Coming Soon

Some call it auto fiction, fictional memoir or historical fiction. As Beth Davenport puts it in The Naked Gun (2025): I write true crime novels based on fictional stories that I make up.

Inspired by true events, I’m writing stories for mothers and their teenage daughters. 

Setting out on a summer vacation with two new friends, a young girl enjoys the freedom from parental guidance only to learn that returning home is the true challenge of her journey.  

Driving Lessons by Michaela von Schweinitz

A road trip story 

A nineteen years old from Germany on her first road trip with two new friends crossing two borders—yes, Europe was still very much divided then—what could go wrong?

What begins as a joy ride quickly turns into a roller coaster of emotions. The young woman has to gain her footing in a foreign territory: a friendship of three.

Turnes out they each have a different idea about dream vacation and romance.

Based on actual events this adventure keeps you at the edge of your seat, riding shotgun so to speak, hoping that the adventurous young woman will find a way out of the trouble she gets herself into.

Driving Lessons is a coming of age story of a girl going on a road trip with two strangers. The road trip from Germany over France to Spain in 1978 is based on fictional scenes that I make up. 

The book isn’t out yet, but parts of my story have already been published. In the video below I’m reading from my essay Spanish Beach Vacation published in the anthology Spring and All. Laura Rink, my editor from Red Wheelbarrow Writers, introduces me.

The video below is edited down to three minutes. 

What readers said:

 

“A lovely, haunting story.”

“There is so much longing and nostalgia.”

“Thank you for sharing your poignant story. Lovely!”

“I didn’t just read this piece; I absorbed it. I changed in the process. Huge kudos.”

“I really can’t wait to read your book.”

“You totally nailed the voice of innocence in this piece, taking me right back to my traveling days.”

Driving Lessons by Michaela von Schweinitz

Naked Angels NYC selected chapters from Driving Lessons as solo pieces for their cold reading series Tuesdays@9.

Kelsey Puttrich
Nicole-Rosengurt

Nicole Rosengurt reads an excerpt from the novel Driving Lessons at Tuesdays@9 — two months before The Kraine Theater closed its doors forever.

Naked Angels NYC Tuesdays@9
Melené Sosi
Melené Sosi
Penny Balfour
Penny Balfour
Kelsey Puttrich
Kelsey Puttrich
Naked Angels NYC Tuesdays@9
Naked Angels NYC Tuesdays@9
Naked Angels NYC Tuesdays@9