Short Stories in Books:

"Daffodils" with Jane Yolen in Spooky Stories Edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jill M. Morgan and Robert Weinberg Random House 1995 ISBN 0-679-87662-6

This is the first short story I wrote in collaboration with my mother. It was published in a short story collection called Great Writers and Kids Write Spooky Stories which I thought was funny since I was dubbed right off as one of the "kids" even though I was 28. Sometimes, even now, I am listed as "et al." as in "written by Jane Yolen, et al." Luckily, I have a good sense of humor about this. The story is about a girl whose grandmother's house is haunted by the ghost of a woman who was killed years ago and how the girl solves the mystery and frees the ghost's now elderly daughter from her own ghosts.

"Dream Job" in Mob Magic Edited by Brian Thomsen and Martin H. Greenberg Daw Books, (Tekno Books), 1998 ISBN 0-88677-821-2

I love this story. It's my first solo adult story published and I had great fun writing it until the end. There is a lot of pressure to have the perfect ending for a story, and I definitely got scared staring at my computer for weeks without writing the finale. Finally, the deadline for submissions for Mob Magic crept up on me and I had to finish it. The story is about a detective who is trying to catch a hitman who commits the perfect crimes because he does his killing in a surreal dream world. When Marty Greenburg agreed to buy this story for six cents a word, my husband teased me unmercilously about now knowing how much I'm worth. I have spent more money buying copies of this book for people as gifts than I made. But, it was totally worth it

"Opening Act" with Jane Yolen in Love Letters and Other Stories Scholastic, Inc. 1999 ISBN 0-439-05719-1

This is a short story about a girl with a mom who's a singer. Big brother Aaron is based on my brother Adam who is a musician. I am like the girl in the story (though Adam is my younger brother and Aaron is her older brother) in that I am such a big fan of my brother's music; I listen to it almost exclusively. I don't think he knows this. Anyway, the story was passed via email between my mother and me, and when it came to the end, I was so emotional about it that I cried as I wrote the last part which lasted about five pages. I got the plot right, but dragged it out like a bad soap opera. Luckily, when I sent it back to my mom, she cut it down to probably a paragraph and it made much more sense. This story has been reprinted twice already and has been sold again.

"Cat Nip" with Jane Yolen in Crafty Cat Crimes Edited Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, and Martin H. Greenberg Barnes and Noble Books 2000 ISBN 0-7607-1582-3

I love this story because it is the type of story I love to read. It starts with a dead body brought into a morgue with a cat--a very alive cat. The initial idea, as people might notice, started for me (though probably not my mother, Jane Yolen, who is the co-author of this story) came from the movie MEN IN BLACK which has a cat in the morgue scene as well. This, however, is where the similarity ends. My mother and I argued (good naturedly, of course) over the plot of this story a lot over the internet where the story was passed back and forth. I wanted it to be very big and complicated (more suited for a novel than a short story) and she kept talking me down from that ledge. It turned out to be a fine little story--one that I can't wait to see in print. I think it's funny and well plotted with all the requisite characters; a straight arrow cop, his smart ass partner, a medical examiner with no sense of humor and a body to die for (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun) and a bad guy or two. Plus, a dead body in the first paragraph -- a must for any murder mystery for me!

"Holy, Holy, Holy" with Jane Yolen in Perchance to Dream Edited by Denise Little Daw Books, Inc. 2000 ISBN 0-88677-888-3

This short story is about a girl's confusion about her religious/spiritual beliefs. The neatest thing about this story is that my mother (who does this sort of thing often) auctioned off the right to have someone's name in a book or story of hers, proceeds going to charity. The man who won the auction gave his daughter's name and she appears in this story as the best friend Leah Clemente. The story is written in the fun, sassy voice of young teen which was a joy to write because I'm pretty sarcastic myself.

Short Stories in Magazines:

"Dollhouse for Dana" in American Girl Magazine, May/June 1997.

"Opening Act" with Jane Yolen in Scope Magazine, Scholastic, Feb. 3, 1995, Stories of Identity edition, Vol. 43 No. 12 ISBN 0036-6412.

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