From my earliest childhood my favorite toy was my imagination. I endlessly invented stories which unfolded so quickly within my brain that I didn’t write them down. Eighth grade English class introduced me to literature, and I became a voracious reader. But I didn’t begin to write until I was forty and took a creative writing workshop class at Lorain County Community College where one of my short stories won first place in the college’s writing contest. I matriculated to John Carroll University where I minored in creative writing and graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English, then proceeded as a graduate assistant to earn my MA in English. During this time The John Carroll Review published a couple of my short stories and many of my poems. Subsequently, I taught writing for twelve years at both of my alma maters.
I began my writing career as a poet, and my devotion to lyricism and concrete imagery deeply informs my novels as well. Classified as psychological, my stories explore my characters’ interior motivations as they maneuver through challenging situations. Because I set each of my novels within a specific historical and geographical framework I conduct in-depth research. Both reading about and visiting locations enables me to infuse my writing with precise details which transport my readers to an authentic era.
In 2013 I published my first poetry chapbook entitled Heartscape. At the time I was writing my first novel which took me seven years to complete. Published in 2018, Burden of Remembrance is my tribute to the Greatest Generation. It is the story of a multi-generational family living in post-World War II Cleveland which struggles to remain united as each member grapples with his or her own painful memories of abandonment, betrayal, sickness, and war. On the verge of healing, they are further traumatized by the revelation of long-buried, shameful secrets which force them to question the boundaries of loyalty, mercy, and forgiveness.
In 2022 I published my second novel A Melancholy Union, which was inspired by the lives of my maternal great-great-grandparents Samuel and Julia, survivors of the Irish Potato Famine who emigrated to the United States in the 1850s. Weaving meticulous research with my imagination, I gave them voice to recount their lives through alternating chapters in which they draw us into their turbulent world shaped by hunger, hope, poverty, love, sickness, and haunting memories of Civil War battlefields. Finally they describe how, in struggling to care for their family, they make desperate decisions leading to unforeseen consequences.
After completing my second novel I returned to poetry, and in January 2023 I published my second poetry chapbook entitled Kissing the Stone.
Stirred into deeper reflection on the metaphysical, I continued to write poems which I published in my third poetry chapbook Honoring the Goddess in November 2023.
I have concluded the first draft of my third novel, which will undergo many revisions before it is ready for publication, hopefully in 2027.
**Writers live or die by reader reviews. If you have read any of my books and enjoyed them, I respectfully ask you to leave a review on Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and Amazon.
Useful links:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Monica-Babcock/author/B07XLN1VSS?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5&qid=1711634508&sr=1-5&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7289274.Monica_Weber_Babcock
Monica Weber Babcock 