In A Parting Glass, Elizabeth O’Sullivan is a 1950‘s eleven-year-old girl with uneven bangs, and an imagination born to protect. She hopes to make it to twelve and public school,leaving her nemesis Sister Mary Paul behind. A small door in the back of a closet, in a house filled with siblings and a sweet battered mother, leads to a sanctuary. A place she often visits when the world becomes too loud and where remnants of a father she wishes would disappear are held as symbols of defiance. A place for saints to dance and Elizabeth to find safety. Along the way, she makes a friend in a boy with a small voice who quietly helps by listening. She builds a blade of courage and cuts her way through the tangled cord of the two monsters that are tied together and inhabit her world. She frees herself, and by example, all those that love her.
Tess became a storyteller at the age of two. It took her many more years to test her writing skills for real. She grew up in a Catholic family with three brothers and a sister whose love was always unconditional. Her first novel is truth, partial truth and flat-out lies based on her early years.She has raised two children and helped sustain a marriage of 37 years. She’s gone to school (got a couple of Masters), worked in politics, changed careers and found her calling. A Parting Glass is her first novel. She lives in Lawrence Kansas.
