MEET KATHLEEN VALLE
SHE IS ACTUALLY GOING TO DO IT! At the age of 80, this nearly lifelong storyteller has agreed to “put herself out there,” as she says, sharing her fiction and autobiographical accounts with people other than her normal audience!
Known by her friends and family as Boo, Kathleen looks back on a long life packed with adventure, whether in reality or in her vivid imagination. In the real world, she has experienced life during World War II, lived on a primitive island in the Canadian Wilderness, raised and trained cattle and horses, worked in the field of speech and language pathology, created fund-raisers, directed chambers of commerce, enjoyed a fifty-two-year marriage, raised three sons, and enjoyed grand motherhood.
When Kathleen acquired the skill of speech, her imagination came along for the ride, and she has been telling and writing about the characters which her mind conjures up ever since. Her first published story appeared in her school newspaper when, as a fifth grader, she competed with students from K through 12 to create a Christmas story. She won, and her love of storytelling was ignited. Although her other writing credits include technical articles, advertising and promotional copy, newspaper columns and monthly newsletters, her first love has always been fiction.
From about four in the morning until her duties as a wife, mother, or professional took precedence, and again when her family was tucked in for the night, she returned to scenes of crimes, sites of adventures, or to the fanciful world of talking animals and opinionated inanimate objects. Writing and sharing fiction with her family, students, and friends has always been her reward.