About the Author

Born Charlotte Denise Watson, in 1958 in Seattle (Washington) , the eldest of three children in a working class family. Displayed an early interest in literature. Dreamed of being a writer since third grade when Pippi Longstocking hijacked my imagination. My mother believed it was dangerous for a daughter to always have her head in a book -- which led to reading by flashlight beneath bedcovers, a geeky, camouflaged appetite for studying the dictionary and keeping poems secret until publishing my first at nineteen. I studied Social Sciences at Seattle University and began law school shortly after the birth of my first daughter. Once I realized I could actually become a lawyer, I left the University of Puget Sound and never looked back. I worked as a pretrial screener, outreach coordinator, sexual abuse counselor, emergency housing counselor, child welfare worker, mental health screener, volunteer coordinator for a literacy program, research interviewer, and finally, when my youngest daughter left for college, a professional librarian. It turns out, writing is the only thing I thought I was any good at, but it is definitely my calling. Through an extraordinary blast of effort and good fortune, a collection of short fiction, Killing Color, was published by Calyx Books (1992) ; then shortly after, a novel, One Dark Body, by HarperCollins (1993) ; then an anthology, Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and Poetry (1994) ; another novel, touch, (1995) , and finally, a children's book, Eli and the Swamp Man (1996) .I received the following awards, fellowships, grants:Seattle Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant, 1989; King County Arts Commission Fiction Publication Award, 1989; Artist Trust GAP Grant, 1989; Seattle Artists 1991 Research and Development Grant; Great Lakes Colleges Association Fiction Award, 1992; Black Women's Gathering Women of Achievement Award, 1992; Washington State Arts Commission Fiction Fellowship, 1993; Brandeis University Women's Committee Distinguished Author's Award, 1993; Governor's Writers Award, 1993; Seattle University Award for Professional Achievement, 1994; Granta literary magazine's Best of Young American Novelists, shortlist, 1995; Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. My fiction and nonfiction have been published in Essence, Ms. , Parenting, American Visions, The Seattle Times, and Goodness Portland; as well as anthologies such as When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple, The Bluelight Corner, Spooks, Spies, and Private Eyes, Edgewalking on the Western Rim, and In Search of Color Everywhere. I am currently revising a third novel, as well as a YA historical fiction tale I hope will be published as an illustrated story. My muse is history. The task of healing and reconciling the past, propels the writing. My tools: word, image, ritual, dream, magic. - See more at: (from