From some of my manuscripts
Picture Books!
From HOW TO DO ALMOST ANYTHING (picture book)
There may be a thing you wish you could do.
There are things I wish that I could do too.
I wish I could jump, just leap up and fly.
I wish I could jump as high as the sky.
I wish I could run as fast as a cat.
As fast as a tiger. Imagine that!
I wish I could swim as long as a fish.
Holding my breath, my tail going swish.
From I WAS SO MAD (picture book)
When I woke up today I was so mad.
There didn’t have to be a reason because there were a million reasons.
So many reasons to be mad that I couldn’t even say a single one out loud
It’s very hard to get dressed when you’re mad. Something always goes wrong.
I was much too mad to eat breakfast. Who wants the same old cereal, anyway?
Mom turned on my favorite TV show to cheer me up. It didn’t work.
Dad tried his special tickle spots to cheer me up. It didn’t work.
Even the puppy tried to cheer me up. It didn’t work. I was still mad.
Obviously, I was too mad to go outside. Besides, it rained yesterday and it’s probably all muddy
Chapter Books!
From Boys from Mars (chapter book)
Chapter 1 - Mean Dean
“I hate this day.” That was all Malia could come up with. She plopped down at the kitchen table and dropped her backpack with a thud.
Malia’s mom was leaning on the kitchen counter, dishtowel in hand, watching her daughter’s face. “Hate? That sounds really bad. Tell me about it.”
“Oh, I can tell you about it with one word,” Malia said, “Mean Dean.”
Of course, that was two words, but whatever. Malia wasn’t counting. She was fuming.
“I don’t remember anyone named Dean in your class.” Malia’s mom tilted her head with the question.
Dean was new. Nobody knew where he came from because he was so mean nobody wanted to talk to him. Malia wondered if he was from Mars. Mean Dean from Mars.
Chapter 2 - Boys From Mars
Malia’s mom scrunched her eyebrows. It’s a mom thing. They do that when they want a better explanation.
“Well, he’s really mean.” Malia tried to explain to her mom how horrible Mean Dean was. She told her about Dean taking all the markers they were supposed to share. Like if anyone else used them, they would be ruined. Dean was the one ruining them...with his Mars germs.
Now Malia’s mom made the “go on” face. That’s when grown-ups lift their eyebrows the other way, really high. Yep, that means “go on.”
So, Malia went on. She told her mom about Mean Dean bumping her chair and not saying sorry. And about Mean Dean jumping off the swings at recess and running away the second Malia got to them.
“I think he’s from MARS” Malia finally said.
“That doesn’t sound like a Mars boy,” her mom said, “it sounds like an Earth boy.”
Well, that wasn’t the worst of Mean Dean from Mars...
...She’d just have to figure out what to do about Mean Dean from Mars on her own.
Young Adult
From TRIBE
I have something really important to talk to you about.
It was the last text she got from her boyfriend. Her soul-mate. The one person in the entire world who got her, understood her, and loved every bizarre thing about her.
He hit send and then the SUV that was crossing at the intersection he was blowing through against the light hit him.
Part I
The Inadequacy of Fairness
Here are 5 things to know about me:
1. I’m 17. So almost an adult. But not really.
2. I live with my mom and dad in a house that is in desperate need of remodel
3. We just moved here. Not from far. But it may as well be.
4. I have a conditional, early acceptance letter from Stanford Department of Mathematics
5. I have a boyfriend. Well, I did. He died. It’s complicated.