I’m an international, multiple award-winning author with a passion for the voices in my head. As a singer, songwriter, independent filmmaker and improv teacher and performer, my life has always been about creating and sharing what I create with others. Now that my dream to write for a living is a reality, with over a hundred titles in happy publication and no end in sight, I live in beautiful Prince Edward Island, Canada, with my giant cats, pug overlord and overlady and my Gypsy Vanner gelding, Fynn.

Début

The world struggles around It, a back and forth seesaw of demand and denial. It flops inside its box as the world spins, turned upside down. One of the shining, pearl-topped pins jabs Its leg. The pain is a shock. But It is unable to do anything about the agony. Gravity lets go and It floats for what seems an eternity before crashing into something hard.

The box remains intact, at least. Its home, Its safe haven.

Still, It has no fear, only confusion and need. Where is the girl in whose image It was created?

Silence. Darkness. Waiting.

All the while, the pin. And the pain. On and on forever.

Alice isn't popular. Alice isn't pretty. Alice isn't likable--at least, that's what she's been told most of her life. Moving to a new town hasn't helped any, not with her nasty brother torturing her almost daily and her too-cool, uber-popular cousin making her life miserable. When Alice finds an old doll in her grandmother's attic, she feels an unusual connection to it. She just can't bring herself to feel bad when horrible things start happening to the people who are cruel to her...

Pins and Needles

Alice liberated an old purse from her meager store of personal possessions and slid the doll into it, followed by a printed sheet of the writing she made when her mother ran for coffee. In all the happenings of the day, Alice almost forgot her pending trip to see her grandmother, but after she sat down to attempt to do some homework, the sight of the file with the writing in it reminded her.


   She descended the stairs with her two secrets tucked into the cracking vinyl, knowing Betty's old cast-off purse had seen better days, but thinking her backpack would be too bulky to bring with her. Alice paused at the bottom, clutching the strap. What would happen when she set the doll in Grace's hands? Or asked her to read the words written on the page?


   Betty let out a little shriek as she rushed from her office and almost ran right into Alice. She took in the purse before a frown creased her forehead. "Where are you going?"


Chapter 25: The Visit