reckon Review has nominated my creative nonfiction piece “Family Rituals” for Sundress Publications’ Best of the Net in Nonfiction. The Best of the Net is an…
Read “The Last Days of School” in Argyle
The wisest, most sensible response to a troubled and risky situation is to remove yourself from it any way you can. In “The Last Days of School,” one of my…
A book is born!
My second collection of short stories, That Very Place, was officially released by Unsolicited Press on September 9. For me, having a book released is a little like sending your…
Meet Keira. She’s learning the cost of a dream.
Keira is sixteen and she wants to be a dancer. A ballet dancer. But that takes training and training costs money, which her mother doesn’t have. They can’t afford to…
Meet Alan. He’s about to discover the unexpected.
Alan is a young man from an upper-middle-class family, a reluctant student at New York University, and a lost soul. Because he doesn’t know who he is anymore. All his…
Saying what they don’t want to know
Some things are hard to talk about—especially with a parent. For some teenagers, talking is beyond hard. It’s dangerous. Because the subject is forbidden. There’s too much at stake. In…
Meet Dearnon. His world is about to change.
Marty Dearnon owns a convenience store of sorts, about three hours from Laramie, Wyoming. When he bought it six years ago, it was his pride and joy. “He’d polished the…
The Cost of Words Unspoken
“The cost of words unspoken” can bankrupt us, trap us in unending regret. For Dearnon, the shop owner in “The Broken Place,” the tentacles of regret have spread to every…