Press Kit

BIO

SHORT and SWEET (32 words)

Cece Barlow writes heartfelt books for teens. She lives in College Station, Texas with her sweetheart and two cats, one evil and one good.

FUN and AWESOME (171 words)

Cece Barlow is a dash of fun, mixed in with some smart cookie and a splash of capable. She started her first fan fiction group in junior high and never stopped writing. Today, she writes heartfelt stories about geeky girls with lofty dreams and hopes to find true love. 

When Cece's not writing, she curls up with a book, heads to a popcorn blockbuster, or kicks back to watch shooting stars. If she sees the moon in the daytime, she thinks she's lucky. 

Cece lives in College Station, Texas with her college sweetheart Tim and two cats - one evil and one good.

PLUMB CRAZY is her first novel.

She inspires artists of all kinds with her weekly blog: Seize the day

THE WHOLE ENCHILADA (~500 words)

My YA romantic comedy, PLUMB CRAZY, is my first novel. 

I'm a Texan and was born in Houston. I love my hometown – its diversity and "space race" heritage. My dad is a plumber and is purported to be a pirate or a folk hero. My mother marched to the beat of her own drum. She was a horticulturist, a poet, and an artist.  My parents infused my life with curiosity and instilled in me a great love for art.

I'm the middle child, lodged between two sisters. I was born blind in one eye and need glasses to find my glasses. I wasn't a writer as a child. I struggled with reading and loved to write poems because there was so much white space on the page. I loved to watch the clouds and imagine that I could travel to other worlds on a spaceship.

I was an active young child and grew Louisiana Iris and daylilies. I was raised with chickens, horses, dogs, goldfishes, cats, sheep, goats and the occasional cow. I also would go to my grandmother's in Mississippi every year where I picked and shelled bushels of purple hulls and gathered apples, plums, and blackberries. A favorite pastime was to sit on the bank of a pond and fish for crappie. I loved to head over to the neighbor's barn and jump from the hayloft on a rope swing. I have no fear of heights.

I'm a lifetime fan of reading. My mother used to say, "You come up for air occasionally."  I write every day but I also squeeze in an hour (min) of reading every day too. My favorite book in junior high was A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeline L'Engle. In high school I fell in love with science fiction: Heinlein, Dickson, Asimov, Norton, and Dick were a few faves. I also read trashy romances and loved the Arabian nights. I've always been an eclectic reader. 

In high school and in college I worked as a plumber's helper. I learned to value hard work and doing a job right. I spent part of every summer in high school in New Orleans. I loved the jazz, the history, and the food. My favorite subject in high school was drama. My motto: "The play's the thing" from Hamlet. I also had an environmentalist slant long before that was in fashion and saved my pennies to join Greenpeace.

I formed my first fan fiction group in junior high school and am still a huge fangal of all things space. I'm a graduate of Texas A&M in Chemistry. I'm a long-time member of SCBWI and currently live under the wide open skies of College Station, TX with my sweetheart.  I have two cats, one evil and one good. 

KERNEL SYNOPSIS of PLUMB CRAZY (29 words)

A class reunion reminds a geek girl of her high school summer as a plumber's helper, when she suffered worldwide fanfic humiliation, raised goats,  and found true love.

THIMBLE SYNOPSIS of PLUMB CRAZY (86 words)

Elva Presley Hicks is about to attend her five-year class reunion, but the discovery of an old Star Trek fanfic manuscript stirs up summertime high school memories of her job as a plumber’s helper in the big city of Houston. Elva earns $$$$, but money isn't everything, bypassing the choices of Chase, the obese pig farmer, and Wyatt, the plumber with wandering hands, she searches for love, She discovers excellent karma when she meets a handsome electrician Mitch McCall. The summer romance fizzled, but now she has a second chance.

BIG GULP SYNOPSIS of PLUMB CRAZY (214 words)

Small town country girl Elva Presley Hicks is about to attend her five-year class reunion with her best friends, Shay and Margarett.

The discovery of an old fanfic manuscript stirs up memories of her summer job as a plumber’s helper in Houston the summer before senior year. She earned $$$$ but was lonely as heck.

It's not like there weren't any suitors. Elva could have chosen between Chase, the obese pig farmer, and Wyatt, the plumber with wandering hands. But she yearned for something more and found with electrician Mitch McCall.

It was a cosmic connection. Mitch wasn't turned off by Elva's name or fan fiction writing, and Elva didn't lose interest in Mitch after he cut off his nose at work.

Trials and triumphs followed Elva, including a friendship implosion, world-wide fanfic humiliation, and goat salvation. It would go down as the most memorable summer of high school.

But as these things sometimes do, the summer romance fizzled and Elva moved on to life after high school. And while she's ready to reminisce, she is unnerved when she runs into Mitch at the reunion. Can they give it another go after so much time has passed, or are they too different now to even try?

HI-RES PHOTO of the AUTHOR

CREDIT: Alan Bryant