Projects

Cambridge Royalty: A Literary Novel

CAMBRIDGE ROYALTY is an on again/off again love story between a mixed couple with differences greater than race. Simone, a white woman in her forties with a healthy sex life, who put off motherhood and waited too long, is a transplant to Somerville, Massachusetts. She lives alone in her massive Victorian house and has a no-talking until 10:00 AM rule. Malcolm, a father of two with a persistently buzzing phone, is a Cambridge native with roots four generations deep. He spends his evenings and weekends driving his kids to takeout meals and doing favors for “the people in his life.” At the start of the novel, Simone goes to Union Square for Christmas wreaths, and leaves with Malcolm in the passenger seat of her car and a Douglass fir on the roof. Their affair kicks off that night, an affair by accident, because when she asked him if he was married, he was lifting her twelve-foot tree right then, and his grunt sounded like a No. But it wasn’t. Given the rawness and pain, as well as the loss of control, that comes with holding a secret relationship with some else’s husband, Simone vows to end the affair—when she’s ready—she takes her time, but she does.

In this voice-driven, dialogue-stacked 385-page literary heartbreaker (in a good way), an exploration of midlife romance across racial lines, this flawed couple wrestles with their lives apart, before they ultimately get back together. Malcolm tries to keep the peace between the mother of his kids and his second wife, who makes known his children are not welcome at their house. Meanwhile, Simone’s still lying about her affair to her best friend, whose husband they caught cheating, while on a stakeout that was supposed to be fun. The following Christmas, she’s back for a tree, and for Malcolm. Too many signs have flashed that they’re not over. By then, he’s left his wife and wants to find a home for himself and his children, an especially mournful wish, given that his childhood home was seized by the city. After he moves in with Simone, he struggles to belong. A fixer at his core, surrounded by the antique six-bedroom rife in need of repair, he burns to make improvements, but Simone won’t let him fix her house or herself. She’s struggling with her feelings for his daughters and for him as a father. As she falls in love with his children, she must hold onto her languorous life of curated solitude, handle his big‑peopled world, allow for home-improvements, and feel her way through parenting to become a stepmother. 

Comparisons: The Dutch House meets All Fours meets the City of Cambridge planning records.

Author’s Note: I have borrowed from my lived experience when writing these characters. I am a white woman who never had kids. For ten years, I was a member of a Black family who owned who lost an acre of property through eminent domain in the 1960’s, in the Cambridge neighborhood that locals call “The Coast.” The impact of that loss against the massive development and ubiquitous wealth in that city is deeply painful. For a long time, I have wanted to tell a story from a childless woman’s perspective—a woman like myself, who loves children, who “is good with children,” as friends and family say, who’s not all boo hoo, but is sometimes uncertain about her so-called indulgent days—and I have tried to show the complexity of those feelings through my character. In writing this love story with critical stakes and a hopeful ending, I resolved to capture what was hurtful and what was beautiful in the fictional telling of what happened to me and mine. 

Published and prize winning short stories pulled from this novel:

• Crazyhorse 100. 2021 Fiction Prize Winner, “Steppie.” A short story that borrows closely from a late chapter.
• The New England Review. A Published short story “Developed” in the fall of 2024. A story that closely resembles a chapter mid-way through the novel.
• J Journal: New Writing on Justice. A Published short story, a fictionalized version of a personal story that references a property seizure in the mid-1960s by the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the neighborhood now known as “The Coast.” While the characters in the “Cambridge Royalty” short story are not found in the novel, the real-life historical event, is part of Malcom’s family history.
• American Short Fiction. Semifinalist: American Short(er) Fiction Prize 2023. A flash piece of under 1000 words fashioned from a scene in the novel. 
• American Short Fiction. Semifinalist: The Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize 2025. A short story lifted from a late chapter in the novel.