Cathleen Rountree - The Writers Mentor: A Guide to Putting Passion on Paper

The Writer's Mentor recognizes the vast range of differentand often contradictory experiences that writers have. Rather than provide one-size-fits-all solutions, Cathleen Rountree asks her readers the right questions to help them develop their own writing discipline.

ELLEN BASS, AUTHOR OF MULES OF LOVE AND THE COURAGE TO HEAL

If you yearn to write, but doubts haunt you, this book can be your ally. Both practical and poetic, it addresses your questions so that they can lead you forward rather than block your way. I wish I had had The Writer's Mentor when I started out in the writing life.

CONNIE ZWEIG, PH.D., AUTHOR OF MEETING THE SHADOW AND ROMANCING THE SHADOW

The Writer's Mentor by Cathleen Rountree is an excellent, eminently practical introduction to the craft of writing, offering encouragement, support, and creative answers to many of the questions that preoccupy beginning writers.

MARY MACKEY, AUTHOR OF A GRAND PASSION AND THE YEAR THE HORSES CAME

In The Writer's Mentor, highly creative writer Cathleen Rountree takes you by the hand and leads you into the soul of a writer and nurtures your every step. This book is an intimate journey into the spiritual and psychological world of writing, complete with valuable tips on the craft as well. A must for every writer's bookshelf.

GAIL MCMEEKIN, AUTHOR OF THE 12 SECRETSOF HIGHLY CREATIVE WOMEN AND THE POWER OF POSITIVE CHOICES

This is Cathleen Rountree at her best. She has written a literate, multifaceted, and fascinating guide to the daily challenges that face every writer. Writing is a solitary occupation. Ms. Rountree gives her readers the gift of companionship, inspiration, and the accumulated wisdom of many mentors, each bringing a lifetime of experience. We loved reading this book.

HAL AND SIDRA STONE, PH.D., AUTHORS OF PARTNERING AND EMBRACING OUR SELVES

The Writer's Mentor is a canon of solutions to the innumerable challenges writers face, whether we are writing poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. This candid writer's midwife is at once inspiring, unflinchingly practical, and rigorously honest. Rountree has produced a book destined to take its place on the shelves of writers at every stage of their careers.

ROBERT SWARD, GUGGENHEIM FELLOW AND AUTHOR OF ROSICRUCIAN IN THE BASEMENT

Cathleen helped move my book proposal from a vague idea to a concrete document that impressed literary agents and publishers. She effectively conveys the nuts-and-bolts of proposal writing with a passion, creativity, and firsthand knowledge of the book business. As an author and the son of a bookseller, I can say with absolute certainty that Cathleen Rountree's advice will propel your writing career years ahead.

RYAN COONERTY, AUTHOR OF ETCHED IN STONE! AMERICAS ENDURING WORDS

Cathleen's book went straight to my heart. Its insights and gentle nudgings help us discover and nurture our creativity. It is inspiring for those of us who wish to express our deepest felt experience. This book is a gem for writers and non-writers alike.

MARIA MATTIOLI, DIRECTOR OF B.A. PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM, JOHN F. KENNEDY UNIVERSITY

Cathleen Rountree's experience as a writer and with writers comes together brilliantly in this book... personal stories and important questions combine to create an enriching way to explore the writing life.

JUDY ROSE, DIRECTOR OF HUMANITIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ, EXTENSION

Quite an original approach to subduing one's demons and mastering the difficult art of writing! Cathleen Rountree conspires (breathes with) her readers, leads them down the step-by-step path to successful self-expression, and, like a midwife, supports the birthing process of each individual voice via its most natural and organic process. Her wonderful use of contemporary films to illustrate and invoke the Muse adds power and breadth to an already fascinating story of her own experience of becoming a writer, and then a writer's mentor.

VICKI NOBLE, CO-CREATOR OF THE MOTHERPEACE TAROT, AUTHOR OF SHAKTI WOMAN AND THE DOUBLE GODDESS

Cathleen Rountree has the gift for guiding others in translating the lives we can imagine into the lives we actually live. This is a book for writers, artists, and teachers who want to bring greater intention, the wisdom born of self-knowledge, and creativity to our daily lives. Cathleen clearly and carefully guides us to give those aspirations roots, to ground them in the world so that they can blossom where others can share them. Any of us who try to live this way know how challenging it is, and how lonely it can sometimes be. Cathleen offers us a companion in the garden: supportive, gentle, determined, and humorous.

RANDI GRAY KRISTENSEN, M.F.A., PH.D., ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

Cathleen Rountree is a gifted mentor in every sense of the word. She possesses the dual gifts of being a professional writer herself and also being a talented writer's mentor, which means she is able to articulate the unique challenges of the writing profession and offer creative strategies for facing these challenges. Cathleen Rountree is one of those rare people who can both do and teach, and each of these gifts strengthens the other.

KATHERINE SPILDE, PH.D., SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The Writer's Mentor reveals the courage needed as a writer to face daily solitude, the silent muse, the truncated thought, a resistant vocabulary. But the deepening into one's own soul that writing affords is worth the price of admission. Her reflections on writing reveal that writers often live on the edge or the lip of life's motion. From such a perch they, like she, are able to see more broadly and more deeply what the rest of us only glimpse. The writing life is a way, she reveals, for each of us to discover ourselves through written expression.

DENNIS PATRICK SLATTERY, PH.D., PROFESSOR, PACIFICA GRADUATE INSTITUTE AND AUTHOR OF THE WOUNDED BODY: REMEMBERING THE MARKINGS OF FLESH

In her new book, Cathleen Rountree draws on her own experience as well as the wisdom of other writers to illuminate all aspects of the creative process. This refreshing work provides new and seasoned authors alike with their own personal writer's mentor. Rountree's practical, thoughtful guide will inspire writers to approach the blank page with renewed enthusiasm.

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