Click here for the answers Chicken Soup of the Soul chose my essay “Burgers and Butterflies” about my mother, Kathryn Goldthwaite for their new book, The Magic of Mothers and Daughters. This small essay is a testament to three writing notions of mine:
1) We can write anywhere, and
2) Writing can aid the grieving process, healing but not forgetting,
3) We can apply writing techniques and skills to any form--poetry, prose; fiction or nonfiction.
I wrote this story on the deck of my sailboat, using a flashlight, a couple of months after my Mom’s death. Sailing is healing and I found writing to be also. “Burgers and Butterflies” was the first essay I wrote and submitted (after some polishing, of course).
Texas Dames, Sassy & Savvy, a collection of my columns, “Texas Dames,” I’ve compiled and submitted to Texas Tech for a nonfiction book. The hardest part? Selecting which “Dames” to feature in this manuscript that sheds light on women’s stories from early fables to the 1930’s, and in all walks of life. These are women who’ve made a difference in the lives of their communities and in Texas.
Whispering Spirit, an historical fiction book has garnered the attention of a couple of agents. It’s a story for adults about children who come to America and make it, somehow, while seeking to fill the void left by absent family members. A Huguenot family saga set in 1817, Catherine Marie DeSpain and her younger brother, Jean Paul, survive a transit of the Atlantic from Marseilles to Charleston. Catherine decides on a more unusual and as it proves to be, a more uncertain fate, leading them further from Charleston, further from contact with Marseilles.
The Storyteller Magazine took the first poem I ever wrote; written at a poetry workshop I attended in order to improve the lyricism of my prose. They published “A River’s Hand Divine” in the July/August/September 2011 issue. Trying different forms of writing enhances all that I write and provides a fresh glance at a story and how it best can be told, another way to “Have fun writing!”
Published Anthologies
Wild Women of the Old West, Fulcrum Publishing
The Way West, Tor Publishing
Click on the title below to go to the Web site:
Wild Women of the Old West
The Way West
Celebrating with Carol Buchanan (center) of Montana who won Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best First Novel with a gripping historical novel, God’s Thunderbolt, The Vigilantes of Montana and Ann Ayers of North Texas (left). Ann’s bronze sculpture of 1915 rodeo cowgirl Bonnie McCarroll stands at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Now she’s working on a book about the cowgirl. Quite an art Ann created.
Click on the words "bronze sculpture" to read more about Ann and the sculpture.
Click on the title of Carol's book to go to her Web site.