When Caroline Starr Rose tells a story, she sees it as an act of worship to the God who made her a writer.
“In my writing, I am thanking God for this desire he’s given me,” she said. “Using my language and my words, and finding the satisfaction in doing the work, that is my gift to him.”
Rose lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where her husband pastors High Desert PCA Church. She’s the author of three picture books and five middle grade novels, some of which are written in verse.
Different stories need to be told in different ways, she said, and she enjoys how each work stretches her in a different way.
Rose has always loved books. As a child, teachers encouraged her to pursue writing and storytelling. As an adult, she taught middle school English.
Then one summer, after showing her students a video by Roald Dahl championing a set time each day to write, she inspired herself. It was 1998; her husband was in seminary. She decided it was time. With the whole summer before her, she decided it was time to practice what she had been preaching.
The result? “A very terrible historical novel,” she said.
But that summer was the beginning. She established a schedule, and over the next decade Rose wrote three novels and six picture books, none of which were published. Still she kept writing.
She said it was “maniacal optimism” that kept her going. “I felt that I had something to say, and my work would only get better if I kept going. … That was my time to learn.”
Finally, after 12 years of writing, Rose’s fourth novel was published. “May B.” is a middle-grade novel written in verse, telling the story of a girl stranded on the Kansas prairie who must overcome fear and loneliness to survive.
She said that writing in verse helps her tell a story “in a close-to-the-bone way. You can really access the character’s inner world in a way that I don’t feel prose allows at least me to do. It feels immediate. It feels direct.”
“May B.” has a stark setting on the Kansas frontier as winter approaches, and “the language reflects that,” she said.
Rose said she particularly enjoys the sounds of language, something writing in verse amplifies. She called verse her “first writing language” and loves working with imagery, repetition, and sound.
That does not mean the work is easy.
“It’s challenging,” she said. “I wouldn’t say that every day I love my tasks before me, but I would say nothing makes me feel more alive.”
She also enjoys the research that goes into her books. Creating those first drafts feels terrifying and overwhelming, she said, but as her characters grow and learn through trials and mistakes, so does she.
“That’s a way for me to reflect on life. I learn a lot as I’ve watched these characters grow and change,” she said.
In “May B.,” for example, as May struggles to learn to read, she has to discover her value.
“Does our worth come from what we’re able to do? Or is it based in who we are?” Rose said. “Now my work doesn’t say we’re God’s creations, but I feel like (the idea) runs through it.”
Rose said she loves to write for children because those were the years she was most impacted by the books she read. Books give children the opportunity to visit different cultures and settings and experience the world through another’s eyes.
“Stories are a safe way to explore the world,” she said. “I am so honored to be able to play a piece in that.”
She often returns to the same themes: leaving or coming home, finding a voice, and discovering one’s place in the world – all big ideas for children approaching adolescence. And while she doesn’t always explicitly point readers to Christ, currents of redemption and forgiveness run through her books.
“Being a Christian definitely affects my stories,” she said. “I feel strongly that what I reflect in my books is not always rosy – I want it to be real life, I want it to be a reflection of what we face in this world – (but) what I especially love in middle grades is that these stories always end in hope.”
She said her work also reflects her love of the created world. “I always have a reverence for nature flowing through in what I write,” she said. “I find this world is so magnificent, and my characters all to some extent reflect on that.”
Rose doesn’t just write; she also helps other authors improve their stories. She’s been editing manuscripts and mentoring authors for the past 10 years.
“I find a lot of satisfaction in helping other people better tell what they’re trying to write, better find the form for their story,” she said. “It’s really fun, especially when somebody comes back to me two or three times to continue with the same manuscript, and I can see it change (over time). It’s really thrilling.”