false 9682 8 2 http://www.clpearson.com/about_me.htm

In fourth grade, in Gusher, Utah, I won four dollars in a school district essay contest on “Why We Should Eat a Better Breakfast.” And yes, this morning I had a bowl of my own excellent granola, followed by a hike in the hills near my home in Walnut Creek, California.

In high school I began writing in earnest. I have now in my files a folder marked “Poetry, Very Bad,” and another, “Poetry, Not Quite So Bad.” Writing served a good purpose for that very dramatic, insecure adolescent. Also at that time I began to keep a diary, which I still maintain and which has been indescribably useful to me both as a writer and as a pilgrim on the earth.

After graduating from Brigham Young University with an MA in theatre, teaching for a year in Utah at Snow College, and traveling for a year, I taught part-time at BYU in the English department and was then hired by the motion picture studio on campus to write educational and religious screenplays.

While performing at the university as Mrs. Antrobus in Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” I met and fell in love with Gerald Pearson, a shining, blond, enthusiastic young man, who fell in love with me and my poems.

“We’ve got to get them published,” he said on our honeymoon, and soon dragged me up to the big city, Salt Lake City, to see who would be first in line to publish them. “Poetry doesn’t sell,” insisted everyone we spoke to, and I, somewhat relieved, put publishing on the list of things to do posthumously.

But not Gerald. “Then I’ll publish them,” he said. Borrowing two thousand dollars, he created a company called “Trilogy Arts” and published two thousand copies of a book called Beginnings, a slim, hard-back volume with a white cover that featured a stunning illustration, “God in Embryo,” by our good friend Trevor Southey, now an internationally known artist. On the day in autumn of 1967 that Gerald delivered the books by truck to our little apartment in Provo, I was terrified. I really had wanted to do this posthumously.

Beginnings

Today
You came running
With a small specked egg
Warm in your hand.
You could barely understand,
I know,
As I told you of Beginnings–
Of egg and bird.

Told, too,
That years ago you began,
Smaller than sight.
And then,
As egg yearns for sky
And seed stretches to tree,
You became–
Like me.

Oh,
But there’s so much more.
You and I, child,
Have just begun.

Think:
Worlds from now
What might we be?–
We, who are seed
Of Deity.

We toted a package of books up to the BYU bookstore, and asked to see the book buyer. “Well,” she said, “nobody ever buys poetry, but since you’re a local person, let me take four on consignment.” As they came in packages of twenty, we persuaded her to take twenty--on consignment. Next day she called and asked, “Those books you brought up here. Do you have any more of them?”

I had anticipated that the two thousand books, now stacked in our little closet and under our bed and in my Daddy’s garage, would last us years and years as wedding presents. But immediately we ordered a second printing. Beginnings sold over 150,000 copies before we gave it to Doubleday and then to Bookcraft.

Beginnings was followed by other volumes of poetry: The Search, The Growing Season, A Widening View, I Can’t Stop Smiling, and Women I Have Known and Been. Most of the poems from the earlier books now appear in a compilation, Beginnings and Beyond. The poems have been widely reprinted in such places as Ann Landers’ column, the second volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and college textbooks such as Houghton Mifflin’s Structure and Meaning: an Introduction to Literature. That first little volume of verse, and my husband’s determination, laid the foundation for my entire career.

Another characteristic of my husband was to have a profound effect on both ]]> female 710136 1555179843 9781555179847 54 <![CDATA[Goodbye, I Love You]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177521485m/710136.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177521485s/710136.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710136.Goodbye_I_Love_You 3.75 221 9682 3.95 1222 252 1986 710133 0879058625 9780879058623 28 <![CDATA[The Lesson: A Fable for Our Times]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177521469m/710133.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177521469s/710133.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710133.The_Lesson_A_Fable_for_Our_Times 4.42 112 9682 3.95 1222 252 1998 15657 0829417621 9780829417623 25 <![CDATA[A Stranger for Christmas: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166676844m/15657.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166676844s/15657.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15657.A_Stranger_for_Christmas_A_Novel 3.95 94 9682 3.95 1222 252 1984 424620 0963885243 9780963885241 27 <![CDATA[No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons Around Our Gay Loved Ones]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174622477m/424620.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174622477s/424620.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/424620.No_More_Goodbyes_Circling_the_Wagons_Around_Our_Gay_Loved_Ones 4.17 82 9682 3.95 1222 252 2007 1271490 082941763X 9780829417630 15 <![CDATA[The Modern Magi: A Christmas Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182401985m/1271490.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182401985s/1271490.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1271490.The_Modern_Magi_A_Christmas_Novel 3.85 67 9682 3.95 1222 252 1994 1933005 0385079044 9780385079044 5 <![CDATA[Beginnings]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1933005.Beginnings 4.16 58 9682 3.95 1222 252 1975 1168549 1586851764 9781586851767 11 <![CDATA[Consider the Butterfly]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181590395m/1168549.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181590395s/1168549.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1168549.Consider_the_Butterfly 3.80 55 6 x 7 in, 144 pp, Rights: W, Inspiration

At some point in our lives, we have all experienced synchronicities, those amazing coincidences that offer short glimpses into the backstage of life, the hidden order of things. Carol Lynn Pearson has for years kept track of the coincidences in her days, looking at them with a poet's eye for metaphor and meaning: a pan of "mama's cinnamon rolls" appears in the first shot of a movie just minutes after she and her sister reminisce on that favorite childhood food; a smiley face pops up on the computer screen during the writing of her daughter's funeral service; eight butterflies appear within an hour, not on the wing but in the word, bringing a message of transformation and hope. Learning the language of synchronicity can help each of us to more frequently access and recognize the wisdom of the divine. After reading Consider the Butterfly, you will never again see the events in your daily life as just events. You will start to see your name on messages sent special delivery, giving helpful clues on your own personal journey.

Carol Lynn Pearson has established an impressive career as a best-selling author of more than thirty books and plays. With Consider the Butterfly: Stories of Meaningful Coincidence, Carol Lynn moves her relationship with readers in a new and more intimate direction, sharing personal stories in "an innocent and awesome show-and-tell" of her experience with the phenomenon of synchronicity. Carol Lynn is the mother of four grown children and lives in Walnut Creek, California.

]]> 9682 3.95 1222 252 2002 1271501 0884943011 9780884943013 3 <![CDATA[The Growing Season]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1271501.The_Growing_Season 3.93 41 9682 3.95 1222 252 1976 881190 1555179274 9781555179274 8 <![CDATA[The Runaway Mother]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179159965m/881190.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179159965s/881190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/881190.The_Runaway_Mother 3.61 41 9682 3.95 1222 252 2006 366347 0879059591 9780879059590 5 <![CDATA[Will You Still be My Daughter? (Fable for Our Times, 3)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174153079m/366347.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174153079s/366347.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/366347.Will_You_Still_be_My_Daughter_ 4.25 32 9682 3.95 1222 252 2001