About me…
My writing life began as a little girl in Manhattan, Kansas, where I’d hide in the gigantic oak behind our duplex, copying out all my favorite stories word for word, until… well, until I didn’t like something that rotten old villain said to the pathetic damsel in distress... or until I wanted a more crashingly romantic ending. Then, with the click of my mighty pen, I'd change the story to make it more exciting, or scarier, or to make it a bigger, more important story.
Somewhere along the way I learned we aren't to copy others but I still read others constantly, still living and learning my life lessons within "story." And I still love editing anything, even more than writing. Editing is my greatest strength.
Now I read for answers. I read for the sound of words strung together on a page, for the feel of print upon paper. I’ll be the last person to “read a book on line" because I want to move into my stories in ways that require afghans and cocoa and fire places and candles and late nights under one small lamp when the rain batters the skylight and hours become the next day. I love the smell of books, their size and mystery, their possibilities. I like to ponder what worlds and mysteries lie between any flat book jackets I’ve yet to crack.
My all-time favorite authors are Reynolds Price, Jodi Picoult, Jacqueline Mitchard and Elizabeth Berg. More recently I've enjoyed Liane Moriarity. I sit at the feet of these authors trying to see all the ways they render simple, clear tales of real people's lives.
My writing life began as a little girl in Manhattan, Kansas, where I’d hide in the gigantic oak behind our duplex, copying out all my favorite stories word for word, until… well, until I didn’t like something that rotten old villain said to the pathetic damsel in distress... or until I wanted a more crashingly romantic ending. Then, with the click of my mighty pen, I'd change the story to make it more exciting, or scarier, or to make it a bigger, more important story.
Somewhere along the way I learned we aren't to copy others but I still read others constantly, still living and learning my life lessons within "story." And I still love editing anything, even more than writing. Editing is my greatest strength.
Now I read for answers. I read for the sound of words strung together on a page, for the feel of print upon paper. I’ll be the last person to “read a book on line" because I want to move into my stories in ways that require afghans and cocoa and fire places and candles and late nights under one small lamp when the rain batters the skylight and hours become the next day. I love the smell of books, their size and mystery, their possibilities. I like to ponder what worlds and mysteries lie between any flat book jackets I’ve yet to crack.
My all-time favorite authors are Reynolds Price, Jodi Picoult, Jacqueline Mitchard and Elizabeth Berg. More recently I've enjoyed Liane Moriarity. I sit at the feet of these authors trying to see all the ways they render simple, clear tales of real people's lives.
From a
mostly idyllic, dreamer-girl childhood, after finishing college at Kansas State
University, I edged toward adulthood in Denver, CO.
I’ve lived, loved and raised three children in Brooklyn and NYC, England,
Kansas, Oklahoma, and finally I’ve come “home” to live in the daily sunshine of Sarasota, Florida.
I’ve taught
writing at Johnson County Community College and private writing classes in
Kansas City and Oklahoma City. I was lucky enough to lead the long standing
Kansas City Writer’s Group with Deborah Shouse and Mary Lane Kamberg, and a similar group called Oklahoma Write Now. I’ve lectured,
edited and taught, while freelancing my own work, over the past thirty years.
Now, more often, I read others but I still love taking on a meaty, challenging editing job, if the writing itself is good and the story-adventure worth taking.
In 1998
Mitchell Lane published my nonfiction children’s book, Rain Forest Girl. In 2012, as a POD Amazon book, I published my first novel, One Right Thing. Over the years, I’ve published over 100 articles, stories and
poems in such publications as Kansas!
Magazine, Teen Life, St. Anthony Messenger, The Family, Magazine for Christian Youth, GRIT,
THE DENVER POST, and the KANSAS CITY STAR. I’ve been a National Respect Diversity Speaker and lectured at teachers' conferences in Kansas and Oklahoma. For many years I was a member of SCBWI, Kansas City Writer’s Group, Missouri Writer’s Guild and
Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. I love to talk writing and books and am happy to hear from writers across the globe. I still take on big editing projects wherever I find them, or whenever they find me. Let me know your
news at: chaliseBourque@gmail.com
