A Visit With Carrie Stuart Parks

I lead an odd and crazy-busy life. I am an I.A.I. Certified Forensic Artist and law enforcement instructor. The bulk of my time is spent in teaching forensic art to law enforcement professionals across the US and Canada. I teach people, often who couldn’t draw blood with a knife, how to draw a face from a witness description. Once or twice a month, my artist-husband and I are catching a plane to some distant location to teach forensic classes. We’re now in our twenty-sixth year of training folks in forensic art.

When I’m home, the phone could ring at any moment from the police, sheriff, FBI, prosecuting attorney, former student, news station, or television show requesting my services. They have a rape, homicide, abduction, robbery, case going to court, question on a case, dead body, need a courtroom sketch, or could I refer them to a forensic artist in thus-and-so location?

Of course, there’s always the fine art. I’m an award winning watercolorist and teach both watercolor and drawing. This week I’m in Snowmass Village, Colorado, instructing nine women in a private art class.

Did I mention the dogs? Oh, yes. I have a small Great Pyrenees kennel. Several weekends a year will find me showing my pooches in AKC dog show or judging. My two “boys,” 135 pound male Pyrenees, want a daily “walk” (actually, I just hang on as they tear up the trail,) so I do get some exercise. I’m also serving as president of the Great Pyrenees Club of America.

Somehow, in between all this, I write. The good news is that a laptop travels. I plot my novels. Not in detail, but the general direction of the scenes, the three “acts,” and the ending. The main character is a forensic artist, which I know about, but also has elements of some particular belief system: Mormon, Christian Identity, and so on. This requires a lot of research, which I find I love.

My dear husband likes to talk. And talk. And talk. I finally made a sign with a man talking on it with a red circle and line through it. When the sign is up, he needs to talk to the dogs. I’m closed for business.

Well, the ladies are gathering for their lesson on painting an old truck, so that’s a slice of my “writing” life. May God Bless y’all in your journey.

-Carrie

Carrie Stuart Parks is an award-winning fine artist and internationally known forensic artist. She teaches forensic art courses to law enforcement professionals and is the author/illustrator of numerous books on drawing. Carrie began to write fiction while battling breast cancer and was mentored by New York Times best-selling author Frank Peretti. Now in remission, she continues to encourage other women struggling with cancer.

Make sure to stop by tomorrow, when you can enter to win a free copy of Carrie's latest release, A Cry From the Dust!