I'm never done!

I am an impassioned re-writer. Even now, with Max and Menna in print, and in my hands, I occasionally think of things I would have changed, would do differently, want to add, how to make it better, etc.

So, I don't pretend to be a writing expert by any stretch, but what I do know is this. At some point, it's got to be done. Write it. Read it. Edit it. Read it again. Edit it again. Put it away for a while. Ask a person or two to read it. Edit it based on their feedback. Give it a few more days. Read it one last time, edit it again, call it done!

And so, in that vein, I am debuting novel #2. It's done. I've said it was done before. I've read it and rewritten it again. This time it is done! Done, done, done! So here is the synopsis... and I am working on some possibilities for getting it in print. I will keep you posted on that. This is what Don't Wake Up is all about.

 Told from the perspective of Gillian, a plain, middle-aged woman, this story opens as she sits by the side of her comatose husband’s bed. As doctors and nurses rush to assure her that Ricky will recover well from this mysterious fall, Gillian muses over the years of cold silence and manipulation that have overshadowed their marriage, and her life.



While Gillian guiltily reveals that she hopes Ricky remains in his coma, leaving her to a delightfully empty house, his eyes open to reveal a man who claims to remember nothing of his former self. Gillian, convinced that this is only a furthering of the manipulations and cruel mind games that have filled most of her life, seeks to test this new Ricky. She invents a family they never had, and fills his head with stories of an imaginary life.


As she fabricates memories to give to this stranger husband, Gillian begins to reminisce about her sister Liza. The story of her Liza’s exodus from Gillian’s life unfolds in tandem with Ricky’s recovery, and holes in Gillian’s version of events become evident. How could a man so cold awaken so warm and caring? Why do the events leading up to Liza’s leaving continue to surface in her mind as she carries on an increasingly intricate charade?


As Ricky recovers and comes home, still sans his full memory, Gillian begins to question the validity of his illness, and subsequently the depravity of her actions. Constantly buoyed by memories of their loveless marriage, she progresses down a path that leaves her more and more resembling the deplorable man she describes in old Ricky. As new Ricky becomes increasingly soft and tender, Gillian must ask herself how far she will go to punish a man for sins he can’t remember committing.