Here's the bio that I've been working on most of the day. I'd appreciate any suggestions for improvement. Carolyn Schriber hated history classes
when she was growing up because they required little but memorization. Once she
was so bored by the material that instead of answering an essay exam on the Revolutionary
War, she filled in the space by writing several verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The professor gave her an A, which may have suggested that he was as tired of names
and dates as she was. Or maybe he was just impressed that she knew more than the
first verse. Eventually, however, she discovered a teacher who was an enthusiastic
story-teller, and her love of history blossomed. While her husband served as a career
Air Force officer, she taught high school Latin and English wherever they happened
to be stationed. Then she went on to earn her doctoral degree in medieval history
from the University of Colorado and spent the last seventeen years of her teaching
career as the kind of college professor she had always wanted to have. After her retirement from teaching at Rhodes College, Schriber used her training and talents to examine
a little-known event at the beginning of the Civil War. Taking her great-uncle’s
letters as a starting point, she analyzed the strategic errors that turned the Battle
of Secessionville into a rout (A Scratch with
the Rebels, 2007). Then she looked at the life of a nurse who was present at
that battle (Beyond All Price, 2010).
A missionary who arrived to care for abandoned slaves became the subject of another
biography (The Road to Frogmore, 2011).
Most recently she has been writing about civilians whose lives were forever disrupted
by these events (Left by the Side of the Road,
2012, and Damned Yankee, 2014). The result
is a five-volume series, “The Civil War in South Carolina’s Low Country.” Two of
the books have received medals from the Military Writers Society of America—a bronze
medal for Beyond All Price and a silver
medal for The Road to Frogmore. In 2009, tired of the rigmarole and
delays of traditional publishing, Schriber decided to become a self-publisher. She
founded her own company, Katzenhaus Books, and since then has assumed total responsibility
for producing six of her own books, including
second editions of two that had formerly been issued by traditional houses.
(The name “Katzenhaus“ came from the four cats
who share their house with Carolyn and her husband and who spend their days
in her office, making sure she keeps writing.) Being an independent publisher, she
notes, is not easy. It involves dealing with skilled professionals who provide
editing, design, formatting, and printing. It also calls for knowledge of computer
programs, social media, public relations, and finance. But it also has its own rewards,
giving the author-publisher complete control over the final product and a closer
relationship with customers. In 2012, Schriber turned her experiences as a self-publisher
into a manual for others hoping to follow the same path. The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese won a silver medal in the category
of Business from the Military Writers Society of America. She now uses that book
as a text for addressing writers’ groups and for working in a one-on-one relationship
with aspiring writers. Six Fun Facts You Didn't Know About Me: 1. The only time I ever cheated on a test was when my eighth-grade
history teacher made us list from memory all the American presidents in order,with
the dates of their terms. I decided it was perfectly reasonable to cheat on an unreasonable
assignment, but I still feel guilty about it. 2. I’ve had at least one cat ever since I was three years old.
It is my husband, however, who started the practice of having more than one at a
time. 3. On my first day as a high school English teacher, the principal
presented me with my very own paddle—made of lemonwood, holes drilled through it
to make it whistle, and the paddle portion slit into two horizontal layers in order
to deliver two swats for the price of one.
Imagine that happening today! 4. My first job, at age sixteen, was fitting girdles in the ladies’
underwear department of our town’s only
department store.I lasted two days. 5. The best dessert I ever ate was a bacon sundae—vanilla ice
cream topped with maple syrup and crumbled bacon—at an Italian restaurant on Hilton
Head Island. 6. In my spare time, I am an active member of Lions Clubs
International, working with others to provide assistance to those who are
visually impaired and to help eradicate preventable blindness around the world. |