Bonnie Engstrom and Butterfly Dreams. Are you becoming beautiful inside and out?

MEET AUTHOR BONNIE ENGSTROM

Butterfly Dreams

"Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds." Hebrews 10:24Stories to make you laugh a little, love a lot and believe!
2nd Place Winner ~ Writer's Digest 81st Annual Writing Competition Short Story Category

Link to book on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Dreams-Christian-Contemporary-Romance-ebook/dp/B00XZVOYKS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432212771&sr=8-1&keywords=butterfly+dreams+engstrom

Biographical Sketch

Bonnie Engstrom holds a BA in English from the University of Southern California and studied Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as post graduate work at the University of California at Irvine. 

She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with husband Dave of fifty years, is the mother of three grown children and the proud grandmother of six grandchildren, four of them who live in Scottsdale and two in Costa Rica!

She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and an original invited member of Gayle Roper’s Fiction Mentoring Clinic, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, 2003 mentored by James Scott Bell. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and a member of Christian Writers of the West, the regional Arizona chapter of ACFW.

She has judged the ACFW Genesis and the Carol Awards contest numerous times.

She proudly promoted Christian fiction by serving as a reader at www.readingwriters.com, where she critiqued manuscripts for both published and non-published writers. Her Reading Writers bio reflects her faith, and she believes she was only one of two Christian reviewers.

In addition to giving complimentary critiques to many ACFW writers, she has been an influencer and reviewer for Sharon Dunn, Deborah Raney, Brandilyn Collins, Dan Walsh, Sharon Shrock, Richard Mabry, A.K. Arenz, Kathryn Cushman and Linda Windsor.

Her education column, Beyond the Basics, appeared for several years in The Newport Ensign and Costa Mesa News newspapers (CA) as a result of her involvement in education – thirty years in Parent, Teacher Associations and serving as a five time PTA president both locally and school district-wide. She authored several PTA award proposals: one for Outstanding Unit which won top California PTA honors, one for Outstanding Teacher of the Year for which the nominated teacher placed second nationally, and another for a National PTA Outstanding Unit Award that garnered first place and for which she presented workshops at a National PTA Convention. She also co-authored an innovative, updated version of the National PTA Reflections Program (a contest for students to stimulate creativity in broad spectrum arts, including writing). She presented the program with her co-author at two state PTA conventions and numerous Orange County workshops. She has twice been an invited workshop presenter for the Consortium of Independent Studies in California. She also wrote a monthly column for the Christian Media Association newsletter, and several articles for Write On!, the quarterly newsletter for the Orange County Christian Writers Fellowship. 

When she attended the 2005 ACFW conference in Nashville two editors requested a full manuscript with changes of her women’s fiction Second Chances. Because of a sudden move from one state to another, she was unable to comply within their timeframes. The manuscript was requested again at the 2007 ACFW conference. However, it has been expanded and no longer fits within the word count requirement for Barbour’s Heartsong Presents line.

Her entire adult life was comprised of writing and volunteering in education from co-founding a unique parent-cooperative community preschool to writing education columns and publishing hundreds of PTA newsletters that she laid out by hand with a waxer before computers made late nights easier.

Almost all of her stories are set in Arizona and in California where she used to live. One is set partly in Sweden in the cities and towns where her husband’s and her ancestors lived.

She loves to hear from friends and readers at her website: www.bonnieengstrom.com.

Bonnie Engstrom loves to write and she loves food, especially sushi and salad. She used to love to cook, but since her husband retired he took over as resident chef. Many of her stories are centered around food, two around Swedish food reflecting the couple’s heritage. She grew up in Pittsburgh, he in Chicago, and they met in Washington, D.C when they attended George Washington University. They raised their children in Southern California (that is a separate state from Northern California, isn’t it?), so several of her stories are set in Newport Beach where she was an advocate for education, mostly in PTA, for over thirty years.

She lives in Arizona with psychologist husband Dave of fifty years, is the mother of three grown children and the proud grandmother of six grandchildren, four of whom live in Scottsdale and two in Costa Rica on the beach! Pura Vida! Surf on! The couple’s eldest son is an IT expert who taught his mother everything she knows about computer literacy. Unfortunately, he and his wife life in Maryland, too far to fly home for a weekend to help Mom as he used to when she lived in California and he in Arizona.

She loves to hear from her readers and can be contacted at bengstrom@hotmail.com, or check out her website at www.bonnieengstrom.com.