About Carole
Carole Townsend is a columnist for the Gwinnett Daily Post, the second largest newspaper in Georgia and a freelance writer published in Ladies’ Home Journal, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor and other respected publications. She has been described in her writing style as a cross between Lewis Grizzard and Erma Bombeck. Pegged as one of the up-and-coming writers to watch in the humor genre, Townsend has earned a national following with her honest, funny appreciation of people and how they react to the everyday stuff that life throws at us.
Before walking away from a lucrative Marketing career at age 40 (isn’t it amazing how clear everything becomes at 40?), Townsend spent more than 15 years marketing software, consulting and eventually reaching the position of Director of Marketing for a well-known international software company.
When her husband started his own business, she devoted her time and talents to that effort and to being at home to raise their then-middle-school age children. When all seemed to be on track with those full-time endeavors, Townsend turned to one of her earliest and most passionate loves – writing. She has freelanced for the Georgia paper for more than 8 years and has written several stories about extraordinary women for national magazines.
Even with those accomplishments under her belt, there was still one missing, and that was writing a book. In October 2011, that dream came true with the launch of “Southern Fried White Trash,” a raucously funny look at the way families behave in situations such as weddings, funerals, reunions and holidays, all from the perspective of a Southerner and all that goes with that.
“Southern Fried White Trash” garnered Townsend more than 60 radio interviews coast-to-coast and dozens of television appearances, including CNN, FOX, NBC and CBS. With the release of “Red Lipstick and Clean Underwear” just around the corner, the buzz has already begun with newspaper articles and radio. “I have been so blessed to have had the opportunity to talk with all the women who have contributed to this book. I pushed back the release date a few months, because as I was writing it, it mattered more and more to me that I do the subject of the book – women – justice. I hope, no I believe, that I have. I hope readers agree!”
Townsend resides in Lawrenceville, Georgia with her husband and three rescue dogs. Their four children are grown and have embarked on their own paths, sent on their way with love and a lot of Southern-style parenting under their belts. She is busy writing her next book, Red Lipstick and Clean Underwear, that is a “painfully humorous survival guide to successfully navigating life as a woman.” In the book, which is expected on shelves early this Fall, Townsend writes about the advice women got from their mothers and how (or whether) it translates into the real lives of lovers, mothers, sisters, employees – of real women. “Red Lipstick and Clean Underwear” takes an incisively honest, sometimes hilarious, sometimes powerfully moving look at what women do and mean in life, to themselves and to the ones they love.
Other books are already on the drawing board even now. “Not many people get the opportunity to do what they’ve dreamed of their whole life. I love connecting with readers, and when I hear that I’ve made someone laugh, or let someone know that they’re not alone in feeling a certain way, then I’m reminded that I’m doing what I was put here to do. Well that. And laundry.And cooking. And cleaning…
-Carole
