I have just completed an historical and LGBTQ novel, “I Have Family There.” Based in World War II and the post-War period, “Family” is historical literary fiction centered on two lesbians’ resistance to World War II-era repression, and their struggle for self-definition.

Terry and Barbara meet and find love within the upheaval and exigencies of wartime as members of the Women’s Army Corps, but are their individual identities strong enough to resist the corrosive purge of homosexuals from the Army 1944? When they settle in Milwaukee after the war, how will they each respond to the post-War campaign on women to return to conformity and domesticity? Set amidst the Red Scare of the 1940s and 50s, “Family” demonstrates the persecution of unions and leftists. Strong subplots about Barbara’s mother, Agnes, and butch/femme culture round out the themes of the novel.

I’m currently in the agonizing process of querying agents!

The novel was motivated by my interest in lesbians of the 1940s and ’50s. Ever since I read Ann Bannon’s “I Am A Woman” at the age of 16, I’ve been fascinated with how they survived. As a senior history student at Rutgers University, I wrote a thesis on The Ladder, the famous Lesbian magazine published monthly from 1957-1973 by the equally famous Daughters of Bilitis. To read my thesis, click on the link on this page.