Cheryl Owen-Wilson

The writing bug first snagged Cheryl through her penning of a personal essay, for which she received an award and publication. However, today fiction is what drives her writing, with an emphasis on Southern Gothic. Since her roots are buried deep in the bayous of Southern Louisiana, it is a natural fit.

Though she now calls Oregon home, she visits her Southern family often. The theme of family and all it entails are prominent in her fiction. She remarks, "They say write what you know.

I'm the mother of six girls and one boy. That fact combined with the steeped in mystical beliefs culture in which i was raised have given me an abundance of stories to draw from. My grandmama was a believer in voodoo and practiced the every day forms such as creating love gri-gri’s (charm pouches). My great -grandmama cured me of a reoccurring bout of warts on my hand by using a throw away aluminum pie tin, a candle and holy water; the warts never returned. Writing gothic tales, featuring the dead, is quite natural to me because in the South we live with our dead. They walk beside us and talk to us daily.” When not visiting the mysteries of her childhood home she also writes fantasy and science fiction.

When she is not writing, you will find her at an easel covered in oil paint. “When I write I usually have a picture in my mind of a painting to go with the story. The same holds true when the picture of a painting forms in my mind. It’s usually followed closely with an idea for a story or poem. I am one of the contributors to the ShadowSpinners blog post and was greatly honored when asked to provide my vision for the site in the from of an oil painting. You can view it along with my blogs at https://shadowspinners.wordpress.com."

You can also find her art work in Steven T. Vessels book, The Mountain and the Vortex and Other Tales, and on her website Mecovision.com.