Purple & Green Stone Press Upcoming Publication/Interview

Hello! Welcome to The Burning Hearth. I’m quite excited about today’s post. As I noted earlier in the year, I have been in the process of reissuing Born of Water through my imprint Purple & Green Stone Press. The journey to this publication has centered around finding not just a cover, but the cover. And the cover, much to my surprise, was waiting for me in the very place I take Mari (the Born of Water protagonist) to in the book.

For the last few years my family has been going to Door County, WI for Thanksgiving. Each year we stay at the Eagle Harbor Inn in Ephraim. I love our stays at the Eagle Harbor Inn so much that I decided to have my main character Mari stay there as well. This past Thanksgiving, I met Natalie Neddersen (she and her husband Nedd purchased the Eagle Harbor Inn in 1994), and I gave her a copy of Born of Water. I shared that my character Mari stays at the Inn. I also shared that I was in the process of re-releasing the book under my imprint but that I hadn’t yet found a cover I liked. Much to my surprise, Kay McKinley, a Door County photographer and designer who does promotional work for the Inn, happened to be there as well. After some discussion, she agreed to send me some of her photos. In very little time, she sent a photo that hit. After discussions on font and word placement, my new cover was born. It makes me so happy to have both the exterior and interior of my book reflect the shores of Green Bay.

The revised edition of Born of Water will be available through Amazon or myself on August 1, 2026. To celebrate its launch, I will be doing a reading and signing at the Eagle Harbor Inn the week of August 24th. Kay will be there to sign books as well. Specific day and time TBA. (Check back for update.) If you are thinking this sounds like the perfect time and place for this launch, I couldn’t agree more! If you’re in the area, I hope to see you there!

Excerpt from Born of Water

Mari, tucked away in her wood-ensconced suite, had barely ventured out since arriving in Ephraim three days ago. Everything and everyone haunted her. She felt the needy pulls from her mother. Her sister. Jake. She felt hostility from her father. Somehow, in his abandonment of her, she had let him down. She wasn’t, as he had said, “The daughter I had hoped for. As a matter of fact, Stacy (his new wife’s adult daughter) is ten times the daughter you’ve ever been.” What exactly does that even mean? she wondered.

The bay was, unfortunately, right across the street. Unusually high winds rushed foam-crested waves to the shore where they broke and spilled onto the beach, then fanned and thinned, stretching inland until the ravenous bay drew them back. All of it, the motion, the roar of the waves, the slapping against the sand, the giving and the taking, swirled in her head and stomach.

The National Weather Service’s rip tide alert was reason enough for Mari to lounge around her suite, reading books and watching episodes of the various iterations of Star Trek, until three o’clock on Thursday when Rhys knocked on her door.

In other news, in May I was approached by Kathleen Gill, a realtor in Mequon, WI who has started a podcast titled The Big WI (pronounced why). It is focused on Wisconsin entrepreneurs and “The Big WI” that drives them. She saw that I do a monthly reading for children at Wonderland Bookshop in Shorewood, WI and asked if I would sit for an interview on her podcast. The interview focuses on my dancing career, my writing, and my latest self-publishing endeavor. I’m grateful to Kathleen for this opportunity, and I hope you will click Here and give it a watch.

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, I hope you are finding adventure and joy!

Constance