NOVELS
I've written two (unpublished) novels, The Crystal Tepee and Fable Tree. Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Winnesopi Falls, both novels' diverse cast of characters grapple with issues of family, race, faith, and the evolution of their community--serious issues, for sure, but not without humor.
How I came to have two unpublished novels is its own saga, admittedly not a very interesting one, but here it is: The Crystal Tepee developed out of my MFA thesis. After revising, submitting to agents, and receiving "encouraging" rejections from said agents, the economic crash of 2008 hit and the agent replies dried up. With the idea for another novel already percolating and my mommy-brain (at that point I had two-year-old twins) needing a new project, I decided to start Fable Tree, a novel whose smaller cast and scope I thought perhaps more marketable. After writing and revising, life hit, and I had to step away from the book in order to attend to family matters. Life and family are still with me, but in more manageable forms; thus, I'm now actively pitching Fable Tree.
Enjoy the following pitches / back-of-the-book summaries:
FABLE TREE
Three misfits come together at Fable Tree, a defunct Midwestern town cum cooperative farm. Polly marries the Reverend Adebimbo thinking she’s found escape from her past as a drug dealer’s wife and, more important, true love. Adebimbo, a wanted man in Nigeria and a former subprime mortgage broker in Miami as well as a self-trained preacher, flees Florida in the wake of the housing collapse to be with Polly, his “heavenly muse" whom he met online. Langston, a Texas ranch hand turned pig inseminator, buys Fable Tree so he can be his own boss and create a rural community where animals “mate as nature intended.” But life at Fable Tree Farm soon proves anything but idyllic.
As Polly and Adebimbo establish The Church of Victorious Redemption, Langston falls for Polly, while Adebimbo’s past—and the danger that comes with it—catches up to him forcing Polly to consider a life on her own—something she’s never had strength for. As old and new faces appear in Fable Tree, all three characters must confront the pains and secrets of their former lives. More so, they must wrestle with repentance and forgiveness if they want their reinvented selves to be their best selves, even if that means risking what they hold dear.
THE CRYSTAL TEPEE
Welcome to Winnesopi Falls, smackdab in the middle of flyover country! It’s 1998 and industrial agriculture is devouring the family farm while the local meatpacking employees are changing colors and languages. Ministering to many of the Mexican and Vietnamese workers is Father Leonard Zednik, a priest with a penchant for bourbon and a predilection for despair. But the day the Virgin Mary appears to him, he hasn’t had a drop to drink. Especially unusual since his church—the heart of the immigrant community—is about to be bulldozed to make way for the Crystal Tepee. The base of this glass structure will house an Indian casino; its apex, a shiny new church, the bishop’s pet project. When Mary tells Father Leonard to fight to save the old church and its neighborhood, he balks: If he doesn’t go along with the Tepee, the bishop has threatened to reveal his secret—that he once fathered a child.
“Nudged” by the Virgin Mary, as well as by his love for his parish and a desire to make up for his past, the reluctant hero and his parishioners fight to save the church, taking on the town’s big shots—the CEO of the meatpacking company, the chief of the Winnesopi Indians, and the mayor. When Mary’s prediction—if the development isn’t stopped, “everyone’s going to be swimming in a lot shit”—seems to come true in the form of a gigantic manure spill in the river, hundreds of pilgrims descend upon Father Leonard’s church crying miracle, while the supporters of the Crystal Tepee cry foul and devise a way to discredit the prediction and destroy the visionary priest. At the same time, orphaned fourteen-year-old Yolanda Mata, who has made the harrowing journey from her narco-overrun pueblo in Mexico to Winnesopi Falls, watches, with ambivalence and boredom, the chaos swirling around the church and its pastor. Yet soon she finds herself not only tangled up in the Crystal Tepee and Father Leonard’s story but also with power to influence their outcomes. As the battle rages, Father Leonard knows he’s risking his secret’s revelation and his reputation’s destruction, but it’s a risk he’s got to take. He’s not just fighting against the Crystal Tepee; he’s fighting for everything and everyone he loves—his chance at redemption.
How I came to have two unpublished novels is its own saga, admittedly not a very interesting one, but here it is: The Crystal Tepee developed out of my MFA thesis. After revising, submitting to agents, and receiving "encouraging" rejections from said agents, the economic crash of 2008 hit and the agent replies dried up. With the idea for another novel already percolating and my mommy-brain (at that point I had two-year-old twins) needing a new project, I decided to start Fable Tree, a novel whose smaller cast and scope I thought perhaps more marketable. After writing and revising, life hit, and I had to step away from the book in order to attend to family matters. Life and family are still with me, but in more manageable forms; thus, I'm now actively pitching Fable Tree.
Enjoy the following pitches / back-of-the-book summaries:
FABLE TREE
Three misfits come together at Fable Tree, a defunct Midwestern town cum cooperative farm. Polly marries the Reverend Adebimbo thinking she’s found escape from her past as a drug dealer’s wife and, more important, true love. Adebimbo, a wanted man in Nigeria and a former subprime mortgage broker in Miami as well as a self-trained preacher, flees Florida in the wake of the housing collapse to be with Polly, his “heavenly muse" whom he met online. Langston, a Texas ranch hand turned pig inseminator, buys Fable Tree so he can be his own boss and create a rural community where animals “mate as nature intended.” But life at Fable Tree Farm soon proves anything but idyllic.
As Polly and Adebimbo establish The Church of Victorious Redemption, Langston falls for Polly, while Adebimbo’s past—and the danger that comes with it—catches up to him forcing Polly to consider a life on her own—something she’s never had strength for. As old and new faces appear in Fable Tree, all three characters must confront the pains and secrets of their former lives. More so, they must wrestle with repentance and forgiveness if they want their reinvented selves to be their best selves, even if that means risking what they hold dear.
THE CRYSTAL TEPEE
Welcome to Winnesopi Falls, smackdab in the middle of flyover country! It’s 1998 and industrial agriculture is devouring the family farm while the local meatpacking employees are changing colors and languages. Ministering to many of the Mexican and Vietnamese workers is Father Leonard Zednik, a priest with a penchant for bourbon and a predilection for despair. But the day the Virgin Mary appears to him, he hasn’t had a drop to drink. Especially unusual since his church—the heart of the immigrant community—is about to be bulldozed to make way for the Crystal Tepee. The base of this glass structure will house an Indian casino; its apex, a shiny new church, the bishop’s pet project. When Mary tells Father Leonard to fight to save the old church and its neighborhood, he balks: If he doesn’t go along with the Tepee, the bishop has threatened to reveal his secret—that he once fathered a child.
“Nudged” by the Virgin Mary, as well as by his love for his parish and a desire to make up for his past, the reluctant hero and his parishioners fight to save the church, taking on the town’s big shots—the CEO of the meatpacking company, the chief of the Winnesopi Indians, and the mayor. When Mary’s prediction—if the development isn’t stopped, “everyone’s going to be swimming in a lot shit”—seems to come true in the form of a gigantic manure spill in the river, hundreds of pilgrims descend upon Father Leonard’s church crying miracle, while the supporters of the Crystal Tepee cry foul and devise a way to discredit the prediction and destroy the visionary priest. At the same time, orphaned fourteen-year-old Yolanda Mata, who has made the harrowing journey from her narco-overrun pueblo in Mexico to Winnesopi Falls, watches, with ambivalence and boredom, the chaos swirling around the church and its pastor. Yet soon she finds herself not only tangled up in the Crystal Tepee and Father Leonard’s story but also with power to influence their outcomes. As the battle rages, Father Leonard knows he’s risking his secret’s revelation and his reputation’s destruction, but it’s a risk he’s got to take. He’s not just fighting against the Crystal Tepee; he’s fighting for everything and everyone he loves—his chance at redemption.