Anne Penny

I grew up in a household full of kids, love, books and comfy chairs. Our library was huge and our bookcases were stuffed to spilling with books of fiction, science, music, biographies, discoveries, religion, etc. and at all reading levels.

Some of my favorite memories of childhood include snuggling up to Mom or my oldest sister while she read a story with so much drama I could almost feel the wind, smell the flowers and imagine I was one of the daring characters in the book.

Writing stories and preparing a book, tho - that is a very different process! I write with the hope that my readers will come to love the printed word as an opportunity to "see" the world with great vibrancy and potential - just as others enabled me.

One of my heroes, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, once said: "I can do things you cannot; You can do things I cannot. Together - we can do great things!”

The St. Charles Academy Series:

All of the books in the series are based on actual stories, but I took some creative license in naming and adding a bit of personality to the characters. Of course, violin is woven throughout as well!

The first book describes how the Nuns came to the area and built the school. One creative liberty I took was having them arrive on a boat. While they did travel by boat between the Mother House and the School, they likely did not transport all of their moving supplies via boat. Horses and wagons would have been used for such an event.

Book 2, Odile, is the story of a four year old sent off to boarding school - true story! Another true fact - various people through the years have shared consistent stories of a particular ghost that appears in the school in the evenings. It is the figure of a little girl in white, standing on the stairwell crying. Perhaps it could be a little girl like Odile?