About Carolyn Mulford
I grew up on a farm near Kirksville, Missouri, the inspiration for the setting of my first middle-grade novel, The Feedsack Dress. I spent my summers working in the fields, pumping water for the milk cows, and reading books that took me to other times and places.
Here are some of the places I’ve gone and things I’ve done.
Dessie, Ethiopia: As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I taught English and helped build a school for lepers receiving long-term treatment in a leprosarium.
Vienna, Austria: As a staff member of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, I edited an international technical magazine.
Washington, D.C.: As the editor of Synergist, I wrote and edited articles about outstanding service-learning programs in the United States. Since then I’ve written hundreds of articles and three nonfiction books. I’ve also edited such national newsletters as Writing That Works.
Columbia, Missouri: As a freelancer, I divide my time between writing fiction and nonfiction.
Living in other countries made me aware that people everywhere share basic goals, but each individual, time, and place is unique. I wanted to capture one special time and place, and I chose 1949, the year electricity came to my part of rural Missouri and enabled farmers to produce more and live better.
