{"id":8,"date":"2023-09-30T21:51:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T21:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2025-06-27T18:46:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T18:46:55","slug":"virginia-castleman","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Virginia Castleman<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Virginia\u2019s life began on a bumpy road along the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, where she and her birth siblings (two sisters, one brother) were placed in temporary foster homes and eventually ended up in an orphanage. They stayed there for a year before a family came in looking to adopt a child. Virginia was lucky. She was chosen. Sadly, it was not with her siblings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took Virginia 30 years to find her sisters and brother. They are now spread across the United States like the wildflowers they were. She has discovered half-brothers and sisters and learned the \u201cstories\u201d of how they got where they are today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia\u2019s past work experiences have crossed many paths. She taught with the Children\u2019s Institute for years and had numerous articles published in the Children\u2019s Writer<\/em>. She sold articles to newspapers and stories to Highlights for Children<\/em>. She also worked as a publicist for Moon Publications, a travel handbook publisher, and later for Huntington Press. Virginia went on to use her Master\u2019s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Children\u2019s Lit, Psychology, English, and Education) to teach at the college level, teaching English classes at Morrison University and most recently at Truckee Meadows Community College. She then worked with Veterans Upward Bound as their writing specialist, and now happily teaches through Adult Basic Education at TMCC, where students from all over the world join her class to learn to speak, write, and read English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia has taught creative writing, short story writing, and other writing-related classes through E.P.I.C., a community-based program also at the community college, for over a decade. She is working with screenwriter Paul Hoppe on screenwriting and novel writing classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she is not teaching, Virginia writes and teaches about writing short stories and novels. Her novels include Sara Lost and Found<\/em> (Simon & Schuster), its sequel, A Jail with Feathers<\/em> (Archway), Erosion<\/em> (Perfection Learning), Mommi Watta, Spirit of the River<\/em> (Flatlands Tales Publishing), and Puppetbooks<\/em> (Hearthsong), her patented cloth books that turn into workable puppets. Three novels she\u2019s currently marketing include A Lone Shovel Wounds the Earth<\/em>, Split Decisions<\/em>, and its sequel Mixed Signals<\/em>, all laced with true events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia has three incredible sons, Michael, Adam, and Jonathan, and lives in Nevada.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sara Lost and Found<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sisters Anna and Sara must rely on each other for strength as they face being separated by the foster care system in this heartwrenching tale of sisterhood, family, and survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Jail With Feathers<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Anna Olson, almost thirteen, hides something terrible that happened to her. That traumatic experience has stripped her of the ability to talk, and she now faces nightmarish fears. Torn from her sister, she must survive forty days in a residential treatment center with nothing but her demons to keep her company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mommi Watta: Spirit of the River<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mommi Watta, the spirit of the river, hears Sowa’s wish and offers to grant it, but this wish has a price and Sowa must carefully review the consequences of accepting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Erosion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Describes the various causes and types of erosion and such effects as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s; relates them to the weather and wind, water, and ice; discusses how erosion can be controlled; and provides some simple experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia Castleman Virginia\u2019s life began on a bumpy road along the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, where she and her birth siblings (two sisters, one brother) were placed in temporary foster homes and eventually ended up in an orphanage. They stayed there for a year before a family came in looking to adopt a child. Virginia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-no-title","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":58,"href":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virginiacastleman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}