Storyteller, artist,
world traveler, mother.
Carrie Knowles is an award-winning artist and author with a passport the size of a library.
Take a captivating journey into the not-so-ordinary lives of her characters across the globe.
Shifting Forward: Fifty Reflections on Everyday Life
Carrie Knowles’ collection of informal essays, written for her Psychology Today column, draws on a lifetime of self-reflection and people watching. A collection of delightful stories and quick insights into everyday life, Shifting Forward is a book that begs to be shared, ideally out loud, with those you love. Each piece stands alone; taken together, they have the power of memory and hope. Knowles puts a totally different spin on things that kick us from complacency to joy and insight.
A MUSICAL AFFAIR
A Musical Affair is a novel about divorce, deception, love affairs, expensive secrets, long overdue forgiveness, the power of beautiful music, and just how Celeste, with a little help from some new friends, manages to raise over $300,000 to fund an inter-national music festival and turn her life around.
Names have been changed in order to protect some men in the story who should have been ashamed.
Sometimes it’s not the music that matters, but the money.
A SELF-GUIDED WORKBOOK AND GENTLE TOUR ON LEARNING HOW TO WRITE STORIES FROM START-TO-FINISH
"I started this book to consider adopting it for my college-level fiction writing class, and I will indeed assign it to my students next semester, but what I hadn’t expected was how much it has helped me see my own writing from new angles. I can’t wait to share it with my students.
- Kelly Daniels, associate professor of creative writing at Augustana College and author of Cloubreak, California: a Memoir
The women in Black Tie Optional are caretakers—daughters, wives, sisters, teachers, and neighbors—whose dreams lie in wait. A fish seller meets God when she dies; a daughter picks out a pink casket for her deceased mom; a woman with Alzheimer’s believes she is related to Clint Eastwood; and a recently engaged woman shares tales with her fiancé about growing up with a blind father.
Through these unvarnished tales, Carrie poses one looming question – Are you choosing to live life as a burden or a journey?
THE LAST CHILDHOOD
A GARDEN WALL
IN PROVENCE
ASHOAN'S RUG
LILLIAN'S GARDEN
"A must read for family and caregivers alike!"
-Past Hospice Director of Clinical Operations
"If you are among the 50 million Americans caring for someone with Alzheimer’s, you will want to read The Last Childhood. Carrie tells the absorbing story of her own mother’s inexorable and horrific deterioration at the hands of this debilitating disease."
Paul Chance, PhD, Psychology Today
"It is Knowles’ refusal to sugarcoat that makes this book truly useful. Anyone taking care of an Alzheimer’s patient will find here the solace of shared difficulty."
-Michael Chitwood,
The Independent
"If all fiction were this good, I'd read more of it!"
-Angela Jamison
"To read this tale is to travel, to walk the streets of wonderful Avignon. Tout à fait charmant!"
-Lynn York, author, The Sweet Life
"Carrie Jane Knowles’s A Garden Wall in Provence is an utterly charming novella about mothers and daughters, about being neighborly, and about the power and importance of fresh bread."
-Hilary Daninhirsch
Foreward
To read the full review, click here
“Carrie Knowles is a talented story weaver who knows how to thread a golden tale filled with magic, beauty and emotion. Like a flying carpet, Ashoan’s Rug will lift you off the page and take you on an incredible and unforgettable journey.”
-Maureen Sherbondy
author, Eulogy of an Imperfect Man
“Each story is so convincing and moving, I had to stop and catch my breath before I could turn to the next, allowing it to work its magic, just as the rug brought magic into the lives of these characters.”
-Judy Goldman,
author of Losing My Sister
"My daughter, Mary, and I both enjoyed it. Your characters lived---at times I identified with the mother, at other times, the daughter."
-Elizabeth Connor
"Past the halfway mark, I couldn't put it down, stayed up past midnight, sobbed over the characters. Now, I am loath to pick up another book, because I can't quite let go of these guys. They captured my heart, in a way that my favorite books do."
-Beth Browne
Womenswrite, Goodreads Review