FAMILY HISTORIAN * WRITER * SPEAKER * HUMORIST
Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau is a columnist in the Sonoma Valley Sun and the author of three books, Through Any Given Door, Queen Bee: Reflections on Life and Other Rude Awakenings, and Passages from Behind These Doors, A Family Memoir. Her kaleidoscopes of frank, funny, tender tales are about sin and prayer, good intentions and unattended sorrows… and about finding our way back home. Born in the gold country of Sonora and growing up in California in the 1950s and 60s, she was raised primarily by an older sister, survived five years living with an unhinged, erratic mother, and spent summers working at her father’s five-and-dime in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. The era and sense of place provide the background to a riveting account of her early family life told with humor and grace. With clarity and perspective, Sevenau embraces the events of her early years–what occurred happened for her, not to her– transforming a bewildering and fractured childhood into a life well-lived. Catherine is an irreverent humorist and an astute storyteller. Queen Bee is a compilation of her blog posts, ruminations on Facebook, and new and older stories not heretofore published. The twenty passages from Behind These Doors, her first book, are a poignant and captivating taste of the full memoir, Through Any Given Door, which is serialized and offered here on her website.
Ms. Sevenau is back to working on her genealogy; having compiled five volumes on her family genealogy, she is organizing this information as posts on her website.
Genealogy and published writing links:
www.ChatfieldHeritage.com
www.FindAGrave
www.syndicjournal.us
Author links:
Facebook Writer’s Page
AboutMe
Goodreads
Booklife
LinkedIn
Pinterest
In the news:
Sonoma Valley Sun Column
Digital Journal