User:WiiLady/Dawn Colclasure

Dawn Colclasure (Born May 25th, 1974) is a well author, burn survivor, and deaf mother of two. She has written many books including her personal shared story of surviving as a deaf parent who writes book titled "Burning The Midnight Oil: How We Survive As Writing Parents" Burning Midnight Oil. Living in Oregon, CA still raising her two children Dawn Colclasure continues to write books based on many topics including: writing tips (since she has been writing since 11 years old), articles for those who are deaf parents and is currently in the presence of promoting her upcoming release "TOTALLY SCARED: The Complete Book on Haunted Houses" which she co-wrote with Martha Jette Totally Scared.


 * More About Dawn Colclasure's Past

Dawn comes from a family of four sisters and two brothers and she had spent a large part of her younger years either in a hospital undergoing reconstructive surgery or moving around location to location. When Dawn was only a few months old while in her mother's arms crossing a street they were hit by a drunk driver. This accident caused severe third degree burns to Dawn while her mother amazingly survived without any burns. While in the hospital her parents were told she would not make it, her father explained seeing a guardian angel tell him that she would. Luckily and surprisingly, Dawn survived and became the inspiring story she is today.

"Take My Hand" Take My Hand was the first poetry book of Dawn's that was published by American Literary Press; Saddle-Stapled edition (November 10, 1993). The poems illustrate her fears of undergoing several reconstructive surgeries, her unwavering faith in God as well as spotlighting some of the people she met during her hospital stays. Finally, the poetry included in this book feature certain aspects of adolescence such as losing a first pet, peer pressure and escaping to a fantasy world.

Dawn Colclasure has been writing poetry since she was eleven years old and has received many awards for her poetry. She has been published in various newspapers and magazines, as well as a variety of websites, and she also writes short stories, books, plays, essays, songs and articles. She previously founded the now defunct local poetry club, the Circle of Poets, where she edited and published their magazine, American Bard.


 * Pen Name Period

Many may know Dawn Colclasure from her past Pen Name created in High School known as Dana Mitchells. Some may wonder why she also wrote under a pen name. When she started writing online for an e-zine called Griper, she was asked to use a pen name, since everybody who was published in the e-zine wrote under an alias. While she was in high school, she thought about writing under the pen name D.C. Mitchells. This never happened, though, so she started writing a novel with a teen aged character named Dana Mitchells. Once the request was made for a pen name, she used her character's name in place of the old one. Dawn Colclasure commented on this saying "I don't know if that book will ever be published (or titled, for that matter) but I have been using my character's name as my pen name since then. I have begun using my real name for my writings, but stuff published under the Dana Mitchells name will continue to appear here and there on the WWW".


 * Writing Career

Dawn Colclasure is the author of six books, among them BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL: How We Survive as Writing Parents and 365 TIPS FOR WRITERS: Inspiration, Writing Prompts and Beat The Block Tips to Turbo Charge Your Creativity. Her articles, essays, poems, book reviews and short stories have been published in regional and national newspapers and magazines, as well as online. She lives and writes in Oregon with her husband and children.

Her poetry books that have been published include: "Topiary Dreams" being a collection of dark and horror poetry Topiary Dreams, "Take My Hand", and her newest poetry book "Love if like a Rainbow" Love is like a Rainbow

Along with often working on her books including her upcoming children book "The Yellow Rose" Dawn spends her time writing articles on serious personal matters such as discrimination against deaf people one of them seen here: Discrimination against the Deaf Article

Her first novel written was "November's Child" (in which she is currently in the process of reconstructing) but she really started to gain recognition as a writer when she released "Burning the Midnight Oil" and remains a former editor and publisher of Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine staff writer for The Shadowlands and a former writer for SIGNews.

She gained even more publication when she released "365 Tips For Writers" 365 Tips Writers which is considered the "I Ching for writers".

Dawn Colclasure has often been referred as the "Writing Fairy" as she can write an astonishing article on almost any topic you give to her. She is very talented and is also known to give very thorough and helpful book reviews on almost every book she reads. She mentions that "While growing up I would always edit the newspaper for any mistakes and anything else I would read, I would always have an opinion about it and so today I love to know what people think of my work because it is always helpful whether it's a good or bad review".

--WiiLady (talk) 04:28, 15 September 2010 (UTC)


 * References