Before you leave, slip into the reading room, browse through my collection of poems and short stories. Enjoy yourself!
You can read an excerpt from The Velvet Bridge here.
HOME JEWELRY PARTIES, ANYONE?
Back in the 60's and 70's, I don't know how many Home Interior, Tupperware,
and Mary Kay parties I attended, and hosted! It seemed to be what the young
mothers, in my group of friends anyway, did for fun! But I have yet to
attend my first jewelry party. So, if anyone in or around Canton, TX is
having one, I'd love an invitation!
Email Me
The
Velvet Bridge
ON SALE NOW | ORDER
A Synopsis
The Velvet Bridge is a story of a woman’s encounter with the power of fate, her subsequent choices, and the consequences. It is a story of resilience, of transition from one unexpected upheaval to the next. While the novel makes clear that no one is immune to the indifference of providence, it is also a testimony to the impact of gentle people in our lives.
The Velvet Bridge is a passageway, connecting the finely sketched episodes of Mattie Featherstone’s complex, yet endearing, life. Along the way, the highly developed and colorful supporting cast will captivate you as each player enhances and thickens the plot of this character-driven “rags to riches” tale.
The story begins in a shotgun shanty house amidst the poverty
of west Dallas just as the Depression ends and the War begins. Mattie
Featherstone goes “haywire” as she later describes it, following
the accidental death of her husband in 1941. Fundamentally flawed, the
impoverished young widow is emotionally and psychologically unable to
cope with the responsibility of raising two daughters alone, so she abandons
them.
In 1943, a timely encounter removes Mattie from a campsite for vagrants
situated at the edge of the city, beneath the Trinity River Bridge, into
the employ of wealthy Sam and Claudia Wright as housekeeper in their beautiful
Oak Cliff home. Mattie’s education and self-discovery begins as
her life becomes intricately woven into that of her employers and their
double-amputee war veteran son, Gabe.
At the end of the war, Mattie falls in love with Max Caliber, a returning
soldier involved in his own conflict with his parents: Will, the dynamic
Houston lawyer/rancher father, and Kathleen, fiery Irish redheaded mother
caught in the rift between her husband and son.
Mattie’s arrest as a murder suspect throws her into helpless despair,
and generates regional publicity. The exposure sets her on a parallel
course with her secret past—with her deserted daughters: nine-year-old
Edith Kay, ward of the court about to be adopted, and Judith, already
a married mother at fifteen dealing with her own sad predicament; with
Wanda, the only friend from Mattie’s dysfunctional childhood. It
also casts doubt on her future with Max.
By 1950, Mattie, a woman of wealth and influence, establishes
The Right Place, an elegant yet unassuming residence—a safe harbor
for abused women and their children. The home, revealed at the end of
the book through the eyes of Karen, a battered mother of three, is located
in an upscale, undisclosed Dallas area location: the first of Mattie’s
monuments to the Wright family.