Publications

SHORT STORIES

“Sophronae Snafua” in Misspelled-Magic Gone Awry by Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing, LLC, November 2021. An out-of-practice, hard-of-hearing,  fairy godmother attempts to conjure up a prince for her goddaughter.

“Killer Fashion” in Asinine Assassins by Smart Rhino Publications, August 2021. A fashion conscious young woman joins the family business.

“Who Let the Llamas Out?” in Crimeucopia – As In Funny Ha-Ha, Or Just Peculiar by Murderous Ink Press, July 2021. Would-be-thieves open the cages at the local zoo to distract the police from their real objective. What could go wrong?

“Little Old Ladies from Pasadena” in Peace, Love, and Crime by Untreed Reads, November 2020. Three little old ladies decide to knock over a bank.

“The Cougar“ in Kings River Life, October 3, 2020. Younger men shouldn’t mess with older women.

“Aumakua“ in Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder by Wildside Press, September 2020. Did the missionary die at the hands of a Hawaiian or the spirit of King Kamehameha reaching out from the grave?

“Bitch and Chips“ in BOULD* Awards 2019 Short Story Anthology edited by Jake Devlin, November, 2019. Murder in a world of biosensor implants.

“Cold Snap“ in BOULD* Awards 2019 Short Story Anthology edited by Jake Devlin, November, 2019. Does a robot care when it’s about to be killed?

“An Extinction of Dodos“ in A Murder of Crows by Darkhouse Books, October, 2019. Will an attempt to resurrect the dodo lead to more deaths?

“Stark Raven Mad“ in Over My Dead Body, September, 2018. Brainy bird bear witness to a crime.

“The Bitterroots“ in Kings River Life, May 20, 2017. Jake is tired of Alicia and wants to dump her … off a cliff.

“Gold Rush to Judgement“ in The Copperfield Review, May, 2017.  The murder of a young woman in 1865 puts the townspeople of an isolated Idaho mining town on edge. And then the bitter cold and snow arrive.

“Whiteout“ in Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning! by Wildside Press, 2016. Olympic skier Erik Rotter, beloved by women and despised by their husbands, is murdered on the slopes of Sun Valley Ski Resort.

“Hot Tea And A Drone“ in Mystery Weekly, February 2016. Mad at the Hatter, who will kill him first: Tweedledum, the Queen of Hearts, or a March Hare?

“Heartfelt“ in Mystery Times by Buddhapuss Ink, 2015. A man dies from multiple shocks by his cardiac defibrillator. Was it a faulty implant or was it murder?

“Vehicular Homicide” in The Ghoul’s Review: Summer/Fall 2015. The owner of a driver-less car is under investigation when her vehicle commits vehicular homicide? Who tampered with the vehicle’s accident avoidance software … and why? No longer available online.

BOOKS

Kicking Grass Taking Games

In 1971, fewer than 270,000 girls in the U.S. participated in high school athletics, and not a single school offered girls’ soccer. The passage of Title IX in 1972 heralded a sea change in sports and girls flooded the soccer fields across the country. Women born too early to receive the full benefits of Title IX refused to stay on the sidelines. They took to the field to play soccer and discovered a new passion that has endured into their fifties, sixties, and beyond. How did they come to play such a demanding sport? What were the challenges of learning the game, establishing teams and leagues, and finding fields? What were their experiences as coaches, referees, and administrators in the male-dominated soccer establishment? And now of an age when joints ache, vision has deteriorated, and running is painful, why are so many of them still playing? This is their story, in their words.

With Murder You Get Sushi

Emma Jones, IT consultant, corpse magnet, and sometime sleuth doesn’t realize her assignment in Hawai‘i will be such a blast until a car bomb deposits Yet Another Stiff in her path: Greg Walker, a loathsome Lothario and despised real estate developer. Suspects abound, including a former Miss Lentil Beauty queen and the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Complicating Emma’s investigation is a parade of visitors to Hawaii: her boyfriend, Keoni; her best gal pal, Stacey; and her mother, armed with enough self-defense gizmos to hold off King Kamehameha’s army. Paradise, it seems, abounds with evil. (Remember Eve and the snake?) Menacing notes and threatening tails have Emma taking evasive action, while the endless conspiracy theories of Edvard, a paranoid coworker, have her seeing “Them” at every turn. Will Emma’s snooping and shoot-from-the-hip interrogations bring the killer to justice, or just to ice her?

Denial of Service

Most definitely not a private investigator, detective, beat cop, sidekick or girlfriend of any of the above, Emma Jones nonetheless has an alarming penchant for close encounters of the corpse kind. This time, she finds peace activist Laguna Butterfield pierced with a protest placard – three days after Emma’s landlady Magda threatened to kill her. Whether she is infiltrating the anti-war Lime-O group to track down Laguna’s killer, consulting at a recently devoured – er, acquired – candy company, or surfing in shark-infested waters, Emma faces the angry and aggrieved at every turn. Even her ‘ipo (sweetie) Keoni is aggressively advocating for Hawaiian sovereignty. Sometimes, saving a friend from a truly heinous orange jumpsuit requires becoming a fashion victim yourself. Emma prays that wearing lime green is the worst that happens – this time around.

Emma Jones, a 20-something IT consultant, is working on an outsourcing project at Tahiti Tacos, a restaurant chain offering Polynexican cuisine – refried poi, anyone? Emma despises her boss Padmanabh, a brilliant but arrogant partner in GD Consulting. When Emma discovers His-Royal-Padness’s body (verdict: death by cricket bat), she becomes a suspect. 

With her overprotective family and her best friend Stacey providing endless support and advice, Emma stumbles her way through an investigation of Padmanabh’s murder, bolstered by fusion food feeding frenzies, endless cups of frou-frou coffee and serious surfing sessions. While Stacey knows a PI who owes her a favor, landlady Magda urges Emma to tart up her underwear drawer before the next cute cop with a search warrant arrives. Emma’s mother fixes her up with a PhD student at Berkeley and showers her with self-defense gizmos while her old lover Keoni beckons from Hawai‘i. And everyone, even Shaun the barista, knows a good lawyer.