About
Wrote journalistic pieces as a child and as an adolescent for professional publications because that was the world of her novelist father Bernard Epps, and continued to write for student papers and free arts weeklies as a university student. Holds B.A. and M.A. theater degrees, and a Certificate in Directing from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Has studied scriptwriting, directing, acting, improv, puppetry, and film studies and has directed or co-directed two dozen plays. Won a Gold Remi for Teleplays at Worldfest Houston and was a Top 5 Finalist in Animated Screenplays at the International Family Film Festival.
Featured Work
Pilgarlic the Death by Bernard Epps
Every spring the itinerant preacher, Hell Fire, comes down from the hills with his coffin on his back to cry doom to the (fictional) village of Stormaway. He performs to a rapt audience and leaves, much as the rotating seasons quicken the lives of the villagers, who are full of a bursting joy at the earth, at the business of seeding and raising barns. For Dougal, the village teacher and philosopher, each day is an occasion to celebrate. So, too, for his neighbors: the iconoclastic Milly-down-the-hill; Long George the illegal poacher, his loving Missy, and their eight bastards; John the Law, the Lord Mayor, and old Hugh, who ruminates on the hotel verandah.
But Stormaway has its turbulence and hardship as well. Dougal is locked in a joyless marriage; the Pigman's wife dies in childbirth after he had loved her for years without showing it.
This refreshing, often-poetic novel, with both melancholic and comedic dialogue that records a distinct culture and way of speaking, bears similarities to the work of Dylan Thomas. The people are hardy and tough, vigorous and bawdy, and their episodic story is an exuberant celebration of rural life.
