Bren McClain, Award-winning Writer of Fiction.

Pattie Welek Hall welcomes Bren McClain, an award-winning writer of fiction, who is hard at work on a novel she says feels part of her life's work.  To quote her website: I've heard it said Write what you know.  Others say Write what you don't know.  I say Write what opens your heart. My heart first opened with Mama Red.  She's written two other novels (they are in the proverbial drawer) but it wasn't until Brenda began writing about what is hers -- and hers alone-- that her writing world unfolded.  Her subject is animals and animal welfare, specifically.  Brenda calls her novel ONE GOOD MAMA BONE, a literary novel, set in the early 1950's in rural upstate South Carolina.  The novel is about the healing power of a mother cow's love to save a fallen woman.  The plot centers around a time-honored rite of passage for many young people even today, the 4-H tradition of "feeding out" a steer for the chance at Grand Champion. 

Among her awards, she was named the 2004 Fiction Fellow by the South Carolina Arts Commission, is a two-time winner of the South Carolina Fiction Project and has just recently been named a Finalist in the Novel-in-Progress Category in the esteemed William Faulkner Writing Competition.  

While she views writing as what makes her life, she's fortunate enough to make a living with her second love, teaching message development and delivery skills to people all across the country.  It's her own business, McClain Communications, which she formed in 1990. 

Brenda is one lucky woman!