The second edition of my first novel Pepper’s Ghost is now available. Read the first chapter, and while you’re there, sign up as a subscriber. My fiction and updates reach your inbox once a month. I love sharing extraordinary stories (fiction short and long) about ordinary Americans. Good stories don’t, and shouldn’t have to, conform to the dominant aesthetics and politics.
BEHOLD THE GORILLA-GIRL! Charlotte Alexandra Long is determined to leave all she knows: her ill-fitting office job, her unreliable boyfriend, and the city she has lived in since adolescence. But leaving that life requires leaving her haunted father who wants nothing but the best for her yet reminds her of a past he’s not ready to let go. After joining a traveling amusement company as a sideshow performer, where an old theater trick blurs illusion and reality, Charlotte transforms into Alex who ascends into a star. While wrestling with a spectrum of coworkers, her evolving identity, her troubled father, and her concerned mother, Alex faces an uncertain future that threatens everything she has established. As Pepper’s Ghost weaves in and out of the South and Midwest, Alex must reevaluate who she is and navigate the crossroads of family, memories, and places that challenge her in times of ambiguity and tragedy.
ISBN (print): 9798986092737
ISBN (ebook): 9798986092744
The second edition is eighty percent different than the first, which came off market when the publisher’s contract ended in 2017. But this also opened the door for an opportunity: shaping a stronger story and sharing it under my control.
And I’m asking you to help spread the word about the second edition of Pepper’s Ghost. A book’s success can thrive on word-of-mouth and grassroots marketing. Anything below you can do can positively impact me and my work:
- Buy the book (print and e-book).
- Recommend to family, friends, acquaintances, book clubs, libraries, bookstores, bloggers, and platforms devoted to American fiction and culture.
- Share on social media and websites.
- Add and rate on Amazon, Goodreads, and similar outlets.
- Place a copy in Little Free Libraries.
