Carolyn J. Rose was born and raised in Bearsville, New York, a hamlet within the township of Woodstock. (Yes, that’s the Woodstock, but that’s another story and it’s in another place on this site.)
Except for the usual sibling rivalries, she had a happy childhood with a loving extended family. She did well in school, made friends, and even cleaned her room occasionally.
When she sold a poem to Seventeen, however, she decided to overcome those obstacles and become a writer. Searching back through her journal, she found almost no angst, upheaval, and persecution that wasn’t self-generated. There was hardly enough material for a short story let alone a novel. She realized she would have to change her life. Being a Virgo, the first thing she did was to make a plan.
Step One: Get out of town. Decent grades created the opportunity, and a quarter-mile walk to the school bus stop in an age when dress codes didn’t allow girls to wear slacks provided the incentive. The agony of scurrying along with paint-peeling, sub-freezing, sleet-laden, Catskill Mountain winds nipping at her knees put the University of Arizona on the top of her list.
Step Two: Get some varied experience and meet some interesting characters. No problem. By now it was the late Sixties. It would have been harder NOT to take step two. Enough said.
Step Three: Break away from writing critical critiques of the analysis of the criticism of great literature and get more experience in the real world. She left graduate school and joined Volunteers in Service to America, landing in Little Rock, Arkansas. After two years as a VISTA, she married a fellow volunteer and went to work for the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women.
What was the status of women then? Well, when Carolyn and her husband bought a house, she saw two lines at the bottom of the contract. One was marked “owner” and the other was marked “wife.” Get the picture? In an effort to generate more angst, she crossed out “wife” and wrote in “co-owner.” That did the trick, eventually leading to the question, “Aren’t you happy being a wife?” and then to divorce court.
Step Four: Learn to write fast, on deadline, and for demanding bosses. After a one-day stint working for an employment agency (too much piped-in music, too little time for lunch), Carolyn landed a job writing commercial and promotional pieces for KATV television. Two years later, divorced and the sole support of a three-legged foxhound named Sebastian, she talked her way into the newsroom and became a researcher. A few years later, while visiting New Mexico, she applied for a job in Albuquerque and got it.
For the next eight years she worked as a news writer, producer, and assignment editor at television stations KOAT and KRQE (then KGGM). Later, she would draw on this background to write Consulted to Death, Driven to Death, and Dated to Death. But meanwhile, after a number of bad dating selections from the smorgasbord of single life, she hooked up with Mike Nettleton. In a scene lacking in tradition, but filled with humor, they were married between games of the NCAA Final Four and soon moved to Eugene, Oregon, where Carolyn worked as an executive news producer for KVAL television.
Step Five: Find more time to write. After five years in Eugene, the intrepid travelers moved on to Portland, Oregon, and then Vancouver, Washington, where Carolyn worked for a cable news operation. When the company folded its broadcast tent, she dusted off her teaching credential and began subbing in area high schools. The pay wasn’t much, but the opportunities to observe human nature were enormous and the summer vacations were long.
Step Six: Learn more about novelcraft and what makes good writing work. Carolyn interned with writing coach and author Elizabeth Lyon and began editing manuscripts for other writers. Using what she’d learned, she set up a novel-writing boot camp through Clark College Continuing Education and now teaches several other classes as well.
She and Mike began writing together and published The Hard Karma Shuffle, The Crushed Velvet Miasma, and The Hermit of Humbug Mountain (SynergEbooks). After a break to tackle individual projects, they teamed up again to write The Big Grabowski, the first of the Devil’s Harbor series (Krill Press 2009) and will release two more in 2010.
Working together isn’t for the faint of heart; arguments over characterization or use of excessive adjectives sometimes threaten to escalate beyond mere verbal assault.
Step Seven: Share experiences and information with other writers and support their efforts. In 2006, Carolyn and Mike began hosting monthly writers’ mixers at Cover to Cover Books in Vancouver, roping in writers and writing coaches to talk about craft and encouraging writers to support and form critique groups. In 2009 they passed the organizational torch, but continue to support the monthly mixers.
Step Eight: Keep writing. There are days when gardening, tightrope walking, or painting the Golden Gate Bridge seem like far more soothing and rewarding pastimes. But let’s not forget that way-back-when conclusion—erroneous though it might be—that angst, upheaval, and persecution provide incentive and material for a writer. A writer who quits writing will always wonder if the next project could have been THE ONE.
Step Nine: Celebrate each success. Find a place with an extensive happy-hour menu and a variety of drinks with little umbrellas and go there as often as you can find an excuse.
