About Caroline

Author

My Story

Horses were Caroline’s first love, and she figures much of her earliest love of story came through the horse books she devoured. Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion became her first inspiration to write a novel herself. But her passion for horses faded while her passion for story grew. By the time she graduated high school, she knew she wanted to be a writer like Jo March and Anne Shirley. She had written two “manuscripts,” but knew she had nothing to publish yet.

In her early twenties, she took a writing course and drafted a novel set during the Civil War. But she didn’t like it. And once the course was over and the accountability gone, her writing flagged, moving over in favor of a new interest: raising backyard geese. But as she edged closer to thirty, she started thinking more about that old passion for words. She believed God had given her a gift, and she needed to find out how he wanted her to use it.

So she buckled down to start a new novel, a fantasy. Then God used the pandemic lockdown to provide a local writing friend. With some encouragement and accountability, she got the fantasy first draft across the finish line. But getting it through a first revision (aka rewrite) has been more challenging. At thirty-three, she finally attended her first writer’s conference, and the following year, her first editor’s conference—both wonderful, encouraging experiences.

As she steps not-always-so-bravely into whatever adventure her Savior has for her, she seeks to take to heart this advice from Andrew Peterson’s Adorning the Dark:

“Either you steward the gift God gave you by stepping into the ring and fighting for it, or you spend your life in training, cashing in excuse after excuse until there’s no fight left, no song, no story.”

What will stewarding that gift end up looking like? Caroline figures she’ll have to keep going forward to find out.

Caroline has been metaphorically wearing a red pencil behind her ear since at least high school. She edited letters and school papers for family members, creative writing for friends, and of course, her own novellas. She daydreamed about editing for a publishing house, or being the publisher. But since even becoming an editor seemed like a lengthy and out-of-reach process, she gave up on the idea. Well, sort of. She still searched editing careers and kept circling back to the idea of freelancing.

Then she saw a logo for The PEN Institute on the website of an author. Caroline figured if she’d found some high-quality writing courses through an add, why not editing? Almost 4 years and 9 courses later, Caroline is thrilled to offer freelance manuscript critiques. Full developmental edits will become available soon, Lord willing. She edits to help fellow authors visualize the shape of their work and prune it to look its best.

Click here for more details on the kinds of manuscripts Caroline edits.