Playing Hooky

Hannah Kirkwood, a frustrated painter and writer, has been teaching at Keefer Community College in California for ten years. On her fortieth birthday, and the anniversary of her father’s death, she is visited by his disapproving ghost during a class discussion of Hamlet. She then experiences a panic attack which causes her to walk out in the middle of class. As her father continues to visit her, Hannah seeks mental health advice from a slew of odd characters, including Crazy Larry, a jaded old veteran of the community college system, Elvira, a clerk at the Health Forever store, Rainbow, an off-balance yoga instructor, and Dr. Whitehouse, a lackluster therapist with problems of her own. Playing Hooky is about the anxiety we experience in middle age as we see our options dwindle and our dreams crescendo from a soft murmur to a deafening roar. It's about the promises we make to ourselves and the bargains we strike with others.

Laura Austin Wiley studied English and creative writing at Columbia University before moving out to California over twenty years ago. Her essays have appeared in the Oakland Tribune, the Columbia Alumni Magazine, and Conscious Choice Magazine, among other publications. Her poetry has appeared in Zillah Quarterly, Wild Violet Literary Review and Wilderness House Review, among other publications. This is her first novel.