October 2000 Meeting - CWC Mt. Diablo Branch

October 2000 meeting of the Mt. Diablo Branch of CWC

Click here for photos taken at the meeting

Carol Lynn Pearson

Many of us find ourselves overwhelmed with writing ideas; inspiration is everywhere, from TV to newspapers, to the two women talking a bit too loudly in the seat ahead of us on BART. But which to choose? Carol Lynn Pearson titles her talk, "Listening to the Oracle;" she proposes to help us identify the recurring themes in our lives, the ones our souls insist on addressing. These "invitations to writing" will probably net us more productive writing time with fewer false starts. If we write from the core of ourselves, our words are more likely to resonate with others.

Pearson has been writing for 35 years and is also a noted speaker. She began with poetry and was happy to turn her self-published work, Beginnings, over to Doubleday, thus increasing its circulation. Poems of hers are picked up by Ann Landers and the writers of the "Chicken Soup" series.

In 1986, she did a national book tour including the major talk shows to discuss her work, Goodbye, I Love You. This popular work, now being developed for TV, tells the tale of her 12 year marriage to a homosexual man, the four children they shared, their divorce and ongoing friendship until his death.

Pearson also enjoys performing across the US and abroad in her one-woman show, Mother Wove the Morning. She plays 16 women searching for the female face of God. Ms. Pearson is the mother of four grown children and lives in Walnut Creek, California.(More about Pearson below the two green lines).

Ms. Pearson wrote to our speaker chairperson:
"Topic? Let's call it, "Listening to the Oracle." I will discuss, among other things, observing carefully the events of our lives for recurring themes, themes that our soul insists upon us addressing, themes that, if taken seriously can provide important invitations for writing. Somber . . . but I will also tell some excellent jokes!"

The following accompanied the note above.

Writing History -- Carol Lynn Pearson

I have been a professional writer for thirty-five years. My most widely-known book on the national level has been Goodbye, I Love You, which was published by Random House in 1986. It tells the story of my life with my husband, a homosexual man, our twelve-year marriage, our four children, our divorce, our ongoing friendship and my caring for him in my home as he died of AIDS. That book took me on a national tour with appearances on the major talk shows. It sold 40,000 copies in hardback, well over a hundred thousand in paperback. At present it is being developed for television by Hearst Entertainment.

A Stranger for Christmas, published by St. Martin's Press in 1996, had a large sale. Also with St. Martin's is Morning Glory Mother, released in 1997. Fall of 1998 saw the release of The Modern Magi with St. Martin's, a Christmas story that is being filmed the summer of 2000. Gibbs Smith published The Lesson in 1998, What Love Is in 1999, Will You Still Be My Daughter in 2000, and in fall of 2000 will publish Girlfriend, You Are the Best! as well as Fuzzy Red Bathrobe: Questions From the Heart for Mothers and Daughters.

My first major success in writing, however, was in the unlikely area of poetry. My first book, Beginnings (self-published initially and then taken over by Doubleday and then Bookcraft), has sold over 150,000 copies, and subsequent books have also sold extremely well--The Growing Season, A Widening Vie , and Women I Have Known and Been. Ann Landers has twice used a poem of mine in her column, and more recently the second volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul carries one of my poems. My poems have also appeared in college literary textbooks, such as Houghton Mifflin's Structure and Meaning: An Introduction to Literature.

Other of my writings include another book for Random House, One on the Seesaw: the Ups and Downs of a Single-Parent Family, several books on the history of Utah women, a juvenile novel, a book on diary keeping, several books of humor, a variety of children's stage musicals (two commissioned by Robert Redford's Sundance Theatre), numerous educational motion pictures (one that has become a classic and received many international awards, Cipher in the Snow), and a variety of magazine articles.

For the last ten years, a major project of mine has been performing a one-woman play I wrote, Mother Wove the Morning, in which I play sixteen women throughout history in search of the female face of God. I have performed the play now over 300 times across the country and abroad. Three years ago I produced a videotape of the play, which earned an award from "Booklist" as "one of the top 25 videos of the year."

I am also in demand as a speaker. Recently I addressed a national conference of women judges and an international conference of Sisters of Mercy.

Internet references to Carol Lynn Pearson

Quote from her play Mother Wove the Morning

Order Plays