Carolyn wrote a weekly column Middle Age Plus for the Vernon County Record newspaper in Nevada Missouri for five years and for the past seven years  writes in the Nevada Daily Mail.  After twelve years of a weekly column, she has compiled enough material for two books taken from her column using humor to come to terms with the changes in everyday life after Middle Age.

She also writes eight articles a month for the Senior page of the Nevada Daily Mail about people, places, things, and organizations that are over        50 years old.

The books published by Skyward Publishing http://www.skywardpublishing.com are:

A Funny Thing Happened on the Road to Senility &

For Everything There Is a Season - (due out in 2002)

Her books are also available at www.amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Ozarks Mountaineer Bookshop.

Carolyn was awarded Best Book of the Year by the Missouri Writer's Guild for A Funny Thing Happened On The Road To Senility.  She is a member of the Missouri Writer's Guild and has received other first place awards for essays, columns and series from this organization.

Thornton's newest book, published in 2005 from Skyward Publishing, WHITHER THOU GOEST?  YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING! takes a look at life as a United Methodist minister's wife.  She has compiled a light hearted look behind the parsonage door sure to have you laughing out loud..  This book was voted to be included on the National United Methodist Women's reading list for the next three years.

Carolyn didn't start her professional writing career until in her 70's.  She has retired from a social work career and is active in United Methodist Women.  She was  voted Citizen of the Year by her native Nevada, Missouri rotary Club in 1994.  She is the wife of a retired United Methodist minister, mother of four, grandmother of seven and great grandmother of eight and counting.  Her family life is very important to her and is the inspiration for most of her writing.

She has co-authored a games book with her sister, Ellen Gray Massey.  Family Fun and Games A Hundred Year Tradition (available at Skyward Publishing) which makes use of their rich family life by chronicling 100 years of games traditions in the Gray family, many still played by their extended families today.

Carolyn teaches about these games at Elderhostels in Missouri entitled "The Heritage of Games in the Family Culture".  She also attends book signings and gives talks around Missouri on her column and books.  E-mail to Carolyn directly at cgthornton@sofnet.com or go to her web site at www.carolyngraythornton.com