I have done a fair amount of creative writing, in prose, verse, and drama.
My award-winning Young Adult series, Rosi’s Doors, has seen three volumes so far.
When Rosi Carol Moved To The Castle, She Learned That It Was Haunted
_____
By Her!!
The Carols Have Always Lived In The Castle
I Rosi’s Castle
Orphaned, Rosi Carol is sent to live with her mysterious Uncle Richard in his eerie castle on the New England coast. Rosi feels even more of an outcast when she discovers the townspeople believe the Carol family has some kind of magical hold over New Richmond.
II Rosi’s Time
Book II of the Rosi's Doors: Rosi Carol has managed to settle into her Uncle Richard’s New England castle, despite having her family’s so-called gift thrust upon her.
When she and her friends are dragged through a time portal into the past, Rosi must determine not only where they are but when they are and how to return home. If there is any home to go back to.
III Rosi’s Company
Thrust into the past, young Time Guardian Rosi Carol must rally a group of fugitives and friends during a British invasion of New England during the Revolutionary War. Outnumbered and outgunned, Rosi must marshal all of her wits and experience to reverse the course of events. Can she restore the timeline, saving herself and her few remaining friends? Can she find a way home?
For those of you interested in reading excerpts from any of the Rosi’s Doors book, please check out my page at Dragonfly Publishing and follow the links.
You can, of course, join the Rosi’s Castle page on Facebook.
Trailers for the Rosi Books can be found on Youtube. Sara Ferry and I made this one as well as this one. My publisher commissioned this one.
I am a playwright. Playwriting was one of my focuses at the University of Richmond. I was at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center - I studied directing and playwriting there; I also participated in and was a guest lecturer at the National Critics Institute.
Most recently, my play First Love Last Love was produced by the Needham Community Theatre (a video can be seen here). The MIT Shakespeare Ensemble did a production of Hector and Achilles. Orpheus and Eurydice was produced at the University of Nizwa, in Oman. The Ubiquity Theatre of Boston staged Elizabeth Bathory.
You can also read Giants Fall, then follow-up play to Hector and Achilles and my verse novella, Toh’s Saga, which was inspired by Cosmos, by Carl Sagan.
Some of my short stories can be found on my WordPress page.
My wife is not my only fan. Several of my works have received awards:
The 2015 New England Book Festival recognized:
Giants Fall 2nd Place, Poetry
Elizabeth Bathory Honorable Mention, Wild Card
The 2014 New England Book Festival recognized:
Rosi’s Company Honorable Mention, Young Adult Fiction
Toh’s Saga Honorable Mention, Poetry
The 2014 Readers Favorite Book Award Contest recognized:
Hector and Achilles Finalist, Poetry
The 2013 New England Book Festival recognized:
Rosi’s Castle 1st Place, Young Adult Fiction
Hector and Achilles 2nd Place, Poetry
The 2013 Beach Book Festival recognized:
Rosi’s Time 1st Place, General Fiction
The 2013 Hollywood Book Festival recognized:
Rosi’s Time Honorable Mention, Young Adult Fiction
The 2012 New England Book Festival recognized:
Rosi’s Time 2nd Place, Young Adult
Orpheus and Eurydice Honorable Mention, Poetry
The 2012 Readers Favorite Book Award Contest recognized:
Rosi’s Castle Silver Medal (2nd Place), Young Adult - Fantasy-Sci-fi
Reviews
First Love, Last Love
Readers Favorite found First Love, Last Love to be enthralling and awarded it five stars.
Toh’s Saga
The Long and Short saw Toh’s Saga as a “must read” which was just as thrilling the second time around.
Hector and Achilles
Gail Wickman at Reader’s Favorite Book Reviews found Hector and Achilles to be a beautiful, powerful, and rewarding read. There are even a couple of glowing reviews on Amazon. More can be found online; I will find the links and post them here.
Orpheus and Eurydice
Reader’s Favorite Book Reviews’ Tania Staley has some very nice things to say about Orpheus and Eurydice, as do a few others on Amazon.
Rosi’s Time
Lit Amri, over at Readers Favorite Book Reviews, found Rosi’s Time to be “exceptional” and witty and Rosi Carol to be an “incredibly well received female protagonist.” The reviewer felt that the book wold be interesting to adults as well as to young adults.
Writer Laura Seeber has given Rosi’s Doors Book 2, Rosi’s Time, a glowing review on her blog, Emerald Musings. She found both books to be immersive and refreshing. Mallory Anne-Marie Forbes felt the same, as can be seen in her review at Mallory Heart Reviews.
Mirta Espinola, on her blog, Turn the Page, had some very nice things to say about both Rosi’s Castle and Rosi’s Time.
Rosi’s Castle
Katherine Petersen, from FreshBooks has written a very nice review indeed of Rosi's Castle. She especially liked the town, the mystery, and the blend of reality and fantasy.
Lorraine Carey gave me a glowing review on Readers Favorite Book Reviews, saying that I was a master at setting the stage with great descriptive wording.
J. A. Beard has posted a review of Rosi’s Castle on the Last Draft Editing review page, “My indie, my tea and me.” His review can also be found on the Amazon page for the Kindle edition where it received 4 stars. Beard enjoyed the “twists and turns...[and] surprises,” felt the mystery was engaging, and found Rosi’s Castle to be “an enjoyable young adult fantasy and a good start to what looks to be an interesting trilogy.
There have also been a couple of nice (five-star) readers’ reviews on the Amazon page for the paperback. They have found it sometimes ‘funny,’ sometimes ‘spooky,’ and a “fun read full of mystery, adventure and intrigue. One reader even thinks they should make a movie out of it. I think a television series like True Blood would serve the story better.
A couple of nice 5-star reviews have popped on on Goodreads, especially one that says that I show a “sparkling and surprising insight into the mind of a teenage girl.”
I have also done a fair amount of noncreative writing:
Academic
Multiple Entries. Block, Marcelline, ed. World Film Locations: Boston. Intellect, LTD (March 2014)
Multiple Entries (“Dungeons and Dragons,” “GI Joe”, “Doom,” “Chasing Liberty,” “Hannibal Rising,” “The Illusionist”) Block, Marcelline, ed. World Film Locations: Prague. Intellect, LTD. (November 2013)
“Spain in the Theatre of London, 1588-1605: An Exploration of Popular Sentiment." International Journal of Arts and Sciences, October 2010 – Peer Reviewed
"Divide and Conquer: the Parts of The Memoirs of the Decorators; a New Analysis" Selected Papers – CPRACSIS – Accepted (2010)
“Hamlet and His Women: A Study of Four Films.” West Virginia University Philological Papers 45 (1999): 47-55. [Special Issue—Language into Light: The Written Word Becomes Cinema] – Peer Reviewed
“The Memoirs of the Decorators”: Analyzed, Annotated, and Rendered into English. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI (1998)
Online
“On the Writer as Historian.” The Brian M. Haydon Blog
“Self Analysis, Intent, and the Writer; or, my Fight with Vanya.” Great Minds Think Aloud Literary Community.
“Alienation, Isolation, Technology, and Literature,” FreshFiction.
Reviews
“Review of Winds of War and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk.”
"Review of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol" The Review Centre.
Journalism/Criticism
Critic Fellow (1998) National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center
Travel Editorialist (1988) Mon Valley Revue, WV
Theatre Critic (1986) The Middlesex News, Framingham, MA
Various and Sundry Newspaper Articles and Reviews
