Bernice Curler

I'm a native Californian, born in Los Angeles but spent most of my school years in Inglewood, California. I was ten years old when chosen as our fifth grade class poet. I knew then my future was planned. I was going to be a writer. Thirty years later with a husband, two children and countless rejection slips, I finally realized that dream when a letter came from Modern Romance Magazine that they were buying a story I'd sent them. At last a published writer! From then on more stories were written and published. By this time, we had moved to the northern part of California to the Sacramento area. As my husband was involved in the local Elks Club, when they wanted to put on a show, I was asked to write a stage play. I knew nothing about theater. But I tried. I must admit, it is very satisfying to see your written work in print, but nothing quite compares to hearing a live audience laugh at the lines you've written. Performed by The Carmichael Elk Players, MAZIES RED GARTER went on with many successful productions, first in Carmichael, then Lake Tahoe, and two successive years for Placerville's Wagon Train Days celebration. More recently it was performed in Shady Cove, Oregon by The Rogue Valley Stage Production.

When still in the Sacramento area, I decided I should try my hand at non-fiction and signed up for an article class at American River College taught by Duane Newcomb, now well-known for his Newcomb Editorial Services and The Professional Author Newsletter it publishes on the internet. For me, a new field and again more rejects, but finally a sale to a small mid-western magazine. More sales followed to well-known magazines: Modern Maturity, Lady's Circle, House Beautiful and many more; enough to qualify for membership in the most prestigious ASJA, (American Society of Journalists and Authors). Then, a go-ahead from a Los Angeles publisher for a book on Sacramento started me doing in-depth research on the birth-place of California as it is today. The research was fascinating: Sutter's Fort, early pioneers. I kept picturing those pioneers crossing the plains to come to this undeveloped country inhabited at that time only by Indians. The Mexican settlements were all on the coast. Such a fascinating time in California history: Spanish missions, big Mexican ranchos, the Mexican war, the Donner Party tragedy and finally the discovery of gold. I had to write a novel. THE VISIONARIES and GLORY ROAD resulted.