Today we’d like to introduce you to Diane Covington Carter
Diane, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am an award-winning writer but if you had told me that I would become that early in life, I would have said, “no way!”
I had a bad experience as a freshman at UCLA where a teaching assistant wrote all over my papers in red ink, I felt humiliated and ashamed and at 17, decided I would stay as far away from writing as possible.
That worked for the first two years, but then, as a junior, I had to write papers and panicked.
Luckily, I stumbled into a place on campus called ‘the Learning Skills Center’, and a kind man helped me work through those emotions and find the strong places in my writing.
Week by week, we worked together, and I discovered I liked writing again and that I had a voice and something to say. He is one of the angels in my life for sure.
For the past 30 years, I have been writing articles and books and teaching creative writing and my passion for writing continues to increase as time goes by.
The awards have been mounting up in the past few years, which is a delight as I am of the age that most people are retired, and I feel like I am just getting started. I call myself a ‘Late Bloomer Baby Boomer’.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For many years, I had to support myself in ways that did not leave me the energy to write. Now I can focus on writing, and I am so grateful.
Some of the struggles facing writers are to find your authentic voice and to be willing to be open and vulnerable. Experience and years of writing have made that easier for me and I also feel that writing is a tool for personal growth and development that is available to everyone, with just a pen and a journal.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have written three memoirs and one Young Adult Fiction book. I am proud of the fact that I wrote two of the books in the last five years, one memoir and my fiction book, and they have both received prestigious awards.
One of my books, “Eight Months in Provence, a Junior Year Abroad Thirty Years Late,” has been successful because it recounts how I fulfilled a dream that I had carried for 30 years. Readers have written to me that they are inspired to not give up on their own dreams after reading it. That book is just coming out on audible.
I love that I have contributed to readers and the reviews that they write let me know that my books do that.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I believe that risk taking is a key to a powerful life. Forty-five years ago, I risked signing up for a course that involved a ropes course, jumping off a mountain on a zip line, rappelling down a steep cliff and pulling myself across a canyon with two ropes.
I was terrified of heights, but something inside of me made me do it and I am so glad that I trusted that. The man that led the course, which lasted for six days away at a mountain resort in the summertime, impressed me.
After the experience of completing the course, I left an unhappy marriage and took the risk of going out on my own with two little daughters. I had learned that I could be afraid and go ahead anyway.
Those years as a single mother involved many different risks, but I discovered my resilience and determination to succeed despite daunting challenges.
The amazing piece of this story is that after 30 years, I thought of the man who had led the ropes course all those years before and decided to reach out and thank him for the difference he made in my life. After finding him on the internet and reaching out, I ordered a book he had written.
The book was not as dynamic as I remembered him being and I took the risk to reach out again and tell him that as an award-winning writer, I wanted to help him to improve his book.
He said sure and even though he was living in New Zealand at the time, we met when he was visiting California, and the 15-year anniversary of that meeting is in October. We also celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary in June.
So that first risk 45 years ago has had an amazing domino effect in my life that is full of blessings and wonderful surprises.
I risked at age 50 to move to France for eight months, to do my “Junior Year Abroad Thirty Years Late”. I went to a town, Aix-en-Provence, where I had visited for two days, knew no one, and created a vibrant life there that exceeded my dreams and expectations of that time.
As I mentioned above, my book, “Eight Months in Provence, My Junior Year Abroad Thirty Years Late” tells that story.
Pricing:
- My books are all available on Amazon, reasonable priced for the Kindle and Paperback editions
- $14.95 for books
- $4.99 for e-books
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dianecovingtoncarter.com/
- Instagram: dianecovingtoncarter
- Facebook: Diane Covington-Carter, Award-Winning Writer
- LinkedIn: Diane Covington-Carter
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Gilbert-Fulfilled-Diane-Covington-Carter/dp/0991044673
Image Credits
The top four are my book covers and the cover for my Young Adult Novel, “Beautiful Courage,” was drawn by Susan Whiting. The rest were generated by me.
The four photographs are my photographs, New Zealand, Paris, Quebec City and Nevada City, California.