Cheryl Gillmore
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Cheryl Gillmore Quick Facts
- Career Focus
- Author
- Affiliation
- Arizona Authors Association, National Indie Excellence
Award winning novelist and poet, C. L. Gillmore is a retired special education teacher. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree in both Elementary and Special Education with graduate endorsements in Early Childhood Education and Learning Disabilities. After more than 25 years in education she decided to pursue her passion for writing as a full time career.
“Writing has always been an important part of my life. My second grade teacher was a big influence,” Gillmore says. “She was instructive and encouraging and made me love putting my thoughts on paper.”
In the past two and half years, Gillmore wrote and published the social media based romance novel, Uncommon Bond, the first of a two-part series about Rose and Jake, who marvel at the kind of love that only comes along twice in a modern lifetime: the first time in person, the second via technology.
Uncommon Bond has been nominated for TWO 2012 Global eBook Awards: Best Romance Fiction Contemporary and Best eBook Trailer and was a finalist in the romance category for the 2012 National Indie Excellence Awards.
In addition, Gillmore wrote and published Of Roots, Shoes and Rhymes, a poetry book and audio CD. The collection of 28 poems covers her life experiences from pain in childhood through the true friendships of young adulthood to a career in service to the most special kinds of children. Some of the poetry in this collection also appears in the novel Uncommon Bond.
Of Roots Shoes and Rhymes won BOTH the Arizona Author’s Association 2011 Literary Award for published non-fiction and the poetry category in the National Indie Excellence Awards for 2012.
A transplant from Muscatine, Iowa, C. L. Gillmore resides in Surprise, Arizona with her husband, Mike. They have two married sons and five grandchildren who live nearby. They share their home with a French bulldog named Pitty Pat and an English bulldog named Gracie Belle.
Inspiration
As a Baby Boomer, Gillmore finds inspiration for her writing in talking with and listening to the life stories of friends, past and present. She believes each of us has a story or a poem yet to be written.
“I write to share the emotions, hopes and dreams of my generation, the post-World War II baby boomers who watched social media take over lives.” Gillmore says. “We’re living and loving in longer life spans except we are pushing the equivalent of a magic button with each electronic message.”
Cheryl Gillmore Books
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