One of the Founders of The Art of Writing, Carolyn spent more than 40 years as an award-winning reporter and editor for news organizations across the country, including the Associated Press and the Charlotte Observer. She retired in 2015 as editor and vice president of the McClatchy-owned paper in Myrtle Beach, S.C., The Sun News.

After retirement, she wanted to return to an early love, fiction, and recently completed her first novel, a middle grade/young adult book.

Honeysuckle Girl is the story of a horse-crazy teen with a sixth sense that allows her to see ghosts and sense danger. When fire claims the lives of their parents, Belle Finch and her bratty baby brother end up on a journey with a grandmother they didn’t know they had, to a place they’d never heard of. The grandmother, Sukie, is as prickly as a blackberry bramble, and the place, Pawleys Island, S.C., is as strange and foreign as Hogwarts was to Harry Potter. But Sukie and her new home hold clues to Belle’s past, and the keys to a new life.

The novel now has a publishing home and is due to launch in 2026. Stay tuned.