Novel Proposal - St. Zita's Tears

Author note - This novel is currently being rewritten - I expect to have the new version ready by December.

A priest drowns in his own bathtub, a subject overlooked by all the media except for the sensationalist tabloid newspaper the Herald Bagatelle. Reporter NAN McHOUGH is sent to investigate the drowning and to write a leading news article on the event. What she finds is that the priest was murdered.

Her investigation into the case places McHough and her new family in personal danger. She is aided in investigation by SHERYL HOWARD, another Bagatelle reporter, and GABBY, a young Hispanic woman.

Her boss LEE BURKE suffers a heart attack and is replaced by MIKE MILLS, a British hard line conservative journalist – whose intent is to rid the Bagatelle newsroom of slackers like McHough and Howard.

McHough finds that she must work outside the news paper in order to explore the underbelly of the crime. The villains plot to destroy church credibility also turns on Nan, who relies on her faith to see her though to the end.

Read a scene from St. Zita's Tears

Novel Proposal - Willie's Requiem

Drug lords are running a processing plant in the ocean side tourist town of Saint James. Newspaper reporter NAN McHOUGH stumbles upon the case while writing a human interest story of a local citizen who was run over by a mule. McHough works with a local detective and love interest until he is murdered by local gangsters. Now, she has two stories to investigate. LEE BURKE, her editor continually pushes her to write a high profile story. BOLGER JONES, an elderly pseudo-doorman of the building in which she works, becomes her confidant and supporter.

MANNY MANINA, a photographer working as a stringer for the newspaper, an elderly Christian woman, and an off beat preacher all work as support for her efforts which carry her across the worst parts of the city and encounters with some of the marginal people of the town.

Her investigations begin to get too close to the criminals and she finds herself framed and in jail for the very things she is investigating. While in jail she is befriended by a partner of her former boyfriend. Also, during this time she begins to rediscover her faith in God, and though a series of happenstance comes face to face with her belief.

Eventually, she becomes a personal aid of Minina’s aunt. ROSA MININA is an elderly blind woman who takes McHough into her home during McHough’s lowest times. Based in the Minina home she is able to investigate the drug ring and find evidence that leads to a major twist in the case.

A new love interest develops for McHough, and with her new life in the church she begins to see a brighter side to life.

Read a scene from Willie's Requiem

Novel Proposal - A Crepe Heart

A jumbo jet explodes over the island of St. Martin. Terrorists, the leaders of new world order, are flexing their muscles and have randomly selected a flight bound for New York as their target. MARGARET GARRIS, wife of corporate retiree CHARLES GARRIS is aboard the fated aircraft when it crashes. Garris watches the event in horror from the airport window. He is saved from the same fate by the quick thinking of two French travelers.

MAURICE and JACQUES, are working to re-establish the Christian Church in France, after the overthrow of the French government, and the resulting banning of Christian teachings or gatherings. Maurice and Jacques select Garris to join their group in the new French Underground movement. In the confusion of the airport they manage to smuggle Garris aboard their flight bound for Paris. The flight is diverted to Bordeaux, which catapults Garris into the hands of Spanish Christians who take him to a monastery where he recovers and mourns his wife.

Garris’s daughter, MONIQUE, a student resident in France, is summoned to the monastery where her father is being held; and then with her father and others she rides (horseback) across to the mountains to a secret chalet. Later, she and her father along with a former COUNTESS work with Maurice and Jacques to recruit people back into the Christian movement. Monique is kidnapped by the “order,” and Garris, along with his friends, begin a trek across France, Belgium, and Northern Spain to find her. An informational lead takes Garris and Maurice diagonally across France only to find that the woman they save is not Monique, and that the woman is part of a plot to capture members of the church movement.

The plot by the “order” to trap Garris, fails only when Garris is again rescued by Jacques and escapes into the mountains of southern France. From hideouts and friendly locations he manages to encourage and recruit members of a new church. At every turn, however, members of opposition attempt to trap and persecute church members. A price is even put on the head of Garris.

Garris, Maurice, Jacques, and the Countess play a psychological cat and mouse game with agents and others attempting to undermine the Christian’s work while crossing the countryside establishing new churches and in search of Monique.

When Monique is found she is injured but not broken and becomes instrumental in establishing the new Christian Church in a free state. Though the forces of the world are against them, they vow to fight on until once again the name of Christ is raised in all the land.

Read a scene from A Crepe Heart

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