My greatest accomplishment/achievement are my 10 year old twin sons, J & M. They are my only children & my greatest joy. They were two before I learned that yes, twins do run in my family.
Thanks Dad!
Having a book (Lucian's Angel) published was a major accomplishment for me. To think that someone thought my words were special or interesting enough to actually put them in print. Now that's an ego boost. Then to top it off, they accepted my second book, (Cherokee Lightning) a time travel romance. I've written several others but just haven't gotten around to sending them in yet. Life's been pretty busy lately. I've been entering a lot of essay/short story contests this summer, including one for a children's book of all things.
I began writing poetry when I was 10. Some of them have actually been published. My poem entitled, "To Be Set Free", written for my Grandmother Elsie Clark, was published in the 1986 American Poetry Anthology, Vol.VI, #3 & received an Award Of Merit. The poem "My Friend" was published in the 1986 Hearts On Fire: A Treasury of Poems on Love, Vol.III. My favorite poem, "In My Mind" was published in the same Hearts On Fire Vol., then again in 1989 in the New American Poetry Anothology. "In My Mind" received both an Award of Merit and The Golden Poet Award.
In 1990 my poem "Tonight" was selected by Macfadden Women's Group to be published in an issue of True Romance magazine. I declined their offer as they wished to purchase all rights, including copyright to the poem which was at that time entered with most of my others in a local contest (which I did not win).
My poem, "Misty" was a semi-finalist in the 2001 International Open Poetry Contest and though it didn't win, was published in their 2002 Under A Quicksilver Moon edition.
My poem, "The Coming Of Night" just received the Editor's Choice Award (8/06) for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry by Poetry.com and the International Library of Poetry. It is to be one of 33 poems released on a 3 album CD set called 'The Sound of Poetry.' Will also be included in the book, 'Immortal Verses'.
(See my poetry page to read samples).
March 2007. I was informed that I am to be included in
Cambridge's 2007-2008 Who's Who directory!
One of my favorite authors, along with Stephen King & Dean Koontz, is Clyde Edgerton. The last I heard he lives in Durham, NC. Mr. Edgerton has a wonderful sense of humor & often writes about North Carolina locations. Some of his characters remind me so much of people that I've actually known or am related to that at one point I found myself writing him a letter to tell him about some of those coincidences. He was very nice & wrote me a personal letter in return. I've copied it word for word below:
May 14, 1999
Dear Bonnie,
Thanks for your great letter about your family and your hopes to write. It sounds like to me that you have lots of good material to write about --- some very good family stories. I hope you get it all down on paper and perhaps audio tape some of your relatives for those two handsome boys to listen to and play for their children.
And I'm especially glad to hear that the dogcatcher found a home for the dog.
Best Wishes and happy birthday to the boys.
Clyde Edgerton
Now in one of Mr. Edgerton's books, there was a dog scene that reminded me of something. A stray dog wandered into our yard one day & decided to take up residence. I like dogs well enough but personally, I'm a cat lover. As we owned a cat at the time & my boys were much too young for a nearly full grown dog, we determined it was in the best interest of all to call the dogcatcher.
Of course as anyone who has ever called Animal Control knows, they seldom show up on the same day you call which often gives the animal a chance to escape, as did our dog. Three days after our call, the dogcatcher showed up. By then we'd luckily managed to catch & tie him again. It turned out that the dogcatcher or Animal Control Officer I believe they prefer to be called, was a nice guy who had once dated one of my first cousins & we use to be next door neighbors but now neither of us even lived in the same town anymore.
Sadly he told me that their facility didn't have room enough to keep animals for more than a day or so & that the dog's chance of finding a home so quickly wasn't good.Now I'm not going to tell you his name or what town he worked in or anything that might give him a way because even though he no longer holds that job, I wouldn't want him to get into trouble. But my friend had a wonderful idea! He told me about a friend of his who had a very similiar dog that had recently been run over & killed. His friend missed having a dog so the dogcatcher said that he would take the dog to his friend & both would be happy. Of course this was against company policy but we agreed for the record to just say that when the dogcatcher arrived, the dog had already escaped.
END OF STORY
It will hopefully be my pleasure to someday soon let Mr. Edgerton know that he was right. I did find quite a bit of good material to write about!
