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 couldn't stop shivering despite the warmth of the Louisiana evening. She still rode the high of her victory over the bullies she despised, but the vision of her brother, crumpled and bleeding, haunted her far more than it should have.


He hated her. She shouldn't care if she hurt him or not. But he was her brother.


   The street was quiet, the mass exodus of unhappy fans, families and students moving off while the opposing team piled into their buses, rowdy in their victory. Alice distinctly felt the opposing pressures, as though the heightened emotions on both sides hung on a scale of balance she was forced to carry.


   Peter nattered on to her, and she responded, though much in the way she often did with BettyÑthrough nods and grunting answers, just enough to keep him satisfied.


Chapter 32: Guilt