Hi, my name is Carolyn Millard and I was born in Orillia On, Canada. I have two grown Sparkler girls named Teri and Nicole. My daughters brought the Sparkler characters to life with illustrations and Pipedreamer names.

Growing up was filled with days of fun and loads of trouble. We camped, swam, went to drive in movies and visited the cottage in the summer. In the winter we spent time on our outdoor rink skating, playing hockey or tobaggoning.

Part of my summers where spent at my relatives in the U.S.A. The Good Humour truck came up the street, with a bell ringing and out we ran to buy ice-cream. Potato chips were delivered right to your door by another truck. What a fantastic idea!

Some of my family members are quite the characters. One of my aunts  just turned ninety and we used to skinny dip years ago, bet she still would.

In school I often got in trouble for talking when I was supposed to be listening. The  “A”s on my report cards were never for sitting still. I read books, more  books and the same books over again. I wrote poems and stories and never kept them, silly me. Becoming a teacher or nurse was on my to-do list, but I didn’t do either.

When I was 40, which might seem old, I went back to school and received my diploma in Social Services and have worked with children in many different roles. Children inspire me! They have amazing energy and are full of light and laughter.

When I wrote Sparkler a couple years ago I was thrilled when I took it to Baico Publishing Inc. in Ottawa, and Ray said yes! He suggested that I write a chapter book, not a picture book so I added more stuff.

Ray told me that a book is a best seller if it changes one person’s life for the better. I hope that cajillions of people will be reminded to sparkle! I believe that everyone is born with a diamond in their heart and that they forget to sparkle for different reasons.

Sparkler is a combination of imagination, childhood memories, my daughters’ antics and the delight of all children. I am sooo excited about the next Sparkler book and can hardly wait for readers to start sending their recipes for the Sparkilicous cook book.

I live by a lake near Barry’s Bay, Ontario, Canada.  One day I threw glitter at my door while the paint was wet so it would sparkle. Boy, oh boy, it sparkles like fairy dust  when the sun shines. I have sparkler bouquets in vases instead of flowers. (You don’t  have to water them.)

You can see that I still like to talk so thank you if you made it to the end.

Carolyn
January 8, 2011