A writer?

 I’ve been a psychologist for the last thirty years and currently have a private practice in Traverse City, Michigan.

Three years ago I took a writing class.  A door opened.  My first novel, Admissions, Arbutus Press was released June of this year.  It reflects my fascination with the abandoned state mental hospital here in Traverse City and my excitement in writing fiction.  I’ve been in a writing group for the past three years, an essential nexus for my development as a novelist.  

I’m now working on my second novel about two girls from working-class Catholic families who grew up in a small town in the Midwest.  Life seems easy and predictable until Nadine Lupinski goes missing.  The protagonist, Theda, is thirteen that summer.  The novel opens with the adult Theda coping with her husband’s botched suicide.  Weaving the backstory of Nadine’s disappearance with the current story line, we learn that Gary, Theda’s childhood sweetheart and her husband, has been keeping a secret. 

 

           

 

 

Education:

Ph.D.   Clinical Psychology.   Union University.  August l989.  Dissertation:  The Web of Motherhood

M.A.    Counseling Psychology.  Central Michigan University, May 1980.

B.S.    Psychology, Sociology (minor in Women’s Studies).  Central Michigan       University, December l978.           

Published works:

Fiction:  ADMISSIONS  (release June 2010)  Arbutus Press    

Playing with Jesus.  Short story.  Atlantic Review 2009. 

Non-fiction:    Learning About Sexual Abuse.  (with John Petras).  New Jersey:  Enslow Publishers, 1985. 

Learning About Sex. A Guide for Children and Their Parents (with John Petras.)  New York:  Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1978.  

Work:

Bay Psychological Services, Licensed Clinical Psychologist.  Traverse City, Michigan, Private Practice.   2003 - present.

Women’s Psychological Service. Licensed Clinical Psychologist.  Midland, Michigan 1989-2003.