About Me

About Me

Our Approach

Hey!

I'm C.C. Bolick. Thanks for visiting my website. Truth is, I'm not really an 'about me' kind of person. I'm horrible at conversation and I don't always get the joke. But I love to write, I love to tell stories, and I love to capture raw emotions from my characters. You may love my stories or you may hate them, but either way I'm happy as long as you feel something!

Our Story

My Story

I was born and raised in southern Alabama, a place I'm happy to still call home. Although my degree is in engineering, not arts of any kind, writing has always been my dream. If one person in the world reads a book I wrote and connects, then I'm living the dream. Thanks to everyone who has made my dream possible.

 

Why I Started Writing

For as long as I can remember, I've walked around with stories in my head. The characters speak to me in their own voices and I'd argue they're real, but don't have me committed just yet. Writing is the way I've found to exorcise the voices. It's my guilty pleasure. Daily. Typing, working through plots, crafting the dialogue.

Before the age of ten, I put pages together and made my own books. As a teen, I quickly realized that having stories floating around in my head made me different - a freak even. Or at least I felt like one. So I stopped writing for many years.

At eighteen, I still couldn't get the stories out on paper. I knew I wanted to write, but finding the patience to write was my Achilles heel. For the next decade I continued to craft stories and dream. This might sound strange, but the feeling of building my own world has no parallel.

After ten years, I started putting my stories on paper. I typed the stories out late at night and as I traveled for my job. By day, I studied facts and figures, a world of logic so different from writing and yet the perfect breeding ground for the characters I wanted to flesh out.

After two years of writing, I got the bright idea of one day getting published. (Before this I never had the nerve to tell anyone I wrote.) I studied the market and sent query letters to a handful of agents. Surprisingly, I even got a few nice responses with suggestions for rewrites. And yes, I needed these suggestions because my writing sucked. This project eventually became Leftover Girl.

Although I wrote four more manuscripts over the next few years, Leftover Girl remained the story I wanted to tell most of all. During this time, only the people closest to me knew about my writing hobby. One of those people was my grandmother, Mazie.

I felt a closeness to my grandmother over the years and we spent time together whenever possible. We enjoyed many of the same movies and I loved to hear her stories including the hardships of growing up during the depression. Whatever I wrote, she was always the main person who I wanted to enjoy my stories. No offense to a younger audience, but my books aren't exactly written for young adults. That's probably why many of my readers are approaching forty like me or older.

I always planned to have a book published one day so she could hold it. Unfortunately, my grandmother died before this happened. It was her passing that spurred me on to achieve this dream. A year later, I'd hired an editor and started learning about how to format an ebook. Then I learned how to make the print copy. I refused to give up until I held a paper copy of Leftover Girl in my hands.

It's bittersweet to know many of my aunts have read my books and insisted on reading more. These books aren't for everyone but knowing that the target audience is connecting with my work brings a smile to my face. As long as people keep asking for more books, I'll keep writing. When they stop, I'll be content to keep dreaming.

It's been three years since my grandmother passed and I visited her old home recently, which put me in a place emotionally that I hadn't expected. One of my aunts gave me a picture of me and my grandmother taken almost twenty years ago. It brought tears to my eyes since I believed the picture had been destroyed years before. I'm including the picture below because I never want to forget her.

In the whole grand scheme of life, it's the legacy we leave that will be remembered. In this case, it's the love and understanding she gave me over the years. It's the lessons she taught me and the hope she'd always be there. It's knowing I waited too long and now she can't share my dream. But it's also the part of her she left with me that can't be forgotten.

This is me and my grandmother, Mazie, standing next to an antique car at Walton's mountain. If you've ever watched the show, this is where it was filmed. We visited this place almost twenty years ago and I'll never forget what that small adventure meant for us both.

 

Why I Wrote Leftover Girl

My goal in writing the Leftover Girl series was to take a sci-fi story and make it mainstream enough that even those who aren't wild about sci-fi can still enjoy it. There's mystery, romance, and enough science explanation to call these books 'lite sci-fi' without overwhelming those just looking for a good story.

Leftover Girl is the story of a teenager with no memory of her life before she was discovered at age four. The point of the story is the simple question: if you could have another life, would you choose to take it? Jes Delaney's life isn't horrible, despite the fact her rotten little brothers tease her, along with the school bully. Her parents love her even if they don't hesitate to tell everyone in the world she's adopted. This book is filled with teenage angst and maybe a little more drama than necessary.

I don't know about everyone else, but my teenage years were filled with drama. Everything had to be over-the-top for me to feel that my existence had meaning. In a way, this story reflects that overwhelming need to belong somewhere. To someone.

In the first book, Jes falls for the ultimate off-limits guy. The world around her is exactly what she makes it. By book two, the suspense of learning the truth about where she came from replaces this angst. Each book beyond the first matures in its own way as Jes grows to accept her new powers. Since this is a complex story, some questions won't have answers until book two.

After this series I've written a spin-off called Run Don't Think. This book makes a huge left turn with more of a paranormal feel. It's the first in a new series called The Agency.

If you love the characters from the Leftover Girl books, don't despair. There's always a chance you'll meet again.