Barb’s novel CROSSING THE TRACKS, is published by Margaret K. McElderry Books, a division of Simon and Schuster. Release date – July 6, 2010. She also has both fiction and non-fiction accepted for publication in CRICKET MAGAZINE. Barb is represented by Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown Ltd., a New York based literary agency representing writers since 1914.

When not writing, Barbara is an art museum docent at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. She lives in Kansas City with her family.

Books

Crossing the Tracks
At fifteen, Iris is a hobo of sorts – no home, no family, no plan. After her mother’s early death, Iris’s father focuses on big plans for his new shoe stores and his latest girlfriend, and has no time for his daughter. Unbeknownst to her, he hires Iris out as housekeeper and companion for a country doctor’s elderly mother. Suddenly Iris is alone, stuck in gritty rural Missouri, too far from her only friend Leroy and too close to a tenant farmer Cecil Deets, who menaces the neighbors, and Iris suspects, his own daughter.
Iris is buoyed by the warmth and understanding the doctor and his mother show her, but just as she starts to break out of her shell tragedy strikes. Iris must find the guts and cunning to take aim at the devil incarnate and discover if she is really as helpless, or hopeless, or homeless as she once believed.

Stories, poems, & articles

“Chirping Champions” and “A True Junzi” – CRICKET MAGAZINE. Publication dates TBA

Author Visits

Presentations:
I conduct interactive presentations and hands-on workshops for schools, libraries, art and writing classes.

Topics include:
building characters
discovering plot
creating settings
getting the facts
sculpting a book
seeking inspiration

Speaking experience: Over the past 20 years I have conducted interactive art museum tours and workshops for students of all ages and adults.

Availability: weekdays and weekends
Audience: K – adult