Member Profile

CCW Member Profile –  Carol Venolia

“Shifting Gears”

Carol Venolia published her first article 47 years ago, heralding the start of her writing career. She called upon writing as a means for spreading her message about eco-healthy architecture to the world. “This was long before the Web, so writing and public speaking became my vehicles, along with architectural design,” Carol says. “It didn’t hurt that my mother, who always encouraged my writing efforts, was a freelance writer and editor. She wrote a successful book titled Wright Right: A Desk Drawer Digest of Punctuation, Grammar, and Style along with other books on writing. Together they sold about 300,000 copies.”

Carol has a BA in Geology from Pomona College (1973) and a Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon (1978). She ran an architecture office and the EcoDwelling Concentration in the Sustainable Communities program at New College of California and Dominican University of California. She wrote articles for environmental and health magazines and penned a regular column (“Design for Life”) for Natural Home Magazine. She also published the newsletter, Building with Nature: Placemaking that Supports Life, and she’s lectured around the country.

Carol’s books Healing Environments: Your Guide to Indoor Well-Being and Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House (with Kelly Lerner) were published in 1988 and 2006, respectively. They sold about 20,000 copies each. “Those books built my reputation and made my whole career possible,” she says. “Now I’d like to shift gears from expository writing to creative nonfiction.”

Accustomed to writing on deadline, Carol now writes at her home office computer whenever the mood strikes, “though sometimes like to take my laptop or a pad of paper to some beautiful outdoor spot.” A former member of Redwood Writers, Sonoma (20 years), she relocated to CCW six years ago. Now a part-time freelance editor, Carol recommends fellow writers avoid the compulsion to write a pristine first draft.

“Just write, write, write,” she says. “Let whatever’s in your head flow onto the page/screen. Then learn how to edit, edit, edit. Use an outline as a courtesy to readers and yourself…. Learn the basics of creative writing (character, setting, etc.). If you aren’t well-versed in punctuation, grammar, and spelling, get well-versed in them—or hire a good editor.”

These days, Carol says she’s in a strange place with her writing. “I still feel like I’m a writer, but my immediate direction is unclear. I’ve been working on a collection of memoirs about my decades of solo road-tripping, hoping to inspire women who want to step out of their comfort zone.” Carol welcomes input from the CCW membership about her memoirs.