Mexican Strawberries – a novel

Born of impulse in the shadow of family tragedy, Margaret Roca is the unacknowledged connection between her blue-collar family and the prominent Cavanaughs of Brentwood. She grows up in the household of her Mexican-American grandmother in the balmy, make-believe setting of Los Angeles, living through the Great Depression and World War II with Nana, two great aunts and Uncle Charlie. As she tries to find her place in life, inexperience leads her to make impulsive choices and suffer the unfortunate consequences, including an ill-fated romance and her rejection of a deserving suitor.

When her wealthy, secret grandmother reaches out, Margaret faces a moral choice for which she is ill prepared. This and other unexpected developments bring to light the mystery of Margaret’s father and underscore her mestiza identity as she confronts the dilemma of resolving a conflict between love of family and her own sense of pride.

St. Louis Blues – a novel – available now!

When Maria Finneran meets her only living relatives, the elderly Jack and Bonnie Koenig of St. Louis, she learns something new about her parents and finds that the ostensibly simple Koenigs have plans for her.

Maria’s life accelerates more after her return to California’s Bay Area. She works in a crafts gallery, rejects an offer of a conventional marriage, and falls in love with Nathan Spelling, an educator whom she does marry. When she is seduced by a wealthy art collector and her marriage is almost destroyed, Maria learns a hard lesson. She becomes even more aware of malevolent forces in the world when she and Nathan are drawn into a murder trial and when a strange, seductive couple enters their lives.

Maria takes on the painting of a mural at a feeding center in a poor neighborhood and, in the process, discovers painful truths as well as new beginnings.