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CAROLYN IS A CONTRIBUTOR TO THE PENINSULA PULSE AND
THE DOOR COUNTY MAGAZINE
Last summer Carolyn was delighted when she was asked to write a series of book reviews and commentary essays for the Peninsula Pulse, a newspaper that covers current events, art, literature, and entertainment. The offices of the Pulse are located in Door County, Wisconsin, where Carolyn spends her summers. She wrote on a variety of topics. “A Book of Shadows” dealt with the reclusive author Harper Lee and her recently discovered novel Go Set a Watchman—or is it really a novel? “An Afternoon Antiquing” described the strange discoveries of a group of friends who were happily browsing in the local antique malls. And in “Life in Paradise,” Carolyn reflected on the disturbing Fox television series Wayward Pines.
Carolyn was also pleased by the publication of her first adult short story “The Bears of Newport,” in the Door County Magazine (her earlier stories were written for children).”Bears” tell the story of a young woman, newly moved to northern Wisconsin, who struggles against a swirling blizzard and worries about the possibility that bears may have taken up residence near her house. She also finds herself growing interested in a wildlife vet, a pleasant young man who keeps insisting that she adopt an abandoned collie puppy.
Taking Jenny Home is a “Best Book” of 2014.
Carolyn was delighted when she learned that her juvenile fantasy novel Taking Jenny Home had been named to Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014. In a starred review, Kirkus critics describe Taking Jenny Home as an “absorbing tale of a shape-shifting Irish wizard, a lethal ghost, a cursed island and a modern-day young girl who may be able to put everything right.” The reviewers praised Carolyn’s craftsmanship and described the novel's climax as a “satisfying, fiery crescendo of magical events.”
Carolyn is a Midwest author who enjoys reading and writing about ghosts, wizards, mermaids, and other mysterious creatures. In a more serious mood, she reads David McCullough's books about American history and attends plays by William Shakespeare. Other favorite writers include Mark Twain, J.K. Rowling, Suzanne Collins, Amanda Hocking, Jane Austen, and Rita Mae Brown (whose co-author is a cat named Sneaky Pie Brown). Carolyn is not ashamed to admit that during the late 1960s, she was a devoted fan of both Star Trek and the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows.
Taking Jenny Home......
Taking Jenny Home is set on mysterious Merlin’s Island off the coast of Maine. The story begins with 12-year-old Kaitlin Delaney gazing out to sea and silently praying for the assistance of Manannan Mac Lir, a sea-wizard who is the fabled protector of the Irish people. Who else can save her family’s business, a bed-and-breakfast inn, from the legendary curse of the island? But Kaitlin and her adveturous cousin Kirk are astonished when a small boat sails out of a thunderstorm, bearing a giant of a man who introduces himself to the Delaneys as Michael McClure (McClure? Mac Lir?) Wizard or not, Michael will need all the help he can get from Kaitlin and Kirk if he is to solve the mystery of the island's resident ghost, Jenny White, a bleeding child who haunts the deadly cliffs of Raven Head. Does Jenny keep the island's curse alive?