BREAKING IN

(literary fiction, April, Penguin) “A traveling peddler claiming to sell bottled dreams arrives in a small farming town rocked by a child’s disappearance, and his wares awaken the long-buried desires of the townspeople.” Midland, Mich. I’ve been writing and publishing poetry and short stories since I was a teen. In 2005, I published a chapbook of poetry after I had my first child, and that was the last thing I wrote for eight years. It took six months to write a first draft, but that appears briefly in an L.M. Montgomery book. That title sparked my imagination, and I spent years wondering what such a book might be about. My agent is Bridget Smith at Dunham Literary. I found her by sending 109 cold queries, which took 18 months. I would have waited longer before querying. I thought my book was ready, but I may have missed some opportunities because my original manuscript wasn’t strong enough. Ignore the rules established by your critique group, and trust your gut. I’m currently working on another book, something completely different from .