Catherine A. Calabro

CATHERINE A. CALABRO

Catherine A. (Cathie) Calabro made her advent in Miami, FL on that now-infamous date: 9/11. Her fourth grade teacher first recognized her aptitude for creative writing. In high school she penned short stories and poetry, enrolling in a program for gifted students (Atlanta Public Schools), where she worked one-on-one for an entire school year with a creative writing specialist. Her work in the Exploration Quarter earned her a full college scholarship from Delta Kappa Gamma, a sorority of educators.

She excelled at Georgia State University (GSU), winning numerous awards for both scholarship and service, such as Who's Who Among Students at American Universities and Colleges. Her honors thesis, World View and Its Development in Cosmoasis: An Orbital Space Settlement, helped her obtain a graduate scholarship at the University of Houston at Clear Lake City (M.S. in Future Studies), with a probable internship at NASA.

But after graduation from GSU in 1980 (B.S. in Psychology, summa cum laude), her fragile health collapsed. She spent decades rebuilding it through reading, research, spiritual growth, psychotherapy, nutrition, and both traditional and alternative medicine. Always a spiritual seeker, she found her niche in the Episcopal Church in 1982. The first inklings of her mystical fantasy series Song of the Flaming Fountain (SFF) began as a story idea in 1983, and it evolved into her life's work, journey, and love.

At age 37 she was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer. Healing prayer was critical to her recovery, and it became the central theme of her books. After cancer treatment, she took classes in computer use and fiction writing and joined Georgia Writers Association (GWA). Over a two-year period, she prepared a blueprint for SFF, writing treatments (extended synopses) for all four books. While caring for her stroke-disabled mother, she composed Book I.

In 2006 she began a four-year period of grief and loss, beginning with the death of her mother and ending with her treatment for depression and a serious infection. Once again, the prayer ministry at her church played a pivotal role in restoring her health and well-being. Having benefited considerably from that ministry, she became a prayer minister there herself. She has incorporated much of the knowledge and experience gleaned from her personal journey into her books.

Ms. Calabro presently lives in subsidized housing--ironically, in the wealthy Atlanta suburb of Buckhead--with her beloved cat Shalimar. She joined the Atlanta Writers Club in 2009.