Writing Highlights and Favorite Books
WRITING HIGHLIGHTS:
1969: Co-Winner of the National Teenage Volunteer Award from the March of Dimes, New York City, New York (based on volunteer work, recommendations and written essay on the “Walkathon to Warm Springs”)
1972: B.S. Degree in Home Economics (Early Childhood Development), The University of Alabama (Essays on Human Development topics)
1977-1978: Assistant to the City Editor of The Houston Post and Contributing Reporter to the "Action Line" column, Houston, Texas
1980-1989: Sales Account Executive, Consumer Products, Eastman Kodak Company, Houston, Texas (Created marketing campaigns, presentations and reports celebrating the launch of products and success of film sales for NASA, the Astrodome, the San Jacinto Monument and other important customers. Author of comprehensive report on the Texas Sesquicentennial on April 21, 1986 at the San Jacinto Monument where, months before, Carol met H.R.H. Prince Charles during the Sesquicentennial Celebrations.)
1987-92: CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocate for Child Abuse Victims) A Volunteer in Houston, Texas and Long Grove, Illinois (Research and reports written and submitted to the Court on behalf of each child represented)
1994-1995: Media Reviewer and Columnist for Adoptive Families magazine
1995: Co-Author of Views From A Pier with Griffin Owens Campbell, copyright 1996. (A creative non-fiction book encouraging the use of precise language to clarify and confront controversial issues in America. As current today as it was when published in 1996, the 181 page-book includes a peace accord for the abortion rights issue. Please see "Works" for more information. Thank you.)
1998-2000: “Tea and Trumpets” columnist for the Lake Zurich Courier, Lake Zurich, Illinois
1998-2008, 2019: Attendee at Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City, Iowa
2000-2005: Attendee at Writing Classes and "Write-By-The-Lake" at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
2007: “Daring Dialogues” columnist for Remarkable Woman Magazine, Vernon Hills, Illinois
2009-2011: MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction), Solstice MFA Program, Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA
2011: Joined AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs). Attended AWP Conferences in Chicago, IL (2012), Seattle, WA (2014) and Tampa (2018)
2014: Publication in One Trick Pony Review of original poem titled, "Interview with a River" (Thank you to Marilyn Kallet for her generosity of spirit to shepherd this poem to publication.)
2014-2017: Publication of short stories and a poem in the Solstice MFA Program Anthology including "Interview with a River," "As Far as the Letter 'S'," and "When in Jeopardy."
2015: Attended 2015 VQR (Virginia Quarterly Review) Writers' Conference, Charlottesville, Virginia (Bret Anthony Johnston, Instructor)
2017: Joined Authors Guild
2017: Completed manuscript for debut literary novel titled Look Away No More (former working title of novel: September Fourteenth) (Please see "Works" for further information. Thank you.)
2017: 20th Annual William Faulkner Literary Competition
2nd Place Prize in the Novel Category awarded to September Fourteenth (Title changed to: Look Away No More)
(Among the comments by the Judges:
"This novel explores the maturation of a privileged young woman who must adapt her life as a Southern Belle to the changing culture of the 1970s. The author skillfully plays off scenes from Hamper University, a Georgia college the protagonist Tally attends, to Kent State University at the time of the deadly protests of the Vietnam War. This author addresses many of the issues of race and identity that Faulkner does in his novels.")
2018: September Fourteenth (Title changed to: Look Away No More) named a Finalist (Fiction Category) in the 2018 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards Competition
(Participated in the Tucson Festival of Books Masters Workshop for Finalists, March 2018 with Instructor Ron Hansen, author of Mariette in Ecstasy and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
2018: Joined Women's Fiction Writers Association (WFWA)
2018: September Fourteenth (Title changed to: LOOK AWAY NO MORE) named a Semi-Finalist in the 2018 Pirate's Alley William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition
2019: Joined PEN America (Professional Member)
2020: Participated in an online course with CBC (Curtis Brown Creative, London)
2023: Debut novel, LOOK AWAY NO MORE, published as an eBook on August 6th and as a paperback on September 14th.
2023: Participated in Local Authors Book Fair, sponsored by the Friends of the Library (Naples, FL)
2023: LOOK AWAY NO MORE is available at Naples, FL and Marco Island, FL Library locations
FAVORITE BOOKS
The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Remember Me Like This by Bret Anthony Johnston
Light in August by William Faulkner
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Twilight Zone Haiku by Chad Boykin
A Pig in Paris by Steven Huff
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
Packing Light: New and Selected Poems by Marilyn Kallet
Resistance by Annette Marquis
The Fire This Time by Randall Kenan
Twelfth and Race by Eric K. Goodman
Fortunately by Remy Charlip
Princess Shayna's Invisible Visible Gift by Sheila N. Glazov
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Night of the Jaguar by Joe Gannon
Prodigal Sons by Mike Miner
Suitcase City by Sterling Watson
Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig and Me by Jaime Manrique
The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer by Sandra Scofield
Stay Up With Me: Stories by Tom Barbash
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Day of All Saints by Patricia Grace King
Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by Rust Hills
Running With Buffalo by Michael Farrell
The Choke Artist: Confessions of a Chronic Underachiever by David Yoo
HAMILTON: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
Fields of Wonder by Rod McKuen
The Docks by Joanne Carota
Unfinished Business by Isabelle Drake
The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Colored Sugar Water by Venise Berry
A New Hunger by Laure-Anne Bosselaar
Two for the Road: Adventures in Maine by Tanya Whiton (Photographs by Heidi Killion)
Revision: A Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction by David Michael Kaplan
Farm Girls: Reflections and Impressions by Candace Simar and Angela F. Foster
All Back Full by Robert Lopez
The End of Baseball: A Novel by Peter Schilling
All the Numbers by Judy Merrill Larsen
The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long As It Takes by Joan Silber
Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction by Charles Baxter
Humboldt: A Novel by Glenn Vanstrum
Cementville by Paulette Livers
The Never-Open Desert Diner by James Anderson
The Hard Way by William Hastings
The Secret of Me by Meg Kearney