WHAT'S C J WORKING ON NOW?
I'm working on a third novel tentatively called Vestal Virgin. I enter several poetrycontests throughout the year and this is my third year of judging for The Poetry Society of Kentucky.
HOW I CAME TO WRITE
I've wanted to be a writer as long as I can remember. In fact, here's a little vignette: When I was in highschool, I answered one of those ads in the back of magazines for THE FAMOUS WRITER'S SCHOOL (you know those ads that say DRAW ME? Those are for the Art School, for the Writer's School you had to write something like how to fry eggs). Anyway, I had illusions of being the next J.K. Rowling, but when the salesman came to the door (yes, they did door solicitation) and was politely invited in to go over my test scores, I could see the hairs bristling on my parent's necks. While I was told I had "potential", (which excited me to no end) my parents had other ideas. The salesman was politely shown the door and my dreams were quickly squashed with that age old adage: You need a real job! plus a few other thoughts we'll leave to expletives. But dreams die hard.
Several years later, I attended Community College and the draw of Creative Writing beckoned to me. Again, I received good grades, nice comments. Only a one semester class, I wondered where to go from there. Life always pops in surprises when you least expect and once again writing was put on the back burner. Like a dead body that won't stay at the bottom of the lake, in a few years, the writing bug rose again and I took another class. That provided me with my first professional success. A magazine article. I went on to have a couple other articles published before another hiatus.
When we moved to Iowa I was solely in charge of running a small motel. Often, I was too busy to write, yet at other times, I had time on my hands. I enrolled in a correspondence course through the famous University of Iowa. Now, we're cookin'! This was much more pro than anything I'd encountered in Community College. I loved the assignments and challenges they brought. But, once again, we were headed for a move.
Wyoming was everything I wanted it to be (well, almost). After becoming acquainted with the territory, I began writing poems and making notes for Wyoming Dreamer. That was over ten years ago. So, you can see it has been an on/off love affair. But like Hemingway, I was too close to my material to be objective. It took another move to Arkansas to get me disciplined to finish the book.
I wrote my second book Marry Me Under the Mistletoe in 2011 and am currently working on a third, tentatively titled Vestal Virgin.
Meanwhile, I am wife, mother, reader, cook, and chief bottle washer. When not consumed with household projects, I've got nine cats and two big dogs to love and care for. I love animals and am an animal rights advocate.
You can contact me at http://www.cjclarkwrites.blogspot.com/, writerbks@netscape.net, or armidillo72542@yahoo.com. I'm also on www.twitter.com/cjclarkwrites and Facebook.
