Ten years.

That’s how long it’s been since Sarah & Katy and the Book of Blank was published. It was my sophomore children’s book, independently published in November 2015.

Riding the high of a recently released novel, I immediately started writing The Mountain of Dempsey Molehill. Optimism launched the unrealistic expectation that I would finish the draft in 2016.

Reality started to set in when 2016 whooshed by. No big deal, I told myself. I’ll finish it in 2017.

Another year whooshed by. In 2018, I had a full draft that had gone through one or two revisions (the revisions have all blurred together in my memory). I almost flipped the switch on independently publishing Dempsey that year, but at the last minute I backed away because the book still didn’t feel quite right. Rewrites continued through 2018 and 2019.

By 2020, I shoved Dempsey in a drawer and started working on a book for older readers about a coven of witches. But Dempsey Molehill’s story about himself and his unintentionally mischievous siblings nagged at the back of my mind.

Over the next five years, I frequently pulled it out, dabbled, edited, revisted, rewrote, restructured. I handed chapters to other writers and asked for their input. I rewrote Dempsey’s mom into a softer character after people told me she seemed militant and unlikeable. At one point, I switched from third person POV to first person. I changed a character’s name. In 2024, I rewrote each chapter, one by one, to adjust the tone of Dempsey’s voice. I added excerpts from the fictional town’s newspaper between chapters. I cut two chapters completely (which was painful but necessary). I cut a third chapter, then put it back in.

And now, finally, ten long years later, the story is complete. It’s ready. It finally feels right.

The Mountain of Dempsey Molehill has entered the production phase. Mark your calendars for Tuesday, November 4, when it will be available for sale!

The Mountain of Dempsey Molehill

Middle grade fiction, Stroebel Independent Books, November 2025

Dempsey Molehill and his siblings—practically-a-grownup Brom, responsible Tilly, pesky little brother Penn, and wild child Bandi—don’t mean to cause mischief. But somehow, they always find themselves smack dab in the middle of it. When Dempsey’s dad decides to run for mayor of Pickettstown, the five Molehill kids try to be on their best behavior. Unfortunately for Dempsey and his siblings, their “best behavior” includes luring bullies in muddy mayhem, casting Halloween curses, exploding appliances, and terrorizing classmates with Scrap the one-eared cat. Will their antics cost their dad the election? Or can the family band together to put the best Molehill foot forward? The Mountain of Dempsey Molehill is a humorous middle grade novel about life in rural Illinois, small-town politics, and growing up in a big, rowdy family.