Carol Pope

Carol's writing passion started in her mid-20s.  She loved to read as a child. Her favorite book was The Secret Garden. But having grown up during the advent of television and seeing movies for a buck-fifty, she fell in love with filmmaking. Carol enrolled in screenwriting and film courses at the University of California, Riverside; a film school on Hollywood Boulevard; and attended countless screenwriting conferences.

Carol left writing for a few years until she found The Writing Center in downtown San Diego in the early 1990s. The first class was with Judy Reeves, who is known throughout the writing community as a premier writing teacher and author. Michael Steven Gregory led the read-and critique group for screenwriting, in which Carol was involved for several years. Her script, Tangled Threads, made the quarter-finals in the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. She continued to participate in read-and-critique groups and the Scriptwriters Network. Carol’s script for the TV show The Pretenders caught the eye of the producer Jan DeWitt, but having no agent—well, you know the rest.

Carol began to mull over advice given to her by a working screenwriter: “Write a novel first, then write the script.” So, she completed the Novel Writing Certificate Program at San Diego Writers, Ink taught by author T. Greenwood. Carol loves reading mystery, suspense, and crime, especially if it’s set in the British Isles and Ireland.

Her work-in-progress historical suspense novel is the story of Keme, a young man of color, found as a baby on the shores of Galway Bay, Ireland in 1477. When he and his foster brother are summoned to help their uncle during a famine in 1496, Keme is accused of murdering a young pregnant girl. In the process of proving his innocence, he discovers his life journey.  

Carol lives in San Diego with her daughter and granddaughter. They have two cats and one crazy pup.