Lorraine Devon Wilke
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An accomplished writer in several genres of the medium, Lorraine Devon Wilke, a Chicago native and one of eleven children, has built a library of expertly crafted work with a signature style that exudes intelligence, depth, and humor. In 2010, she launched her “arts & politics” blog, Rock+Paper+Music, and in 2011 became a popular contributor to HuffPost and other media sites. Her essays have been reprinted and excerpted in academic tomes, nonfiction books, and literary journals. She maintains a column at Medium and a popular Substack, "Musings of a Creative Loudmouth."
She jumped into longform with her first novel, AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH (2014); her second, HYSTERICAL LOVE (2015). Both won a slate of literary awards and garnered passionate readership. Her third novel, THE ALCHEMY OF NOISE (She Writes Press, 2019), struck a powerful chord with its dramatic “ripped from the headlines” narrative, garnering an invitation to NPR’s 1A show to discuss “literature + culture,” and awarded by an impressive roster of literary organizations. Her latest, CHICK SINGER (Sibylline Press, 2025), dives into the rowdy world of rock & roll and its impact on the lives of a complicated mother-daughter relationship, and her fifth novel, THE WEIGHT OF FABLES, psychological suspense, will be released in Fall 2027 by Sibylline Press. Along with her writing, Devon Wilke regularly performs with her band, and manages her fine-art photography work online. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, attorney/writer, Pete Wilke, her son and other family nearby. |
Chick Singer
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Women's Literary Fiction
Rock & roll stardom is something you dream about when you're young, but for Libby Conlin the ‘80s and all their wild promise are ancient history. What pulls her attention now is the unexpected arrival of Bridget, her newly divorced daughter, home again despite their historically fractious relationship and the chaos it inspires. Life quickly turns upside down when Bridget’s application to a local art school involves anonymously posting Libby's old music online, music that's good enough to garner the attention of industry gatekeepers. When Libby’s mysterious past—and all its dark secrets—comes roaring into the present, the reconfiguration of everything and everyone in her orbit is both bittersweet and life changing. Chick Singer explores a complex mother/daughter relationship against the backdrop of music, dreams, and love—and the art of redefining all three. Sample: Chick Singer 
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The Alchemy of Noise: A Novel
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In a world so full of lonely people and broken hearts, it’s serendipitous that Chris Hawkins, a Black sound engineer from Chicago’s south side, and Sidonie Frame, white, suburban-raised, the head manager of one of the city’s buzziest venues, meet by work-related happenstance and fall quickly in love. The couple is convinced happiness is theirs for the taking, but life, it seems, has other plans. While they’re able to transcend culture clashes, recurring police disruptions, and the resistance of select family and friends, a violent arrest ultimately turns their world upside down, leaving them to question everything—including each other.
A sociopolitical love story that digs deep into the conundrum of “love vs. culture,” The Alchemy of Noise illuminates themes of privilege, prejudice, understanding, and forgiveness within families, friendships, workplaces, and certainly out in the world, where bias too often makes love a political statement. Sample: The Alchemy Of Noise 
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After the Sucker Punch
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Literary Fiction/Contemporary
They buried her father at noon, at five she found his journals, and in the time it took to read one-and-a-half pages her world turned upside down… he thought she was a failure. Every child, no matter how old, wants to know their father loves them, and Tessa Curzio – thirty-six, emerging writer, ex-rocker, lapsed Catholic, defected Scientologist, and fourth in a family of eight complicated people – is no exception. But just as life was finally coming together, the one-two punch of her father’s death and posthumous indictment proves an existential knockout. She tries to transcend, but his damning words skews everything from her relationship to the truth of her family, even her sense of self. It’s her little-known aunt, a nun and counselor, who lovingly strong-arms Tessa onto a journey of discovery and reinvention, a trip that’s not always pretty – or particularly wise – but one that leads to unexpected truths. After the Sucker Punch takes an irreverent look at father/daughter relationships through the exploration of family, faith, creativity, love, and the struggle to define oneself against the inexplicable perceptions of a deceased parent. Mixing sass and sensibility, it’s a story wrapped in contemporary culture but with a very classic heart. Sample: After the Sucker Punch
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She Tumbled Down
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Short story, crime/psychological thriller
New Year’s Eve. It's late, well past the midnight hour. A woman looking for respite from noise, champagne, and tensions with her boyfriend steps out to clear her head. She calls out that she’ll be back shortly and heads down the quiet neighborhood street... and never comes back. A man with too much to drink and too fast a car roars by on that same darkened street and, in a flash of motion and impact, is stunned to see the face of a startled woman smash into his windshield. When the car stops he shakes in silence, waiting for... something. But when no one approaches, no cars go by and no inquiring lights flick on, fear and panic take over and he makes the unfathomable decision to drive away... and never look back. “She Tumbled Down” is a short story that follows the ripple effects of this tragic hit-and-run, attempting to answer that unanswerable question, “Who could do such a thing?" From that first fateful moment through the months and years that follow, the narrative weaves through the lives of seemingly disparate characters, threading the initial event into another story, a love story, that ultimately links to the tragedy in unexpected ways. Sample: She Tumbled Down
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Hysterical Love
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Contemporary Literary Fiction
Dan McDowell, a thirty-three-year-old portrait photographer happily set to marry his beloved Jane, is stunned when a slip of the tongue about an “ex-girlfriend overlap” of years earlier throws their pending marriage into doubt and him onto the street. Or at least into the second bedroom of their next-door neighbor, Bob, where Dan is sure it won't be long. It's long. His sister, Lucy, further confuses matters with her “soul mate theory” and its suggestion that Jane might not be his... soul mate, that is. But the tipping point comes when his father is struck ill, sparking a chain of events in which Dan discovers a story written by this man he doesn’t readily understand, but who, it seems, has long harbored an unrequited love from decades earlier. Incapable of fixing his own romantic dilemma, Dan becomes fixated on finding this woman of his father’s dreams and sets off for Oakland, California, on a mission fraught with detours and semi-hilarious peril. Along the way he meets the beautiful Fiona, herbalist and flower child, who assists in his quest while quietly and erotically shaking up his world. When, against all odds, he finds the elusive woman from the past, the ultimate discovery of how she truly fit into his father's life leaves him staggered, as does the reality of what’s been stirred up with Fiona. But it’s when he returns home to yet another set of unexpected truths that he’s shaken to the core, ultimately forced to face who he is and just whom he might be able to love. Lorraine Devon Wilke, author of the acclaimed debut novel, After The Sucker Punch, brings her deft mix of humor and drama to a whip-smart narrative told from the point of view of its male protagonist. Hysterical Love explores themes of family, commitment, balancing creativity, facing adulthood, and digging deep to understand the beating heart of true love. Sample Hysterical Love
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