My 1980s novel – The Screaming Divas

I’ve often talked and written about The Screaming Divas, a novel set in underground 1980s Columbia, South Carolina. The novel was inspired by the all-girl groups of the early 1990s, such as Bikini Kill, and also by my nights hanging out at a club called The Beat. I have a certain fondness for this novel and all that it evokes. It was once represented by a big-time agent, who, alas, couldn’t sell it. The timing was off, I guess, and I’m not sure that it’s publishable now. I think most editors would want me to make the main character nicer, or to set it in the present, and it just won’t work that way. But I’ve published bits of it here and there, and readers have said that they’d like to read more, so I went ahead and uploaded a Kindle version. If you’d like to read it, you can find it here. I’m thinking I’ll create a better cover later, but for now, I think the DIY vibe fits the story.

Hot Off The Press!

I’m happy to report that an excerpt from my unpublished novel, The Screaming Divas, is now published in Hunger Mountain. You can read it here. If you like this part, you can read another chapter, published as “How Harumi Became a Punk Rocker” in Woman’s Work: Stories.

Also, if you’ve got an e-reader, or if you’re giving one for Christmas, consider downloading Anthology: Realistic Fiction from Cicada, which includes my novella “Pilgrimage.”

And finally, thanks to Liz at Motherlogue for a wonderful review of my most recent book, The Beautiful One Has Come: Stories.