One of the sweetest joys of teaching is reveling in your students’ successes. So I was thrilled when I arrived home yesterday to find RAISING ABEL in my mailbox. I worked with its deeply talented author (who is publishing under the name Carolyn Nash for this project) last summer at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. She astounded us all with the power of her story about raising two adopted sons, one of whom had suffered extreme abuse in his previous family. Here is an interview she recently conducted about adoption, writing, and life. 
Tell us about yourself.
I am the very lucky mother of two sons, 21 and 6. I say lucky because they are adopted and I swear I got the two best in the world. What are the chances? I mean one, sure, but two? Unfortunately, my older son didn’t come to me until he was almost 4, and much happened in his early years. My younger son came to me at 3 weeks and is deliciously obnoxious as 6-year-olds are supposed to be. I have never married, the reasons for which, along with the story of my older son’s life, are chronicled in Raising Abel.
When did you begin writing?
I began writing in earnest in high school. I remember getting all wrapped up in a story of two brothers on a coach in the 1800s going somewhere, always in constant danger. I wish I still had that story. It would be fun to see how my writing has changed. Through the years I’ve worked on numerous short stories, and have completed three novels in addition to Raising Abel. Besides stories published in a newspaper for which I worked many years ago, Raising Abel is the first story or book that I have published.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
That’s actually an important question for me. I am plagued by self-doubts, like many of us. Last summer I went to a writing conference on the northern coast of California. As part of the registration, I was required to submit a sample of my writing. I submitted a chapter from my unfinished memoir, Raising Abel, and thought no more about it. A few weeks later I was notified that my chapter won not only first prize in the conference writing contest, but also a fellowship that paid my Read the rest of this entry »
