Anne Cook                                    

Welcome friends, to my world of words. 

I've been scribbling random thoughts on scraps of paper, notebook margins, and post it notes at odd times of day and night, ever since I could hold a pencil.  I love a freshly sharpened pencil.  There is simply no better tool to, as Ernest said, "sit down at your typewriter and bleed."  Yes, I realize he said typewriter, but you get it.

I grew up, more or less, and went to Wesley College to become what my father wanted me to be- a legal secretary.  That didn't last long.  English Composition 101 hooked me, a professor encouraged me, and before I knew it I was an English major.  Now, years later I know my wise father was right- you will never get a good job with an English degree, and if I had listened I probably would be retired now, but alas, do we ever realize the wisdom of our elders?  Not until we're elders ourselves, full of wisdom, and nobody will listen.  So, on to Rutgers University, and Douglass College and many more written words earning me a degee in English Literature and two teaching certificates, which have paid more bills than the degree, but I'm still trying... 

I got married, had three beautiful children, and throughout those busy years of raising them, did not manage to put many cohesive words down on paper, but thoughts and ideas kept swirling through my mind. Especially notions of Sara.  A grand old lady who lived by the sea. Sara became the subject of my first novel, Sounds Of The Sea, published in May 2002.  I continued her story in A Stones Throw From The Sea, published in 2010.

I also published a collection of short stories called Christmas Promises: Holiday Stories from the Heart.

I've had other short stories in Chicken Soup for Every Mom's Soul and Chicken Soup for the Soul: College Chronicles.

I am currently working on a new novel, and crafting poems. Life, love, family and nature, continue to inspire me every day; words beg to be written, pencils to be sharpened, thoughts demand to be let out into the light. 

Thanks for listening.