Carolyn MacCullough
~ Young Adult Author ~
“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” — Gloria Steinem
Once I get past my compelling desire to bake brownies, run five miles (and I’m no way, shape or form a runner) do the laundry, mop the floor, and dust the ceiling, I kind of know what she means.
I was born and raised in Connecticut. I had a relatively drama-free childhood and this is what probably caused me, at an early age, to fall in love with books. I spent every possible minute reading and I think I always wanted to be a writer. However, I also wanted to be a: a.) ballerina, b.) pilot, and c.) princess in a tower. Over time though, I discovered that: a.) I was a little too clumsy, b.) I had a love/hate relationship with heights, (mainly I loved them when I was on the ground) and c.) there wasn’t much call for princesses in towers.
Meanwhile, I was always scribbling things down: odes to the dogwood tree in my front yard, poems about my sisters, stories about dragons, and yes, princesses in towers. After I graduated with a BA in Theatre from Grinnell College, I eventually wound up in New York working at a desk job during the day (I remember taking quite a few naps under that desk) and going to school for my Masters in Creative Writing at The New School at night. In May 2002, I graduated and shortly afterward, to my delight and shock, I managed to sell my first novel, Falling Through Darkness, to Roaring Brook Press. And then my life just turned into a magical fairytale complete with unbelievable wealth, fame, endless cotton candy, and my own personal unicorn.
No, really, it did.
Actually, I found myself abroad explaining the differences between the present continuous and the past perfect to a bunch of Sicilians. When I returned from teaching English, I spent some time traveling up and down the East Coast of the United States before I found myself back in New York. Since then I have taught creative writing to adults and teenagers, composition to some very unenthusiastic freshmen, and more ESL. Oh, and I published two more books, Stealing Henry and Drawing the Ocean. My fourth novel, Once a Witch, (my first urban fantasy) was published by Clarion in Fall 2009 and the paperback came out September 2010. The sequel, Always a Witch, was released August 2011.
I’m still waiting on the unicorn, though.
Carolyn MacCullough 