THE SWORD SWALLOWER'S DAUGHTER. Life is anything but a carnival when your father's a sword swallower, your mother's an Avon lady and their divorce sends you searching out secrets. (Cover graphic is for illustration only.)

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ON THE ROAD IN BAJA. Follow me this week as I head out for adventures in Loreto, Mexico, once a sleepy fishing village on the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez. Jacques Costeau called the Sea of Cortez "the world's aquarium" because of its diverse marine life.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Ideas are dreams made productive in the waking world. ~Carolyn Burns Bass

BACKSPACE CONFERENCE: For Serious Writers Only 2009 Backspace Conference: May 27-30.

Page One of THE SWORD SWALLOWER'S DAUGHTER:

"You'll see it here tonight, folks. The most electrifying act anywhere. The Pike's own sword swallowing sensation, Ripovi the Great, will swallow a neon tube lit by ten thousand volts of electricity. That's right. Ten thousand volts. You'll see him glow from inside out. Don't miss this act, folks, it's one you'll never forget."

I clapped and cheered when the talker introduced Daddy and he stepped onto the stage. He scanned the room, his eyes landing on us just long enough to nod. Moving straight into his act, he pulled out the dagger Calliope, ran his fingers over the blade, licked it back and forth while he glared over the crowd. He threw back his head and slid Calliope down without a hitch. Young toughs in the back threw heckles, yelling, "It’s a trick blade," and "He's faking it." I turned toward the hecklers and yelled, "Shut up!" but before I could say anything else, Wren grabbed me hard and hissed, "Shut up. You’re going to get us in trouble."

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THE SWORD SWALLOWER'S DAUGHTER is a literary coming-of-age novel set in racially diverse Southern California during the turbulent year 1968.

Life is a carnival of confusion when your father is a sword swallower and your mother is a frustrated chanteuse. As if being the daughter of a sword swallower isn't enough, when Sheila's parents divorce, she goes to live with her grandmother in a house full of dolls and becomes the only kid in school whose parents are split. Between racial tensions at school, family strife at her new home, and trips to the legendary Long Beach Pike where her father performs, Sheila's life becomes a sideshow of its own. Her sister is going steady with a Negro boy, her mother's getting strangely close to her aunt's boyfriend, and her father is dating the evil twin of Marilyn Monroe. On top of that, Sheila fears that her father is a member of the mafia and may have killed a police officer. When her father drags her off to live with him, nine-year-old Sheila learns that people are not always what they appear to be, that wounds may heal on the outside, but scars go clean through to the heart.

THE SWORD SWALLOWER'S DAUGHTER is a story about yesterday, with lessons for today. It's about becoming who you're meant to be because of, or in spite of, the life you're given, and loving people beyond their fears, faults, or fetishes.

This writer is looking for an agent.

Carolyn is a regular participant in the short story competitions held at the writer's forums at Backspace.

First place:

BIRDIE'S GIRL (Contest #7)

SKETCHES (Contest #15)

STILL LIFE (tie, Contest #19)

Second place:

ANGELS DON'T HAVE WINGS (Contest #16)

HER HUSBAND'S CONFESSOR (Contest #17)

Third place:

A PENNY AND A POSTCARD (Contest #4)

EXPERIENCED ONLY NEED APPLY(Contest #3)

Excerpt from THE SWORD SWALLOWER'S DAUGHTER appeared in the October 2007 edition of Breath & Shadow.

EXPERIENCED ONLY NEED APPLY, appeared in the Summer 2007 edition of The Rose & Thorn.

CAROLYN BURNS BASS

Contrary to popular belief, Carolyn does not burn bass. In fact, she is a creative and proficient cook who has won many accolades from the discriminating critics of La Famiglia de Bass. As the daughter of a sword swallower and a midwest fundamentalist soprano, is it any wonder she became a writer?

In addition to fiction, Carolyn writes travel features for the Riverside, California Press-Enterprise, as well as INLAND TRAVELER, a blog published by the Press-Enterprise through Belo media. Across the years she has written magazine cover features, personality profiles, music reviews and food features, in addition to two self-published books: Kalligraphia--the Art of Beautiful Handwriting and Write from the Heart, a guidebook for writing memoirs.

Writer's Digest 2002 Writing Competition Honorable mention: "The Price of His Sorrow, The Cost of His Vows," Genre Short Story.

Writer's Digest 2002 Writing Competition Honorable Mention: "Write from the Heart," Article Category.

Author's Venue 2002 Writing Competition Sixth Place: The Nexus, Novel category.

Microsoft Great Moments at Work Writing Contest 2004 Top 50 Award for Essay: "Two Passions Under One Roof."

Contributing Writer: Nimble Spirit--The Literary Spirituality Review

Member: Backspace--The Writer's Place

THE NEXUS--Mystery, adventure and romance combine in this time travel odyssey of a man and a woman separated by centuries, but joined together in a common love. Following a car accident, breast cancer survivor Aimee Burton awakens on a forest road, attended to by a man in medieval garb. After her initial confusion and skepticism, Aimee accepts that she’s traveled back in time 800 years and into the world of Sir Thomas de Brouillard, a Knight Templar jaded by the Crusades. While Aimee’s feminist views are challenged by the spiritual tapestry of the twelfth century, Sir Thomas’s discovery of the mysterious Aimee awakens passion and purpose he thought purged by twenty years of monastic life. The mystery of Aimee's appearance in the world of Sir Thomas dominates the action, while layers of intrigue peel away to the fiery climax where Aimee and Sir Thomas discover the secret of the Nexus.

WHISPERING NIGHTS Imagine The Jane Austen Book Club meets Wuthering Heights for a Victorian chick-lit novel of love, betrayal, and equality. Three diverse women in one household indulge in reading a scandalous new novel of romance, revenge and retribution written by the little known Ellis Bell. The 37-year-old governess in the home of a wealthy British earl surreptitiously uses Wuthering Heights as a text to teach a kitchen maid to read. Discovery of their covert night time activities by the 17-year-old spoilt daughter of the earl threatens to end their studies. The only way to keep the heiress from revealing the truth to her harridan of a mother is to let her into their reading circle. Shadows of Heathcliff and Cathy follow each character in this journey of loss, fulfillment and discovery.

THE MUSE--A sequel to THE NEXUS, is currently underway. THE MUSE traces the lives of Aimee and Sir Thomas in further real-time adventures.