Writing in Progress
On the Rails | A Road Novel Meets Addiction Lit
On the Rails tells the story of Cowboy—inspired by my rebellious and charismatic brother—who at twenty, full of agitation and wanderlust, leaves behind his turbulent childhood to ride freight trains across the country in the 1980s and 90s.
His travels satisfy a thirst for adventure and take him from his small Midwestern town to cities and drug hotels, rail yards and hobo camps, but it’s on his first train rides, in the natural beauty he hurtles through, where he discovers freedom and peace. Eventually, swayed by depression and drink, he finds himself in rehab, prison, or on the run. A chance encounter with a woman and her young son turns his life around for a time, though alcoholism will overpower love and send him spiraling. In his darkest hour, he hops a train toward the Chickasaw Nation in Ada, Oklahoma—where he is an enrolled, though disconnected, citizen—uncertain what lies ahead and if he will find hope or hell, life or death.
Epic and intimate, heartbreaking and infuriating, On the Rails is a page-turner about Cowboy’s quest to follow his nomadic nature, live an honest life, and find someone to love, especially himself. Interwoven with journal entries from his sister, it’s a story of family, self-discovery, and forgiveness and explores the contradictions of having a home or wandering, belonging or being free.
The Morning Star | A Historical Novel
In the winter of 1918, Dr. Lorne Miller ponders a medical mystery. A young farm boy had knocked on his office door, his parents dying. Then, two more young men unexpectedly died. Boys their age were dying in the mud on the western front of the Great War, not on the plains of Kansas. Confounded by the growing threat before him, Lorne makes a decision he will regret the rest of his life. Seeking salvation, he pursues a vaccine for what he believes is a novel strain of influenza and finds himself embroiled in a public health crisis, power struggles, and politics.
Meanwhile, in defiance, his spirited daughter Helen joins the army to serve as a nurse on the front lines of World War I. Months later, aboard the ship she sails for France, Helen discovers influenza among the troops and knows the contagion has spread. Caught between her desire for independence and a budding romance with one of her patients, she struggles to balance love with duty.
Alternately narrated by Lorne and Helen, father and daughter rely on purpose—a shared commitment to saving lives—and family to find comfort during grief and persevere in the midst of war and disease.
I first became interested in the 1918 influenza pandemic during the 2009 swine flu outbreak. Learning scientists believed the 1918 pandemic originated in my home state of Kansas further hooked me. Though my research and writing of this novel took place some ten years prior to 2020, its coincidence with our own pandemic and exploration of vaccine development and the plight of frontline healthcare workers is eerily prescient. But, though the story feels familiar (strange symptoms, rapid deaths, and the need for a vaccine), it is safely set over 100 years ago, allowing readers to learn how science and public health systems have evolved, but grief, fear, censorship, and politics remain similar.