Cathleen Rountree

This is a collection of interviews of famous and not-so-famous women who have navigated their fiftieth birthdays. The women as individuals may be described as admirable, fascinating, witty, and even awesome (check out Dolores Huerta who has spent most of her adult life as a full-time human rights activist, living in poverty or near-poverty, while giving birth to 11 children—most of whom are now college graduates—and periodically catering to the demands of one of her three husbands). A show more more interesting aspect of this collection is what these women have in common. They each find this time in their lives more free, more focused on making a contribution to society, less focused on physical appearance and pleasing others, and less concerned (if not unconcerned) with having men in their lives. Tabra Tunoa, jewelry designer and manufacturer, said, "You waste a lot of time in your thirties trying to look twenty and in your forties trying to look thirty"—one comment from among several in the interviews which imply that the forties are for clearing up the vestiges of denial of age, and the fifties are for embracing its gifts. Said Gloria Steinem, "I learned that to be defiant about age may be better than despair—it's energizing—but it is not progress." Rountree has done a fine job of asking the right questions, eliciting illuminating answers, and photographing 18 women who are worth hearing from. (March 1995) show less

The Writer's Mentor
A Guide to Putting Passion on Paper
Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Writing
by Cathleen Rountree

An awesome help to any writer this book has over 270 pages of ideas, wisdom and most of all support and guidance in all the right places. Cathleen has definitely struck a comfortable balance between to strict a format or to vague suggestions, she has lead us right down the middle to finding a way to take what is inside us and bring it to the world.

Writing is show more clearly a place where the term different strokes for different folks applies, and I especially enjoyed how each section started with a question because that way I could feel whether it was a chapter that I needed help with or not. The author in her wisdom has selected topics like writing blocks, scheduled writing, style and genre. I loved the gentle way this was presented, I feel that writing for many of us can be frustrating enough without someone else adding criticism or judgement to the mix. I would recommend this enlightened how-to to anyone who has the calling and the desire to put pen to paper. Thanks Cathleen, we all needed this one.

Love & Light,

Riki Frahmann show less