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.)

THE SWORD SWALLOWER'S DAUGHTER

Other fathers looked like Ward Cleaver in suits with white shirts and skinny ties and drove huge cars with bulging bumpers to work in offices or stores. They took their wives out for dinner on Saturday nights and left the kids home with babysitters to watch TV and eat pizza. My father was Italian and had an eagle tattooed across his chest and a pierced ear. He drove a 650 cc Triumph Bonneville motorcycle to work at an Esso service station and went out nearly every night without my mom. Some kids went to the river and water-skied on weekends; my sisters and I hung out at the beach where Daddy entertained beach-goers with his sword swallowing act. When I think of my daddy I remember him like this.

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THE SWORD SWALLOWER'S DAUGHTER is an up-market coming-of-age novel set in racially diverse Southern California during 1968, the most turbulent of years. In the middle of her parent's divorce, nine-year-old Sheila Pace watches the world through eyes saddened by grief, assaulted by sexuality, wizened by the death of heroes, and confused by newscasts of Americans fighting a war no one understands.

Despite racial tensions at school, betrayal of loved ones, and more grief than a girl should know, Sheila strives to rise beyond the apathy and mediocrity around her. Finding solace in music, Sheila adopts an unlikely hero in folk singer Joan Baez. When Sheila's father drags her off to live with him, she learns that people are not always what they appear to be, that wounds may heal on the outside, but leave scars 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 may be new to fiction, but not to publishing. While at Orange Coast College Bass completed an internship at Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine that led to a promotion to assistant editor. Several years later, Bass left CCM to pursue freelance writing. Through the years she has written cover features, personality profiles, music reviews and food reviews. Bass wrote 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.