I'm
currently seeking literary representation for my novel...
What
You Don't Know Now
Someone
once said that life is what happens while you’re making other plans.
It’s the summer of 1967, and plans are certainly made for Bridey
McKenna. Now that she’s graduated from the all-girl Our Lady Of
Providence High School, there’s the plan to go away to college
in September. But first there’s the plan for a 21-day bus tour
of seven countries in Europe – and Bridey has all sorts of plans
for that.
She dreams of a life spent following the footsteps of her glamorous aunt,
who is married to a powerful British intelligence officer living in the
Middle East. But it's not easy to find independence and enlightenment as
an eighteen-year-old girl -- especially when her attempts are challenged
by the company of her young, overprotective Irish Catholic mother, her
aunt, and 14 yr. old cousin, as the trip threatens to become more
of an endurance test than vacation.
Bright, self-centered and basketball-tall, Bridey McKenna's ready for anything.
She has her own itinerary in mind: a determination to take the first real
journey into her adult life. If she should find romance along the way --
that wouldn't hurt, either. But how to do it, when you're trapped
on a tour named the Summer Vacation Pilgrimage?
Bridey's caught between the ideal of her dreams and the reality of what
they may cost, when she falls in love with a gifted young man along the
way. Alessandro is a charismatic Italian waiter at her hotel in magical
Assisi, with a spectacular operatic voice, a costly dream of his own – and
the power to change her life.
An emergency arises in Rome, her itinerary changes abruptly, and her
dreams have a surprising brush with reality when she is propelled into
her aunt and uncle's world as they take a rare vacation in Greece. She's
challenged by her uncle's young, ever-present adjutant (who may or may
not be a bodyguard) and his ambivalent attitude toward her -- not to
mention his possessiveness when Alessandro shows up in Greece to compete
for Bridey.
Bio
I took a trip to Europe in 1967 that has become the basis for this novel. My fascination with gifted performers led me to research operatic tenors at the Eastman School of Music. In 2004, I returned to Greece to do further research, and I'm the niece of a retired CIA intelligence officer (which does have everything to do with the novel).