About
It's the Best Life
I've always been a writer.
After spending my high school years in Bakersfield, California studying journalism and creative writing, I married, had children, and pursued a paralegal career until a change in my husband’s employment took me far from my expected life.
Resettled in Santa Maria, California, I left the legal field to raise our children, pursued a degree at the local community college, and accidentally began writing again. On graduation, I was awarded the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Edith Pillsbury Creative Writing Scholarship and was then accepted as a Regents Scholar into the literature program at the College of Creative Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara.
At the age of 40, and with encouragement from my family and friends, I moved into the student dorms over an hour away. During the next few years, I studied, wrote, and won awards at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference before the sudden death of my sister Valerie retired my stories to a box in the back of my closet.
Twenty years later, the box has finally been opened and my pen uncapped.
I now teach junior high English in Bakersfield, California, living with my husband of 46 years, our difficult cat, and a mind filled with words.
About The Novella
It’s the summer of 1968, and little sisters Jolene and Corrine are struggling with big changes. Their father’s lost job leads to a series of heartbreaking moves, each one further from the memories of their childhood home. Alongside their father, who is becoming more withdrawn, and their mother, who is now constantly angry and afraid, they enter a new life marked by instability, loss, and hardship.
With little to count on, they find joy in daily adventures, security in family and friends who refuse to forget them, and strength in each other that they never expected.
But can their newfound resilience withstand so much heartbreak?
The Editor
The Editor and Book Coach for the writing and creative phase of Mulberry Seeds is Emily Minster McCorkle of Boerne/Comfort, Texas.
Most people don’t have a clue how hard a job that is. Emily was tenacious in seeking revisions that, in the end, really mattered, sometimes leaving us both muttering and exhausted, but plodding on for the sake of the art.
For months, our real lives melded and intertwined in this magical imaginary world surrounding Corrine and Jolene.
I thank you, Miss Emily, for all of it.
More About the Book
The Artists
So many very talented people helped with Mulberry Seeds. I'm grateful to:
- Lisa and Stephen Davis of Paper Flower Photography in Arroyo Grande, California, for the author photos.
- Eric Byrne of Cheshire Grin Photography of Portland, Oregon, who captured Corrine (years before we met) in the photo above.
- Terrie England, who spent hours aging the photos and drawings to get just the look I wanted.
- Gidget Thursday McCorkle, who drew the family tree that everyone should have, including the relatives you want in the dirt.
Thank you all.
Inspiration and Production Coach
This book would not have been possible without the help of author and friend Daniel Gatlin and his wife, Stephanie, my book coach during the production phase of Mulberry Seeds.
Daniel and I were teaching colleagues during my first years returning to California. I discovered that he was writing his first book, Maiden to None, during an informal workshop group we created during Covid. After his book was released, his success inspired me to try, to dig the box of stories out of the closet, and to not leave this world wishing I had published Mulberry Seeds.
Once I decided to do so, his wife Stephanie stepped in and agreed to help as a post-writing book coach. She said it wasn’t a big deal, but I know how many hours of frustration and crying she saved me. For me, it really was a big deal.
Thank you, Stephanie and Daniel, for believing in me and in this project.
The Illustrator
An artist for the sketches in Mulberry Seeds was difficult to find. Attempts to draw the glimpses of Corrine's and Jolene's world were too detailed and complicated. None of them had the feel of someone who lived the era of the 1960s. Until I found my sister, Debra Armstrong.
Debra dabbled in sketching when she was a child, but spent most of her time chastising herself for being imperfect. Although she went on to create art in electronic media, she never really trusted herself to produce work from her own hand. With Mulberry Seeds, she decided to try.
After a lot of fussing and more than one difficult discussion, she came through with the chapter sketches that were exactly what we were looking for.
Contact the author for more information about Debra Armstrong and her work.