Passion Projects
You’ve got the work that pays the bills, and then you’ve got the work that doesn’t even feel like “work.” From feature-length screenplays to a yet-unpublished novel, here’s a glimpse into the creative writing endeavors that keep me up at night.
“poppet”
a pg-13 horror feature
All Sarah wants is the spotlight. Instead, she ends up as the stage manager for her high school theater’s fall production of “The Crucible.” Undermined by the cast and undervalued by the theater director, she fades hopelessly into the shadows.
That is, until cast members start getting sudden unexplained injuries — a nail to the stomach, a fork to the eye. Accusations fly. Does Sarah hold more power than she realizes? A horror written in the contemporary comedic vein of BODIES BODIES BODIES with a touch of THE CRAFT’S supernatural revenge, POPPET is a modern witch hunt made for anyone who never got a callback.
Complete at 111 pages and rated PG-13, POPPET is registered with The Writer’s Guild of America, West.
Learn more about POPPET and request to read it on…
Awards for POPPET:
“THRUM”
A Young adult novel
In February 2022, I quit my full-time job of four years to leap into the unknown: finish and attempt to publish the YA novel I’d been slowly chugging away at for a year and a half. THRUM, a novel of 82,000 words, is a coming-of-age story that explores the heartbreak and tenacity of female friendship.
15-year old Katie has taken to wandering the school's grounds at night as a means of combating her insomnia. As she navigates the intricate social cues of her sophomore year, Katie struggles to repress the painful memories of her hometown, and the family she left behind.
All too quickly, Katie's best friend and roommate, Megan, discovers her illicit nighttime adventures. Usually the alpha of their duo, Megan is determined to join in on the fun — but when both girls encounter an older man on the beach one night, beyond school boundaries, their seemingly unbreakable bond is put to the test by lust, drugs, and secrets.
THRUM captures a very specific moment in time, an age when tweens are on the cusp of adulthood, and establishing one's independence may mean leaving a friendship behind. It also explores the nuances of a first crush, as THRUM's protagonist Katie struggles with her own sexual identity and how it relates to her evolving relationship with Megan. Will she navigate these turbulent waters, or slip under the relentless surf?
Development:
I’d started the novel during a UCLA Extension course in September 2021 entitled “Write a Novel in 10 Weeks,” led by author Tempany Deckert. After the culmination of that course, I went on to take a subsequent class with Tempany and a smaller group of authors, where we worked to refine our second drafts. This concluded in May 2021, leaving me with about 150 pages of a novel and a fantastic group of peers with which to share the highs and lows of writing fiction.
As you might imagine, trying to complete a novel while also balancing a full-time job was not as easy as I initially anticipated. I finally decided to give 100% of my energy to completing the book, which led me to leave Tastemade in early 2022.
Many drafts later, my debut YA novel is finished! Feel free to reach out to me for a lengthier synopsis or the first 20 pages.
PLAYWRITING
My interest in creative writing began in the theatre. I’ve written a handful of plays, both in collaboration with other playwrights and on my own. Here’s a quick overview of some of my work:
Co-author of “What Happened to Where I’ve Been,” an experimental serio-comedy by The Attic Collective which premiered at Son of Semele Theater in January 2017 as part of Son of Semele's Company Creation Festival
Wrote a one-act play in The Echo Theater’s 2019 Playwright’s Studio, led by acclaimed playwright Wesley Walker
Wrote full-length play “Recruitment,” which was staged at The Attic Theatre by SKITCo. Theatre in 2012