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Maureen Morrissey is a writer, retired educator, wife/mother/grandmother/ daughter/auntie/dog mommy, avid reader, photographer, traveler, blogger, and most recently, half-marathon runner. In her spare time, she volunteers at animal shelters and investigates the quality of rooftop bars in New York City, her hometown. Oh, and she loves concerts, museums and Broadway shows, too.
Maureen began writing her first novel, Woven, the day after retiring from teaching fourth grade, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. Housebound, and with the mind-space and time, finally, to dedicate to the undertaking, she dove in to a daily routine of researching, composing and revising Woven; finishing the first draft in Autumn and self-publishing in December 2020.
She recently completed a second novel, Sonder. She is enjoying the companionship and support of her community of writers and authors.
SEEING IS BELIEVING
Genre: Paranormal Fiction/ Metaphysical Fiction
Mary Christina Barnes is an ordinary small-city Midwestern girl except for one thing: she was born with the uncanny power to feel the emotions of others and hear their thoughts.
Her deeply religious mother sees her psychic gift as a sinister force. Haunted by her mother’s conviction that she is evil, the young woman embarks on a tumultuous journey to understand her gift and use it for good. While her compassionate side aids the police in finding missing children, a darker side threatens to consume her. All she wants is a normal life, but she finds herself having to fight for it.
Her work with the police leads to some unexpected attention and makes this reluctant psychic a target for both those who want her help and those who want to stop her. Seeing is Believing is an evocative tale that explores the complexities of identity, acceptance, and the delicate balance between good and evil.
Will Mary Christina succumb to the pressures around her or rise above them, embracing her unique gifts to forge a path uniquely her own?
SONDER, JANIE’S STORY
Genre: Historical Fiction
Downtown New York City in the 1970’s and 80’s is a dark and dangerous place for Janie Thompson. A young woman unequipped to make her way through the temptations and pitfalls that littered cold days and mean nights, she is in and out of danger at every turn.
Janie has left behind the family and neighborhood that almost destroyed her to search for her lost brother and herself. The journey takes her deep into rabbit holes as she tries to navigate a path through before it is too late.
A “sonder,” the realization that she is not truly alone, may be the only thing that saves her.
WOVEN
Genre: Historical Fiction
SIX STORIES. ONE EPIC JOURNEY
When the world as you know it is rent into shreds, you either survive or you die.
When your friends, your neighbors, members of your own family starve to death in front of your young eyes, only a steel drive to live will rescue you. If your government turns on you, killing everyone in your community, only foresight and the guts to listen to it will help you. When widespread poverty and lack of hope destroy the fabric of reality, only fortune can save you.
When you survive any or all of these traumatic events, you live to create the next generation.
Cam and Tessa are the next generation.
Raised by Holocaust survivors and refugees in New York City in the 1970’s, Tessa battles not only her own demons but those her family faced. She takes nothing for granted and relies only on herself as she navigates a dangerous and dark period of time in the city. Cam needs to escape the midwestern upbringing that began with his mother’s journey from somewhere in Eastern Europe to an orphanage in Iowa and with his great grandfather’s early life in Ireland; and ends with his father’s spiraling and destructive behavior. Directionless and lost, Cam takes a risk to find his way.
At a chance meeting, they discover that they are kindred spirits; and against the push from both sides, they clasp hands and decide to face whatever may come together.
Woven dives deeply into events you learned about in history class and makes them personal. Written as a series of novellas, this book weaves the lives of four very different families into one story, showing that out of overwhelming adversity can come strength, hope, and a future no one predicted.