I am delighted to announce that SORRY CAKES, my new project (literary women’s fiction) has been awarded finalist status for the Pacific Northwest Writers Association fiction competition. Award ceremony will take place during the annual writers conference (Seattle, September 19-22nd). A little info about the novel:

SORRY CAKES will appeal to readers who were moved by Mabel in Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child, warmed to Olive in Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, and relished Zora’s Jazz Age escapades in Noelle Salazar’s The Roaring Days of Zora Lily.

SORRY CAKES alternates between one week in 1953 and flashbacks from 1914 – 1920. The story begins in 1953. Judyth (49) is good at keeping secrets. There is one in particular that she holds dear: a daughter. No one knows about her, or Judyth’s long-ago forays into Chicago where she frequented jazz clubs, danced the Fox Trot, the Castlewalk, and the Tango. Fifteen and in love with a university boy she meets in Chicago, Judyth falls pregnant. The child’s father refuses to marry her, and a ruinous fate awaits if anyone learns of her illegitimate daughter. She hides the pregnancy, then enters a home for unwed mothers, where the child is adopted. Judyth turns inward and wary of emotional intimacy.

Thirty-five years later, Judyth suppresses the memories of her daughter and the guilt associated with her lost child and wild youth. Married with a grown son, she is content with her life, until her son shows up on her doorstep and leaves his six-year-old daughter behind. The child has stopped talking for no apparent reason. Her granddaughter’s ghost-like presence and the sudden appearance of an old nemesis poised to reveal Judyth’s secret, shatter her carefully crafted world.

In flashbacks, we discover why Judyth, a joyful child, becomes a reticent adult, a journey that takes us to the early days of the suffragist movement, World War I, the dawn of the Jazz Age, and Chicago’s nightlife on the cusp of Prohibition. In 1953, Judyth’s attempts to unlock her granddaughter’s secret, coupled with her fear of being exposed, cause Judyth to act strangely, raising suspicions. To her husband and son’s surprise, the child penetrates Judyth’s gruff demeanor, and the two form a close bond. Judyth uncovers the truth to the child’s silence and makes peace with her own loss. Will Judyth’s unexpected bond with her granddaughter gives her the strength to end her long-held secret, even if it means upending her world?