| Christine Bartsch: Author Bio |
| thebarbedwirefields.com |
 | |  | |  |
Hey, I’m Christine Bartsch and my life has been all about kids since I was one. My mom wanted six kids, my dad twelve, so they met in the middle and had Mike, Deb, Steve, Doug, Karen, Rachael, Joanne, Dianne and me, the baby. At eight- years-old I became an aunt and lost my “baby” status. I didn’t mind, because soon I was the most sought-after babysitter on the block. By thirteen I decided I was ready to join the tax-paying work force. I got my first official paycheck for picking up trash with a nail on a stick at the county fair. Diaper-changing was definitely preferable. In sixth grade, I wrote my first stageplays, performing them with my classmates at Parent Nights. From then on, I was hooked. My first comedy screenplay, “Wanna Bet,” was a Top Fifty finalist in Matt Damon’s and Ben Affleck’s Project Greenlight. My second, “Why, MN,” was a semi-finalist in both Coppola’s American Zoetrope and the Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. Of course I always continued to write for kids, like “Grandma’s Cookies,” which is one of the dozens of short stories I wrote for Reflections magazine. As the Fine Arts editor for Reflections, I composed spreads featuring up-and-coming artists in the local grade schools. After college, I was hunted down by my former high school teachers. No, I didn’t have an Incomplete, they wanted me to revive the Fine Arts program at my alma mater, Arizona Lutheran Academy. Teaching teenagers is definitely tough, but it taught me how the mad, fickle heart of youth makes fitting in pure torment. It was an easy leap from counseling teens to creating the heroine of my novel, Experience Parsell. A super self-conscious pre-teen girl with freaky magical abilities that are forever thwarting her quest to be normal. A private school girl raised in hand-me-down clothes and drinking powdered milk, I’ve learned to be myself no matter where I am. My bachelor’s degree in Child Psychology and Communications has help me immensely in talking the tension out of playground brawls and coaxing colleagues off the ledge. In my life I’ve taught Drama for Toddlers, been a teen counselor, an instructor at Greasepaint Youtheatre, coached kids to sing anything from Annie to Ave Maria, and was the musical director for a community theater production of “The Wizard of Oz” starring “Grease: You’re the One That I Want” winner Max Crumm. And my first short film, “Vivo Mortis,” won Best Editing in the Scottsdale Winter Film Festival 8mm/16mm division. After countless childhood road trips and touring with my college band, I’ve learned to love traveling this country so much, I’m determined to hit all fifty states. So far I’m on state number thirty-two. Wish me luck! |