Cathie Pelletier is an award-winning novelist and song-writer who was born and raised in Allagash

Allagash, Maine

Allagash is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 277 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and 2.8 square miles is water...

, a rural town in Aroostook County, Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

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Biography

Pelletier displayed exceptional aptitude as a student and, consequentially, was advanced two grades (the sixth grade and her senior year), graduating high school at the age of sixteen years. Pelletier distinguished herself by wearing brash clothes that she claimed were "an outlet for her creativity." At seventeen years she was expelled from the University of Maine at Fort Kent

University of Maine at Fort Kent

The University of Maine at Fort Kent is a public liberal arts university in the U.S. state of Maine.Located in Fort Kent in the St. John Valley region of northern Maine, the university is part of the seven-member University of Maine System. It currently has an enrollment of 1,072 students. The...

 for breaking curfew and pulling a fire alarm. Following her expulsion she began to hitchhike across the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. She returned to her Alma Mater long enough to graduate with a baccalaureate before departing to Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 in pursuit of a career as a song-writer. Pelletier moved to Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 where she rented an apartment from an undertaker until she met the country music star Jim Glaser

Jim Glaser

Jim Glaser is an American country music artist. The brother of country singers Chuck and Tompall Glaser, he has performed as both a solo artist and alongside his two brothers in the group Tompall and the Glaser Brothers...

 and moved in with him. The two cohabited for years until they separated. She then married hotel manager, Tom Viorikic, three months after they met in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

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Career

While living in Tennessee Pelletier wrote her first novel, The Funeral Makers which was very well-received in the literary community. Since then she has penned a number of works, some of which were published under her pseudonym, K.C. McKinnon. In 1998 Pelletier made international news after receiving a million-dollar advance from Doubleday for her novel Candles on Bay Street, a work that was translated into ten languages and recently made into a film. Recently she has been the recipient of the New England Book Award for Fiction and the 2006 Paterson Prize. Pelletier has acted as the literary agent for several published books.

Books by this Authoress

• Widows Walk (Poetry), 1976
• The Funeral Makers, 1986
• Once Upon a Time on the Banks, 1989
• The Weight of Winter, 1991
• The Bubble Reputation, 1993
• A Marriage Made at Woodstock., 1994
• Beaming Sonny Home, 1996
• Running the Bulls, 2005

Books under K.C. McKinnon

• Dancing at the Harvest Moon, 1997
• Candles on Bay Street, 1998

Joint Works

• A country Music Christmas, 1997
• The Christmas Note with Skeeter Davis
  Skeeter Davis
  Mary Frances Penick , better known as Skeeter Davis, was an American country music singer best known for crossover pop music songs of the early 1960s. She started out as part of The Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually landing on RCA Records. In the late '50s, she became a solo...
  
  , 1997
• The Ragin' Cajun with fiddler Doug Kershaw
  Doug Kershaw
  Doug Kershaw, born January 24, 1936, is an American fiddle player, singer and songwriter from Louisiana. Active since 1949, Kershaw has recorded fifteen albums and charted on the Hot Country Songs charts.- Early life :...
  
  

Song-writing Career

In addition to her literary triumphs, she has had songs recorded by David Byrne

David Byrne

David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...

, Texas Tornadoes, Glaser Brothers.

Reference