Monica is an artist, art therapist, author and teacher. After a few years working in TV production she left the bright lights of New York City and returned home to Chicago to follow new dreams. Along the way there were countless jobs as a temp secretary to pay the bills as she pursued a freelance art career. After fulfilling her biggest dream – becoming a mother – she went on to become an art therapist, author and art teacher. In her role as an art therapist she has worked with pre-school, elementary and high school students.
She also works at a facility which provides services for adults with intellectual, physical and developmental disabilities, offering creative opportunities for enhanced self-esteem, for the expression of feelings, for stimulating a sense of joy and supplying opportunities for success. She is a published author and creator of The Laughing Angels©, a whimsical and merry group of beings who inspired her first book, You’re A Miracle…Pass It On!
She is also in the process of pitching her feature film script based on her historical novel, Rose’s Ring: Inheritors of Silence and Secrets, and you can read all about it by pressing Enter above. In May the script won Best Historical Drama at the Cambridge Script Festival!
When not working you can find her happily creating, listening to old radio programs, binging on favorite movies, and TV shows, spending time with her family and, with her band of Spirit Sisters,
This is a story I had to tell. First, though, I had to find it and that took the better part of 30 years. It began with a ring and a newspaper clipping from the Terre Haute (Indiana) News of 1953. It was about a relative of mine I knew nothing about, Sister Mary Cyril.
Current Projects: These are projects—a film script, children’s books, an angel book—that have lived in my heart and are now ready, willing and able to be produced, read and shared!
Images in America: Irish American Heritage Center
In 1976 a small group of Irish Americans was looking for a permanent place to celebrate and share their heritage and culture. After many fundraisers, they purchased an abandoned, graffiti-covered building on the northwest side of Chicago. Since day one a crew of passionate volunteers transformed the derelict structure into a premier institution showcasing dance, music, festivals, language, history, and art. But for the vision of those original dreamers and the blood, sweat, and tears of the thousands of volunteers, it would not exist.
Irish American Heritage Center (Images of America)–– Available on Amazon
Rose’s Ring: Inheritors of Silence and Secrets
An historical novel, based on true facts, Rose’s Ring is the story of Rose Donovan, a TV reporter from Chicago, always on the lookout for a great story. Rose feels she is going nowhere fast. After the death of her mother, she inherits a ring and a diary that takes her back to Ireland during the years of the Great Hunger via a shipwreck in the waters of the Lake she lives near. Interwoven in her own family story is the plight of a group of Native Oneida people and the fate of a runaway slave, whose decision to stop running sets in motion events that culminate in a shipwreck in Lake Michigan. Rose’s journey to the past frees her to create her own future. Rose’s Ring started life as a screenplay (See Current Projects).
Rose's Ring, Inheritors of Silence and Secrets –– Available on Amazon
Your Family Story To Go
An interactive journal and guide to help you find that story—your own and those of your family members—and to organize those experiences into meaningful narratives. The most important story you’ll ever learn is your own!! All books are available on Amazon.com.
Your Family Story To Go–– Available on Amazon
Manuscripts that are ready or almost ready and needing a publisher.